WASHINGTON (AN) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio fervently defended President Donald Trump’s plan for cutting the State Department's budget by 48% but faced tough questions about waning U.S. leadership.
While fellow Republicans congratulated Rubio on his work so far at a House hearing on Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers aggressively questioned him. The Trump administration proposed cutting key humanitarian aid programs and stripping funding for the United Nations and other international organizations.
The White House's discretionary budget outlines a reduction of $1.6 billion for United Nations peacekeeping missions; the U.S. paid for nearly 27% of the U.N.'s peacekeeping budget last year.
"If we leave, who fills the void?" Florida Rep. Lois Frankel, the subcommittee's top Democrat of the subcommittee, told Arete News.
The constitution mandates that Congress has the sole power to appropriate funds. Once a U.S. president signs an appropriations bill into law, those funds must be spent according to the terms of the law.
Rubio, however, declared the Trump administration would proceed with its $28.5 billion budget plan and fund only those programs that align with its values – regardless of whether Congress gives approval.
Reflecting the same business mindset as his boss, Rubio emphasized the administration's proposal would dramatically shift the department’s mission to support business and foreign aid that brings large returns on investment in the national interest.
Providing military aid to Ukraine in exchange for access to minerals is one example; improving relations with Saudi Arabia to clinch lucrative deals, despite the petrostate’s poor record on democracy and human rights, is another.
"There are a lot of great causes in the world, but we don’t have unlimited resources, we never have, and we never will," Rubio told a House subcommittee on national security. "Even if we spend more than anybody else, these resources have to be tailored to a broader strategy and, frankly, they have to have some return."
The Trump administration's shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development eliminated some 19,500 jobs and put what little remained of the agency under the State Department. As the top U.S. diplomat, Rubio cast his plan for reorganizing the department – which includes reducing U.S.-based staff by 15%; cutting 132 offices in charge of key areas such as human rights, women’s rights, religious freedom, and the promotion of democracy; and consolidating another 137 offices to other parts of the department — as a failure to get enough return on investment.
"There are countries in this world where we have invested a lot of money in humanitarian assistance and in development assistance. So we go to these countries, we feed people, we take care of their medical system, we even help them build security services, but all their mineral contracts are with China," Rubio said.
'We're going to protect America first'
The proposed budget outlines a $8.3 billion reduction in economic and developmental aid that the administration cast as unncessary spending fueled by leftist theories. It also included a $3.2 billion decrease in refugee and disaster assistance, and a withdrawal of $555 million from the Africa Development Fund.
"Consistent with the president's executive order, the department has been reviewing our more than 15,000 foreign aid awards; we have already found billions diverted to ideological causes, including climate activism, diversity, equity, inclusion, and LGBTQ initiatives in foreign nations,” Rubio told the subcommittee.
Democrats said they fear the spending cutbacks will diminish America’s positive influence worldwide and let Russia and China fill in the gaps. "Whose name is on the sack of flour, on the door of the clinic, on the school – the United States of America, period. It must remain that way,” said Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the senior-most Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.
The administration said in its budget proposal that it will not provide funding for "wasteful United Nations and other peacekeeping missions due to recent failures and high levels of assessments. The United States has a history of paying for more than its fair share of international peacekeeping activities." The budget also aligns with Trump’s executive order to scale back U.S. contributions to the U.N. by as much as $1.7 billion.
North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards, the subcommittee's Republican vice-chair, said the U.N. needs to hear the message "that we’re going to protect America first and we certainly hope that the U.N. takes that into consideration."
In sharp contrast, Democrats decried the U.S.'s waning partnership with key geopolitical allies. "We’ve become the least trustworthy partner with our allies, now they know they can’t trust the United States,” said DeLauro.
Trump ordered the U.S. to withdraw from the World Health Organization – which has depended on the U.S. for about a fifth of its budget – and for the first time the annual meeting of its governing body, the World Health Assembly, has no formal U.S. representation this month. China, by contrast, was well represented.
Rubio blamed the U.S. withdrawal on the way that WHO "behaved in the pandemic," which the Trump administration blamed on China, where the first cluster of COVID-19 emerged around the start of 2020. "They did not just a poor job, but an outrageous job of covering up for China,” Rubio said of the U.N. health agency.
The Trump adminisration's proposed budget also includes an "America First Opportunity Fund," dubbed A1OF, that would allocate $2.9 billion for "strategic investments that make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous."
"The A1OF builds on the lessons we learned from USAID," said Rubio, "the department's existing foreign aid award system's failures, and the few significant successes."
This story has been updated with additional information, including clarified details about the USAID shutdown and Rubio's departmental reorganization.
