Schatz Condemns Trump’s Illegal Dismantling Of USAID As Internal Memos Warn Of Millions Of Deaths, Global Humanitarian Catastrophe
WASHINGTON — During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing today, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, called attention to President Donald Trump’s unlawful efforts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), warning that it puts millions of lives and American interests at risk.
“Because we haven't had Secretary Rubio here to talk about the evisceration of USAID, it is important for everybody to understand exactly what happened,” said Senator Schatz. “The so-called Department of Government Efficiency had said that they're going to feed USAID to the woodchipper. That does not sound like a good faith review.”
Citing USAID’s own internal memos, Schatz outlined the dire consequences of Trump’s closure of the agency, including up to 18 million additional cases of malaria per year leading to as many as 166,000 deaths; 200,000 children paralyzed with polio annually with hundreds of millions of infections; a million children left without treatment for severe malnutrition each year; and more than 28,000 new cases of deadly diseases like Ebola and Marburg annually.
“Does the United States of America, under any president, support 18 million additional cases of malaria? Is that who we've become? Is that America first?” Senator Schatz continued. “We're going to disagree about a lot in the foreign policy space, but we should not disagree about abiding by the law. We should not disagree that babies, when we can prevent it, should not get HIV/AIDS from their moms. I am just hoping, I am praying, I am begging that we can get back to a bipartisan consensus that we don't cut off our nose to spite our face. We are the good guys. We do not cause death on purpose.”
The full text of Senator Schatz’s remarks is below. Video is available here.
I've been in the Senate for more than ten years. Only one other time, I've not asked a question. I'm not going to ask a question. I think it's very important that all of us, because we haven't had Secretary Rubio here to talk about the evisceration of USAID, it is important for everybody to understand exactly what happened.
I'm just going to lay out the facts here. First of all, it's important to understand that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency had said that they're going to feed USAID to the woodchipper. That does not sound like a good faith review. They said it was going to be a 90-day review. And then when a federal court said that they had to not violate the Foreign Assistance Act and the appropriations law and the Prompt Payments Act and the Impoundment Act, they came back, and they eliminated 5,800 programs at AID and another 4,000 at State. Flatly illegal.
Any administration is within their rights, maybe even obliged, to review and reform spending. The way to review and reform spending is in this building. Senator Graham, the chairman of the SFOPS committee, and myself, as the ranking member of the SFOPS committee, had a very constructive conversation about how to better align the State Department's objectives with USAID's objectives.
And by the way, this has been a bipartisan complaint over many, many administrations that they are not sufficiently aligned and that we're not targeting economic assistance, foreign military financing, and humanitarian aid as precisely as we ought to. And maybe even that some of the NGOs and for-profits that deliver the aid ought to be held accountable, just like in the Defense Department, just like any other department for reducing their overhead costs.
I said, ‘I'm in.’ Two days later, they send 94% of employees home. Secretary Rubio reassures us multiple times, most of us on this committee on a bipartisan basis, ‘Don't worry, there's a waiver process.’ There is a waiver process. The problem is the building is shut down and nobody has access to their emails. You cannot process a waiver for life-saving humanitarian aid with no personnel.
And so if there is an effort to reform USAID, to tighten up what it is that we do, to make sure that… and everybody, by the way, has, since I got on this committee and before, everybody talks about how smart China is for having Belt and Road, for making friends across the planet and how cheap it is to do this kind of diplomacy compared to the Department of Defense.
And we admire that, and we ponder it, and we say we should do our own version of that. That's USAID. It's also parts of the State Department. And so I am all in for a 90-day review. But I just want everybody to understand what is happening now. A, what is happening is illegal. It is violating the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998. It is violating the Impoundment Control Act, and it is violating annual appropriations bills. So first of all, it's illegal.
Second of all. According to USAID’s own internal memos, this closure will result in up to 18 million additional cases of malaria per year. Because of the United States’ illegal decision to shutter this agency. I can't believe that this has taken on some sort of partisan vibe. Does the United States of America, under any president, support 18 million additional cases of malaria? Is that who we've become? Is that America first?
We're going to disagree about a lot in the foreign policy space, but we should not disagree about abiding by the law. We should not disagree that babies, when we can prevent it, should not get HIV/AIDS from their moms. And we should not disagree about a basic premise of foreign policy and the exercise of American might, which is: sometimes the smartest thing for us to do is to show up with help. We have been doing this on a bipartisan basis, and we have to get back to that.
This idea of a waiver process is fine, except it's not working. This idea of a 90 day review is fine, except in the meantime, we've eviscerated the program. And so I understand none of you are in the government. But I am just hoping, I am praying, I am begging that we can get back to a bipartisan consensus that we don't cut off our nose to spite our face. We are the good guys. We do not cause death on purpose.
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