Schatz Statement On State Department Reorganization Plan

HONOLULU – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement on the planned reorganization of the U.S. State Department.

“Following the illegal and damaging dismantling of USAID, Secretary Marco Rubio’s proposed changes to the State Department would have drastic and wide-ranging implications for key U.S. national interests. On its face, this new reorganization plan raises grave concerns that the United States will no longer have either the capacity or capability to exert U.S. global leadership, achieve critical national security objectives, stand up to our adversaries, save lives, and promote democratic values. These have always been bipartisan endeavors for good reason. They make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous. Now they are at risk.

“Then-Senator Rubio once asked, ‘If America stops leading who will fill the vacuum we leave behind?’ What remains unclear is whether or not Secretary Rubio, my former colleague on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, still shares this view. His current actions suggest that this is no longer the case. We need to hear from him directly and in detail about how he intends carry out the missions of the State Department amid severe cuts to its capabilities. The consequences of gutting vital components of American influence are too great. Congress and the American people deserve answers.

“Once one of the strongest advocates for American diplomacy, leadership, and engagement around the world, Secretary Rubio will now answer his own question as he presides over the continued weakening of the State Department, threatening the core functions of U.S. foreign assistance and diplomacy – in defiance of the law and at the cost of American interests and values.”

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