House Foreign Affairs Ranking Member Meeks Delivers Opening Statement at Rubio’s Budget Hearing at HFAC

“Secretary Rubio, thank you for being here today.     

“Eighteen months ago, you inherited the most powerful diplomatic institution in the world, built on three pillars that have defined American leadership since World War II: diplomacy, dialogue, and development. And in just 18 months, the Trump administration has taken a wrecking ball to all three.     

“This administration has invoked a worldview from years past that has left the U.S. isolated and struggling economically. What you see is a greatest-hits album of failed ideas from the last century: tariffs, spheres of influence, attacks on civil rights and immigration, ignoring science and hoping for the best.  

“Mr. Secretary, America cannot win the future by trying to relive the past.    

“Your own Department is Exhibit A.    

“We have seen the systematic dismantling of America’s diplomatic corps; over one hundred Ambassador posts sit vacant around the world. 1,300 career professionals—people with decades of expertise in energy, counterterrorism, and nuclear nonproliferation—have been fired. Efforts to ensure U.S. diplomats represent the diversity of America have been squandered. While China increases its diplomatic presence globally, we have cut ours to the bone.    

“America cannot win the future by retreating and ceding the field.    

“On trade, this administration revived Smoot Hawley and we know how that ended. Trump’s tariffs raised costs for Americans, harmed small businesses, and alienated allies. 

“We cannot build a 21st century economy on 20th century failures.   

“Mr. Secretary, after decades of forever war in the Middle East, President Trump promised the American people no new wars—only to send a new generation of troops back to the Middle East.  We’ve traded dialogue for bombs yet again. Where does that leave us today?   

“The Iranian regime still has its missiles, its drones, its proxies, and its nuclear material. There is an Ayatollah still in power, only younger, with the IRGC more entrenched and more hardline. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. It wasn’t before you started this war. Before we lost 14 American troops. Before American bombs killed 168 Iranian school girls. Before Americans were forced to spend $100 billion on this war.     

“You helped spin the pretext for this war, and then failed to prepare American embassies and citizens when the bombs started falling. Those who have defended and enabled this war share direct responsibility for the economic pain American families are bearing as a result.    

“Our allies knew this war was ill-advised. That’s why they’re sitting on the sidelines, while Gulf energy infrastructure and American bases take incoming. Trump said, “America First.” And now America is alone.   

“In our own hemisphere, talk of “reasserting dominance” has meant illegally abducting foreign leaders; installing one autocrat in place of another, bombing boats without due process, and blockading civilian populations. That is not American leadership. Those are not American values. That is the behavior we built the rules-based order to prevent.  

“The Trump administration’s attack on foreign aid and development efforts remains equally destructive and regressive.  

“This administration’s policies have directly contributed to famine in South Sudan and have undermined our ability to respond to the latest Ebola outbreak in real time. HIV rates are rising.  

“Mr. Secretary, these cuts have resulted in the avoidable death of hundreds of thousands of children around the world.    

“We cannot protect Americans by ignoring science or by forgetting what ignoring it cost us before.    

“On climate and energy, the story is the same. While competitors invest heavily in clean energy and renewables, this administration has dismissed science and divested in the industries of tomorrow.  

“We cannot win a race for the future by choosing not to run at all.    

“And underneath all of it, a deeper problem. You stated at the outset of your tenure that your foreign policy would make America “safer, stronger, and more prosperous.”      

“The record says otherwise on all three.    

“Americans are not safer while fighting an unnecessary war that has depleted our stockpiles. They are not stronger when our closest trading partners are turning to Beijing and Trump's NATO threats leave our credibility in tatters. And they are not more prosperous when this administration has done everything it can to enrich the President and his allies, while everyday Americans struggle to afford groceries, gas, and healthcare.  

“That is not America First. That is Trump First.   

“Mr. Secretary, after 18 months of this, and a year of the State Department ignoring laws and stonewalling Congressional oversight, the American people deserve answers.  America cannot win the future if we are reliving the past. And the American people will remember who led us there.    

“I yield my time."