Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. McHenry. Mr. Speaker, this year's State/Foreign Operations appropriations bill includes hundreds of billions of dollars in IMF giveaways to China, Russia, and state sponsors of terrorism. It's an abomination that the spending bill which funds our foreign policy priorities writes massive checks for America's adversaries.

Under this legislation, the Treasury Department would be required to support an allocation of more than one-and-a half trillion Special Drawing Rights (SDR)--trillion with a T. These SDRs represent no- strings-attached liquidity that will be lavished on some of the worst regimes in the world.

The Democrats' bill would send over $140 billion in hard currency to the Chinese government to use as it wishes. Russia would get its hands on nearly $60 billion. State sponsors of terrorism like Iran and Syria would find themselves with more than $17 billion in support that they can use to kill civilians and destabilize the world, while Venezuela and Belarus would receive billions more.

Like last year, House Democrats have included these dollars for dictators in the base text of this bill so that it can't be struck. They're so ashamed of financing America's adversaries that they don't want to require their Members' votes on this issue to be public. Perhaps they suspect that their Members don't want billions in hard currency going to the Chinese Communist Party, Vladimir Putin, and the ayatollahs.

There are responsible ways to help the world address the COVID-19 pandemic without showering billions on genocidal regimes and other human rights abusers--this is not it.

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