Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Chair, I thank Ranking Member Lee for all the hard work that she does on SFOPS and her global leadership, which is tremendously important.

Mr. Chair, I rise today in strong opposition to this legislation.

On this very floor, my Republican colleagues have claimed that America is falling behind its competitors like China, that we must counter its spreading malign influence that it has commanded through foreign investments and other coercive measures.

While Beijing has increased its diplomatic budget over the last decade to surpass even what we afford our own diplomatic posts and personnel, what is the Republicans' strategy to grow our own influence and to outcompete China, Russia, and other national security competitors and adversaries? What is their plan? They propose this legislation, a partisan chain saw to our international affairs budget, which would impose a 12 percent cut on top of the cuts they imposed in last year's budget. This bill is a white flag of surrender in the competition for global influence.

I believe there is still a bipartisan majority in this House that is serious about meeting the national security challenges we face. Unfortunately, the majority is not being allowed to work its will today. Instead, this legislation caters to the fringe MAGA wing of the Republican Party with extreme riders on abortion and family planning, climate change, and DEI.

The bill cuts funding to international organizations, including the U.N., where we must demonstrate stronger leadership to advance U.S. interests.

This bill has sharp cuts to the personnel accounts for both the State Department and USAID. How are we going to implement programming without the staffing needed to manage it, or retain the skilled diplomatic workforce?

Amendments proposed today zero out funding for Ukraine, USAID, humanitarian and international disaster relief, educational exchange programs critical to promoting America's standing around the world, and democracy and human rights programs. This is irresponsible policymaking.

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