Castro Presses Official About Funding Freezes: ‘Do You Expect Adverse Effects' For The INL?

2 days ago

During Thursday’s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) questioned witnesses about the potential for adverse effects on the INL caused by funding freezes.

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Transcript

00:00All right, thank you, Chairwoman.

00:10Yeah, I want to take up this issue really quickly because,

00:12you know, we disagree, Maria, on this.

00:15I don't think there's ever been a bias of the United States

00:20against conservative leaders and in favor of leftist leaders.

00:26In fact, when you look at the history

00:28of the U.S. involvement in Latin America, Latin America has often,

00:32I mean, the United States, unfortunately, in decades past,

00:36worked to undermine the leadership of leaders

00:39on the left and treated leaders on the right as friends.

00:44And, in fact, supported what were some

00:46of the most brutal dictatorships,

00:48like the Pinochet ruling, in Chile.

00:51And so, you know, when we think about how we provide U.S. assistance,

01:00how we provide taxpayer money, the way we should be thinking

01:05about it is who is operating consistent

01:09with U.S. values and what we stand for?

01:12So, democracy, freedom, respect for human rights.

01:16Really, regardless of where you are on the political spectrum,

01:19whether you're on the left or the right as a leader,

01:22we ought to support leaders who are pursuing those things.

01:25And so, Consuelo Porras, as I understand,

01:31had been sanctioned for severe corruption.

01:35That's why we're not working with her,

01:37not because she's got a certain ideology.

01:40You know, and Bukele also, I think it's true.

01:46I mean, he has gotten a lot of crime off the streets

01:50and has scared a lot of people, especially young men.

01:54But so has Xi Jinping in China.

01:59And so, you know, if the question is, well,

02:03why don't we just let people do what they're going to do?

02:06Okay, I get that.

02:07But the question for us is, are we going to back them up with money

02:11to commit human rights abuses and other things

02:14that we would never allow for in the United States ourselves?

02:18Now, bear in mind, in the last few weeks,

02:20we've seen some disturbing instances

02:23of people literally being picked off the street

02:25for having exercised their First Amendment rights

02:29by government agents who don't identify themselves,

02:32who aren't dressed in uniform,

02:34and who barely present credentials, if at all.

02:38Those are the kinds of activities that you're used to seeing

02:41in countries that violate people's rights.

02:44So just, you know, with that disagreement,

02:48let me get into a question really quick.

02:52Ms. Kenney, as you know,

02:53the administration is conducting multiple reviews

02:55of foreign assistance programs.

02:57And I believe those programs have been incredibly disruptive

03:00and that the review has not been done in good faith.

03:03In 2019, the first Trump administration did something

03:06similar on a smaller scale.

03:08They unilaterally froze $400 million

03:10in foreign assistance funding in Central America

03:12for over 14 months.

03:14At the time, I, along with other colleagues,

03:16requested the GAO assess the impacts of that freeze.

03:20The GAO determined that many programs,

03:22including State Department INL Bureau programs,

03:25had been adversely affected.

03:28And based on your experience with the 2019 freeze,

03:31do you expect adverse effects from the ongoing freeze

03:34on many INL programs?

03:36Thank you for that question.

03:38Yes. When we reviewed the freeze in 2019,

03:41we found that there were a number of adverse effects.

03:45To the State Department, we found that about 65 or 39%

03:49of INL programs actually suffered adverse effects

03:52where they had to reduce the geographical region

03:55in which they were implementing programs.

03:57They had to reduce the number of beneficiaries

03:59who could participate in trainings.

04:00They had to reduce the quality of programs.

04:02And programs that relied

04:04on implementing partners suffered even more consequences

04:09because they had to lay people off

04:11and they were unable to pick up those programs

04:13when the funding resumed.

04:14However, that funding was really just a freeze

04:16of one-year funding.

04:17And in a lot of ways, those programs were able to continue

04:20because of funding that was still available in the pipeline

04:22from prior years' funding.

04:23We haven't had an opportunity

04:25to review the funding freeze that is occurring right now.

04:28But my understanding is that those programs aren't able

04:31to access prior-year funding either.

04:33And so my understanding is

04:34that they're not continuing at all.

04:36We haven't had, I'm sorry.

04:37Sure, sure.

04:38No, and thank you for that.

04:39And let me ask a follow-up really quick.

04:41Will the GAO be willing to conduct a review

04:43of the ongoing freeze and cancellation of hundreds

04:46of millions of dollars in foreign assistance programs?

04:49Yes, we'd be happy to do that work.

04:50Thank you so much.

04:52With that, I yield back, Chairwoman.

04:55Thank you, Ranking Member Castro.

04:57And now.

Castro Presses Official About Funding Freezes: ‘Do You Expect Adverse Effects' For The INL?

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