National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs
Chairman Mario Diaz-Balart
HT-2 The Capitol
(202) 225-2041
Majority | Minority |
| Mario Diaz-Balart – Chair | Lois Frankel – Ranking Member |
| Guy Reschenthaler | Grace Meng |
| Julia Letlow | Norma Torres |
| Juan Ciscomani | Mike Quigley |
| Chuck Edwards – Vice Chair | |
| John Moolenaar | |
| Mark Alford |
FY27 Outside Witness Testimony Instructions FY27 Member Day Instructions
Recent Activity
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this bill to provide funding for the heroes in our National Guard and Capitol Police, as well as the brave people of Afghanistan who supported our troops overseas.
While I am disappointed that it has taken this long to reach an agreement, the bill before us today is a strong package that deserves our support.
This bill:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 4373, the fiscal year 2022 State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill.
This bill has many fatal flaws, in spite of Republican efforts to improve it. The concerns raised during markup were not addressed, and many of the amendments we offered at the Rules Committee have not been made in order on the floor today.
I'll begin with our list of major complaints.
To put it simply, the spending level is too high, and the policies are too controversial.
Madam Chair, thank you for yielding.
The revised spending allocations presented today contain only technical corrections to the initial allocations, which were adopted on a party-line vote two weeks ago.
Because there are no substantive changes from the initial allocations, I must once again oppose them.
They do not change the topline spending levels for any of the subcommittee bills – even though Members on my side of the aisle have consistently asked for bipartisan cooperation on funding levels.
WASHINGTON – Today, the full committee met to consider the fiscal year 2022 appropriations bills for the subcommittees on Interior and Environment and State and Foreign Operations. Committee Republicans were unable to support the bills due to the total spending level and controversial policy provisions that are in the bills.
Madam Chair, thank you for yielding.
First, I want to thank Chairwoman Lee and Ranking Member Rogers for their work on this State and Foreign Operations bill.
I want to also thank the chair for including the full amount for Israel - $3.3 billion. Full funding makes it clear that the members of this committee are steadfast supporters of our great ally and partner.
Funding was also maintained at the current level for other key partners in the Middle East, such as Egypt and Jordan.
Madam Chair, thank you for yielding.
These spending allocations will increase discretionary spending by hundreds of billions of dollars to an all-time high of $1.5 trillion.
This nearly 9% increase above fiscal year 2021 comes at a time of record-high deficits and debt:
Madam Chair, thank you for yielding.
I want to thank you and Ranking Member Rogers for your work on the State and Foreign Operations bill for fiscal year 2022.
Unfortunately, this bill, like all of the ones we have marked up so far, is based on a topline funding level that only the Majority Party has agreed to.
We must work together to come up with spending levels we can all support.
We also must agree to drop controversial policy provisions. This bill contains some of the most troubling items yet, and I will address those specifically later in my remarks.
WASHINGTON – Today, the subcommittees on Interior and Environment and State and Foreign Operations met to consider their appropriations bills for fiscal year 2022. The measures were reported out to the full committee with concerns raised by Republicans.
Ranking Member Kay Granger (R-TX), the lead Republican for the Appropriations Committee, said of the measures, "As we continue through subcommittee markups, Republicans continue to point out significant problems with the bills – from irresponsible spending levels to partisan policy proposals that divide us.
