National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs

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.

I hope the chair will work with us to ensure that the conditions on aid to Egypt do not prevent funding from reaching one of our most reliable partners in the region.

Unfortunately, there are many troubling issues with this bill.

This bill is based on a topline funding level that only the Majority Party has agreed to.

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:

• This month, the national debt reached an astonishing $28.3 trillion.
• In the first 8 months of this fiscal year, we have already borrowed $2.1 trillion.

We must exercise fiscal responsibility and return to reasonable levels of federal spending, now that the pandemic hopefully is nearing an end.

Although these allocations do not show the exact split between defense and non-defense programs, we know the topline is based on the president's budget. Those numbers included an enormous, 17% increase to non-defense programs. At the same time, the president's budget cut defense spending to below inflation.

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.

First, there are some areas where we agree, and I want to highlight those.

I want to 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.