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STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
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By Mr. COONS:
S. 3075. A bill making appropriations for the Department of State, foreign operations, and related programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Appropriations.
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak to the fiscal year 2022 State-Foreign Operations appropriations bill.
Every year as December approaches, we finally roll up our sleeves and get serious about passing the critical appropriations bills that fund our government for the new fiscal year, and this year should be no different. We are, in fact, already a month into fiscal year 2022. Until we complete our work on the Appropriations Committee, Federal Agencies are compelled to run on autopilot--something they can manage for a few weeks, even a few months, but it creates immense problems for Agencies and has grave consequences for every State and county and municipality in this country if it goes on too long.
What I am talking about today is the grave risk that we will end up with a continuing resolution. Now, a continuing resolution doesn't sound that scary, but it is appropriations-speak for doing nothing, for a zombie government, for conducting business as if time has stopped and nothing has changed.
As the relatively new chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, I am acutely aware that running our government on autopilot undermines the ability of the United States to be a global leader, to defend and advance our national security and foreign interests, and to counter the influence and aggression of our competitors and adversaries.
If we were to continue month after month through this entire fiscal year with no appropriation, what are the things that have happened that we would fail to respond to?
Well, tragically, in Ethiopia and in Afghanistan, there are humanitarian crises unfolding before our eyes, where millions are at risk of starvation. In Haiti, due to the recent earthquake and political changes, armed gangs have taken over much of the capital, and tens of thousands are homeless. In Venezuela, the ongoing crisis with the Maduro regime continues to worsen, putting enormous pressure on its neighbors as millions of Venezuelans flee to other regions seeking refuge.
We are also continuing to work to vaccinate the world to stop further the spread of COVID-19 and prevent the development of even more deadly variants than the Delta variant.
Last year's State and Foreign Operations bill included a small fraction of what is now widely recognized as being essential to prepare for the next outbreak of a deadly virus, which could be even more lethal than COVID-19 or Ebola and more transmissible.
A continuing resolution would deny the U.S. Government the resources included in this year's bill to lead the global pandemic response.
Now, Mr. President, I will not attempt to go through the entire roughly 320 pages of this year's nearly $60 billion State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill, but I do want to talk about, at the top level, some of the most important provisions and some of the most significant ways in which it deals with ongoing challenges in our world.
Last year's bill included almost nothing to help nations deal with the worst impacts of climate change, impacts that are occurring with greater frequency and intensity than previously predicted. Rising temperatures, severe droughts, food shortages, flooding, fires, and other extreme weather events are more and more common here in our own country and around the world.
Last year's bill continued the counterproductive practice of failing to meet our assessed dues at the United Nations, adding another $200 million in our arrears, arrears that today are nearly a billion dollars. If we continue this another year with a CR, who benefits the most from our delinquency, from our absence at the world stage and at all the different organizations and entities within the United Nations? China.
China has been methodically paying what it owes, expanding its influence, and has already surpassed us as the largest donor to several different U.N. agencies. If you think that doesn't matter, imagine a world in which China is the largest contributor, supporter, shareholder, influencer of United Nations organizations and has the largest number of employees and sets the rules and standards at the dozens of U.N. entities that are critical to global commerce, to global society, and to the rules-based international order.
Last year, our SFOPS bill shortchanged U.S. public diplomacy and broadcasting, and we saw an emboldened Russian Government expel Radio Free Europe and all of its staff.
Last year's bill did positive things. It rejected the Trump administration's proposed deep cuts to State Department operations and personnel, but it did little to fill the yawning gap caused by a hiring freeze and steady attrition due to a loss of morale.
Practically all of our Embassies, our consulates, and USAID missions are today operating at below--and in some cases far below--their authorized staffing, their critically needed capacity.
Over the last 4 years, I will say that our reputation as a stalwart defender of democratic values and of human rights, a reputation earned over decades, was tarnished. Reaffirming those values and rebuilding our reputation requires more than brave speeches and good words. It requires investing in the staff, in the personnel, in the organizations and the programs that support human rights and that fight for democracy around the world.
I know Senators of both parties recognize the imperative of our maintaining our reputation as the world's leading democracy, of fully staffing our Embassies, of strengthening our alliances, of countering growing Russian and Chinese influence, and of maintaining our world leadership role in public health by responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But what also needs to be recognized is that none of this is possible if we simply continue funding these requirements at last year's level. The fiscal year 2022 State and Foreign Operations bill was posted on the Appropriations Committee website Monday, and I am introducing it as a bill in total today.
I urge our Republican colleagues to work with us to arrive at a top line for fiscal year 2022 appropriations, to complete work on this and the other appropriations bills, and to avoid a yearlong continuing resolution that is in no one's interest.
This year's State and Foreign Operations bill was drafted with input from leaders in both parties, which has been our longstanding practice. Senator Graham of South Carolina, the former chairman and now ranking member, has been an invaluable partner. He and I have traveled to a number of countries together, and I value his ideas, his input, and his priorities and those of his staff.
Many of his ideas are reflected in the fiscal year 2022 bill, as are requests of many Senators of both parties. Every draft of this bill was shared and edited by both sides. Neither Senator Graham nor I got everything we wanted, nor should we expect to. There are things that his side opposes; there are things that my side wanted that are not included because of his objections.
Contrary to what some have suggested, this was not a partisan process. Does this bill differ from what the Republicans would have drafted if they were in the majority? Of course. But it is, in fact, a compromise, the result of disciplined and thorough negotiation between both parties.
We did our best to incorporate the requests of other Senators, regardless of party. And if we had included every dollar that was asked of us, we would need a budget allocation five times the amount we were given to spend. That alone tells you a great deal about the strong bipartisan support for global leadership and engagement.
The budget allocation our subcommittee was given is, in fact, $1.75 billion below President Biden's budget request, and that made us make even tougher budget choices than we initially imagined. The entire SFOPS budget amounts to only 1 percent of the Federal budget, contrary to the mythology many of us hear out on the stump, in townhalls, and in campaign events.
Folks come to us all the time who imagine that if we just eliminated foreign aid, we would cover the entire Federal debt. One percent--1 percent--of the Federal budget is dedicated to our State Department, our USAID professionals, our engagement in world organizations--all of the good that is done on behalf of the United States and that strengthens our role in strategic and, I would say, moral leadership in the world at a time when our allies are under unprecedented pressure.
The fiscal year 2022 State and Foreign Operations bill provides critically needed funds to rebuild the muscles of the State Department and USAID, to fill vacant personnel positions, to allow for diplomats and aid workers to serve as professional and dedicated representatives to the United States around the world.
I will remind you, many of them serve in dangerous and remote posts, from the Horn of Africa to South Asia and Central America. But unlike our men and women in uniform, they don't carry weapons to defend themselves. They, instead, carry the full faith and credit of the United States, our reputation and our support, and our thanks. And there are provisions we should be adding to future bills to ensure they have the full support they need and deserve to have successful careers representing us overseas.
As I mentioned earlier, the clarity with which we all see the urgency of combating climate change has become sharper and sharper as natural disaster after natural disaster imposes billions of dollars of costs on the American people. This bill provides nearly $2 billion in proactive investments in key climate programs to support clean energy technologies and help other countries adapt to climate change. This should be a priority for the Senate and the United States.
There are parts of the world already experiencing temperatures that make life unbearable, where water scarcity is an existential threat, food insecurity is increasing, and there is a risk of widespread hunger.
In coming years, projections are the number of migrants driven from their home countries by climate change will increase dramatically to tens of millions of people moving across the face of the world, driven by climate change. It is not too late for us to act, but it nearly is. And this significant investment, meeting the President's budget request--in fact, in some areas exceeding it--is, I think, an important signal of our commitment to combat climate change.
This bill also provides a billion dollars to support global health security, an $800 million increase in the current level, recognizing the global pandemic in which we are currently struggling to provide vaccines and public health support for the rest of the world.
It also provides support for a wide range of sustained and bipartisan long-term global health investments: combating malaria, polio, tuberculosis; for nutrition, water, and sanitation programs; and maintaining strong support for the PEPFAR Program to combat HIV/AIDS, first initiated by President George Bush and sustained by his successor administrations.
This bill also maintains critical support for vital allies and partners, for the nations of Israel and Jordan and other allies throughout the world, and it pays our commitments to international organizations like NATO and the IAEA. It provides funds to continue our leadership role as the world's largest contributor to the U.N. World Food Programme, which won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for the critical, lifesaving difference they have made in feeding the world's most vulnerable people and in responding to the current global humanitarian crisis.
This bill includes a nearly $150 million increase for vital programs in Central America to address poverty, violence, and other root causes of migration while also attempting to address the rampant corruption and impunity within the governments of the countries of Central America with which we look to partner.
There is also a critical new investment here I want to point out briefly. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, something a number of us have a hand in crafting, will have an increased budget by more than $100 million to support private-sector investment in development overseas with standards that are higher, that are more transparent in terms of labor, environment, and fiscal soundness and transparency. I think this is critical for us to combat rising Chinese influence through the Belt and Road Initiative and for the United States to have a new tool to partner with our closest allies in development finance.
This also provides $900 million to the Millennium Challenge Corporation, another initiative of the Bush administration sustained by its successors, that has demonstrated that long-term compacts with clear standards and clear metrics can contribute meaningfully to development in the Third World.
The bill supports programs to protect and promote internet freedom, religious freedom, and freedom of expression, all of which are critical ways that we don't just talk about but we show our values in the world.
And it increases funding for programs to support free and fair elections, human rights, and democratic institutions at a time when authoritarianism is gaining ground in nearly every region of the world. No country has the ability to match the United States when it comes to standing up to ruthless dictators, whether in Burma, in Russia, or in Iran, and people everywhere are counting on us to do so.
This bill also prioritizes funding for programs to combat transnational crime and corruption and to hold accountable foreign officials who enrich themselves at the expense of their own people, and it provides funding to help countries--especially those hardest hit by the pandemic--to reform and strengthen struggling economies. And, for the first time, it highlights the need for greater engagement through diplomacies and specific programs in the Arctic region, which is rapidly becoming an area of focus and of strategic competition.
Whether it is investing in rebuilding the professional staff at the State Department and USAID or whether it is shoring up our alliances and our partnerships with key allies or reasserting U.S. diplomatic leadership in international organizations, it is the funding and the authorities in this bill that will enable us to remain and to strengthen our role as a global leader.
As President Biden leaves to go to the G20, to go to COP26, the global climate summit in Glasgow, we should be sending a strong signal of support. We should be taking up and passing this bill.
If we simply remain on autopilot, if we doom the Agencies I have spoken about in my brief remarks today to a zombie year on autopilot, we will weaken our standing in the world. We will take a critical tool out of the toolkit of our President, who I believe many of us supported because of his ability to represent us well on the world stage and in recognition of the many crises that confront our world today.
Appropriating funds for the Federal Government is among our most important responsibilities under article I of our Constitution. It is not something to be casual or blase or nonchalant about. It is something to take up, to seriously debate, and to act on.
With just 6 weeks before the continuing resolution runs out, it is time for us to act on the State and Foreign Operations bill and all the other fiscal 2022 appropriations bills so we can avoid a zombie government under a continuing resolution and demonstrate that the Senate of the United States can still legislate in the best interests of the American people.
Thank you.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 188
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
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