Department of State Authorization Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCAUL. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I want to commend my good friend and colleague, Chairman Meeks, for his strong bipartisan approach on this measure to authorize the State Department. As he mentioned, it has been 20 years since Congress has authorized the State Department. This is our obligation under Article I of the Constitution, and for 10 Congresses, we have failed in that mission.

I am very proud today that, working with the chairman, we are going to get this thing done and send it over to the Senate. 2002 was the last time. In the nearly 20 years since that authority lapsed, we have seen too many taxpayer dollars wasted on inefficient hirings and procurements, an expanding bureaucracy, and an outdated IT system that left us vulnerable to cyberattacks from our adversaries.

It is a fundamental duty of the Foreign Affairs Committee to pass an annual authorization bill, just like we pass a national defense authorization bill. This is necessary to fulfill our constitutional oversight responsibilities and our obligation to be good stewards of the people's money.

For these reasons I am proud, again, of this bipartisan effort our committee has produced, as we often do. It will address numerous longstanding difficulties. It will fortify the Department and our diplomats with the tools needed to fulfill their missions to promote America overseas and enhance our security abroad.

Among other important reforms, the bill before us will modernize the State Department workforce, eliminate outdated reports, bolster embassy and information security, strengthen the State Department's diplomacy and anticorruption efforts, and reassert the Article I prerogatives of the United States Congress.

As the United States faces growing challenges around the world, we need our Secretary and diplomats to know that Congress supports them, and that is precisely what this bill does.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank, again, Chairman Meeks, for his great leadership and his team and staff for working with mine. This type of collaboration has been a hallmark of our work on this committee, and I know that it will continue to be so.

Again, this bill having lapsed for nearly 20 years, it is long overdue. This bill deserves our unanimous support.

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Mr. McCAUL. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Kim), an esteemed member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

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Mr. McCAUL. Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I think this is a momentous day for the Congress. I want to thank my friend and colleague, Chairman Meeks, for his great leadership in bringing this long-overdue authorization bill to the floor.

I also want to thank former chairman Eliot Engel, who I worked with very closely to get an authorization bill passed out of the House, just to see it fail in the Senate. I hope the Senate will not allow that to happen again. This is really desperately needed. It is a momentous day for the House. It is critical. It is bipartisan. It reclaims our constitutional prerogatives of the Congress and the full oversight role of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. I think it demands our unanimous support.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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