Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of my amendment.

My amendment is simple. It would prevent taxpayer funds from paying for State Department employees to travel to or attend events hosted by the Clinton Global Initiative.

The rationale is quite simple. The Clinton Global Initiative has engaged in blatant corruption and influence peddling that would make even Hunter Biden blush.

In perhaps its most famous episode in 2014, Hillary Clinton approached the Moroccan Government about hosting a Clinton Global Initiative conference in Morocco. The Moroccans fronted the money for the event by funneling it through a state-owned enterprise that was extracting and exploiting phosphates from a non-self-governing territory: Western Sahara.

This sleight of hand amounted to condoning Morocco's sovereignty over this disputed land.

You heard that right. It was a cash-for-sovereignty deal, formulated just as former Secretary of State Clinton began her run for President of the free world.

This deal was so rotten that even Huffington Post deemed FOX News' investigation into this matter, ``a brutal, clean hit on Hillary Clinton's campaign.''

Indeed, the Clinton Global Initiative's scandals are myriad and include an episode uncovered by The New York Times revealing undisclosed donations linked to the sale of U.S. uranium production to a Russian Government agency.

As expected, the Clinton Global Initiative was unable to withstand the scrutiny and shuttered shortly after the 2016 campaign. That is, until late last year when the organization reconstituted itself. Its operations are no longer dark, and this is the first State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill considered since its resurrection.

It has since morphed into a factory of radical elitist woke schemes.

Just last week, the Clinton Global Initiative convened in New York to discuss how to reshape our economy to tackle the left's pet projects that will make life for ordinary Americans more expensive and worse.

Given the State Department's enmeshment with the Clintons and the Initiative, we need to send a clear message:

No more coordination with the U.S. Government.

No more conferences with corrupt governments at the expense of the oppressed peoples of the globe.

No more representation and participation by the State Department--an end to its commingling with official policy.

And hopefully, the beginning of the end of this corrupt organization's influence on U.S. policymaking.

Mr. Chair, Americans simply can't afford more radical policies purveyed by an organization that allowed the global elite to buy and influence American foreign policy. Join me in condemning the Clinton Global Initiative's misconduct.

Mr. Chair, I ask my colleagues to support my amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I see that my colleague has not refuted any of the things that I have said about the Clinton Global Initiative.

Why in the world, again, would we ask American taxpayers to pay for people from the State Department to attend these conferences when they are likely not to gain anything positive from them and support a corrupt organization?
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chair, we have a terrific debt on our hands in this country. We don't need to be spending any money that is not absolutely necessary to spend.

Curbing attendance at meetings such as the Clinton Global Initiative is a good way for us to chip away at that debt and to save the American taxpayers some money.

I think this is an excellent amendment. I believe that my colleagues will see that it is an excellent amendment, and I will continue to advocate for its passage.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the opportunity to offer this amendment. I believe, again, that it is good for us to highlight this organization and the fact that we do not need people from the State Department attending its meetings.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

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