Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2025

Floor Speech

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Ms. HAGEMAN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in favor of my amendment No. 21 to H.R. 8771, which blocks funds for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO.

The FAO exists within the U.N. system as a specialized agency. It has 194 member states, and it has a mission to improve food quality and combat hunger in over 130 countries.

This sounds like a good cause, so why my amendment. Simply, FAO is the current target of the Chinese Communist Party influence strategy within the multilateral system, facilitated by FAO Director General Qu Dongyu, a Chinese citizen and former Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the CCP.

It is no secret that the CCP is waging a multilateral influence operation with the intent to undermine the U.S. as a world power while reorienting the global system in its favor. Seeking to advance this cause by gaining legitimacy inside the U.N., the CCP is targeting elections for leadership positions within these specialized agencies, then seeking to shift its policies in the CCP's favor.

Over the course of the last 12 years, China has run the World Health Organization, the U.N. Industrial Development Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Telecommunications Union, and now the FAO. In 2020, China nearly succeeded in its bid to lead the World Intellectual Property Organization.

All of these organizations coordinated major sectors crucial for development in modern life, yet I am concerned that the State Department is not taking these threats seriously and only engages with countering Chinese ascensions to these leadership positions when elections get down to the wire or if there is media scrutiny.

It is time to step up and counter CCP influence. It starts by engaging with agencies to prevent CCP control.

The U.S. contributes 22 percent of the FAO's regular budget compared to China's 12 percent. If we are going to foot the bill at international organizations, we should not do so at the expense of promoting the CCP.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. HAGEMAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart).

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Ms. HAGEMAN. Mr. Chairman, for my colleagues who may share my concern about CCP influence but are concerned about not supporting the FAO mission, I would also note that Director Dongyu's tenure has been marked with criticism, including from U.N. officials, for mismanaging the agency and failing to properly respond to global food shortages.

A December 2022 Politico article, interviewing more than a dozen U.N. officials and diplomats, highlighted these concerns. These officials criticized the top-down authoritarian management of the FAO, saying, ``It is not him. It is China,'' and, ``I am not convinced he would make a single decision without first checking it with the capital,'' referring to China.

It is a matter of fact that the invasion of Ukraine, a major food exporter, further contributed to food shortages, especially for Ukraine's trading partners. U.N. officials criticized the FAO for refusing to realize this reality, even though it falls directly within its jurisdiction. The concern got so bad that U.S. and EU officials had to force an emergency meeting of the FAO council.

Under his watch, the priorities of the collective FAO have been sidelined for the director general's priorities, which the West has warned are similar to China's Global Development Initiative.

I would also note that, according to the base text of this bill, there is precedent for such a policy, as section 7048 restricts funds for a specialized agency chaired or presided over by a country which supports international terrorism.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Ms. HAGEMAN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in favor of my amendment No. 22 to H.R. 8771, which prohibits funding for the United Nations' International Organization for Immigration, or IOM, activities in the Western Hemisphere.

What is at stake with this amendment is twofold: ending the channels connecting U.S. taxpayer dollars to activities facilitating mass migration to the southern border and reclaiming Congress' control over the allocation of funding.

The underlying bill allocates $2.4 billion for migration and refugee assistance to carry out sections 2(a) and 2(b) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act, which allow for membership and contributions for IOM and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Congress broadly allocates this pot of money for these purposes, and then the State Department and USAID have the discretion to allocate these funds as they see fit.

While this process alone should raise concern about the appropriations authority, we should be even more concerned that this system is helping the IOM, which is facilitating mass illegal migration, creating the crisis at our southern border.

We have uncovered the fact that the IOM is using contributions from countries, including the United States, to lobby the Biden administration to repeal and replace policies that secure the southern border and also engage in activities providing assistance that facilitates mass migration to that same border.

Shortly after President Biden took office, IOM issued a statement in support of his executive orders, which set this administration off on its destructive border and immigration agenda. The IOM has also risen in support of the Biden administration's creation of unlawful parole categories, the kind this body impeached Secretary Mayorkas for, and continued to criticize the U.S. for keeping title 42 restrictions in place.

The IOM also pressured the Biden administration to end the remain in Mexico policy, which it considers ``inhumane and against international law.''

Of the most concern is how U.S. taxpayer dollars provided to the IOM are then being provided directly to illegal migrants, facilitating the mass migration to our southern border, causing this problem.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support my amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. HAGEMAN. Mr. Chairman, to add insult to injury, U.S. dollars provided to the U.N. are also sent to NGOs that use these funds to provide cash, debit cards, food, clothing, medical treatment, shelter, and even ``humanitarian transportation'' to U.S.-bound illegal immigrants in Latin American nations and Mexico. In short, U.S. taxpayer dollars are being sent over our borders to the IOM, which is then using them to facilitate the crisis at our border.

The IOM is using U.S. taxpayer dollars to push our government to lower its border security policies and then aiding in programs rushing illegal migrants to the border, overwhelming the system in place and helping to facilitate the crisis we are facing.

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Ms. HAGEMAN. Mr. Chairman, this amendment does not harm the United States' ability to help refugees if it so desires.

First, it keeps in place U.S. funding for IOM activities in other regions where there are refugee crises. It simply blocks U.S. funding for activities in the Western Hemisphere that are harming our own border security.

Second, if the United States wants to provide refugee services, it should do so directly and not rely on international organizations to administer these services.

To the extent that the U.S. does want to engage with international organizations, this does not mean it should not review how its funds are used and whether the organization is operating in the best interests of the United States. In this instance, the IOM is not, and the U.S. should not be complicit in bad policies that harm our country.

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

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