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

Floor Speech

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Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Chair, a couple of weeks ago, the House Foreign Affairs Committee released a report on the U.S. Global Agency for Global Media's failure to vet its staff properly. Specifically, one of its executives, Setareh Sieg, lied on her resume, misused taxpayer dollars, and reportedly committed workplace misconduct.

Ms. Sieg was fired under the Trump administration, then rehired under the Biden administration, under suspicious circumstances, mind you.

Whistleblowers contacted the Foreign Affairs Committee requesting an investigation into Sieg, which the committee launched in 2021.

Among other things, the report stated she lied about having a Ph.D. on her resume and played favorites with overtime. She reportedly hired a senior official based on favoritism.

I learned about Ms. Sieg's actions a year ago. I tried to cut her salary in last year's appropriations bill. She was fired by the Trump administration, then the Biden administration, of course, hired her back, despite multiple reports of misconduct.

This is not the transparency, Mr. Chair, that Americans deserve from our government. She doesn't deserve a salary and she should be removed from this position immediately.

Mr. Chair, I have a 17-year-old daughter, and I tell her continuously: Baby, you play by the rules. You work hard. You tell the truth. You will be rewarded for that. Then I go home and tell her: No, I was wrong. You don't play by the rules. You lie about who you are. You mistreat people. You get rewarded by this government.

Mr. Chair, that is wrong and that needs to be changed. I urge all my colleagues to vote for this amendment to reduce Ms. Sieg's salary to $1.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Chairman, I am offering this amendment to withhold funding from the United States Agency for Global Media. This agency has misused taxpayer money and also failed properly to vet its own staff.

I ask you, Mr. Chairman, is the policy of this great Nation to misuse taxpayer money and fail to properly vet its own staff that is allowed to lie on their resumes?

Back in January 2021, it was recommended the agency suspend one of its executives, Setareh Sieg, following an investigation regarding her professional behavior.

The investigation concluded that Ms. Sieg lied on her resume. She lied. She misused taxpayer dollars for personal expenses and provided lavish contracts for friends. Is this the policy of this country, Mr. Chairman, I ask you?

However, just weeks later, and just hours after President Biden was sworn into office, guess what? Ms. Sieg was reinstated to her previous position without loss of pay or seniority.

The United States Agency for Global Media should be focused on its mission to inform and engage with people around the world in support of freedom and democracy, not a policy of allowing its employees to lie on their resumes, Mr. Chairman. Instead, they are playing political games and misusing our taxpayer dollars.

I recommend we withhold funding until a time when the U.S. Agency for Global Media can prove it is capable of removing employees that have deceitful and irresponsible work histories and is capable of properly vetting its own staff.

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Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Chair, at the inception of these wonderful organizations that my colleague across the aisle described, I would say they probably were very effective. I would say now they have very little effect.

I can't imagine somebody in one of these countries turning on the radio and deciding, hey, I am not going to go down this path anymore because somebody from another country is on the radio telling me to do otherwise.

I find the policy that we have of promoting people who lie and who mistreat others because of political power or their connections very offensive, and that is exactly why Americans do not trust this town.

They do not trust Congress. They do not trust government because they see people continuously getting ahead in life that cheat, lie, and do things that are inappropriate.

Things that we would not allow in our own homes, in our own businesses, in our churches or our places of worship we sure as heck shouldn't allow in the seat of this government, and this continues.

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Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your service to our great country in the Marine Corps. I should have said that earlier.

I offer this amendment to prohibit any funding for the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. This is just another group of unelected bureaucrats making decisions for the American people with no input from Congress, no input from the people's House, Mr. Chairman.

President Biden promised to be the most transparent President in history, and he is about as transparent as a brick wall. He promised honesty and accountability for the American people, and he has not delivered.

This special envoy is the opposite of transparency, Mr. Chairman. We have requested the names of the office staff as well as their titles and amount of their salaries. We are trying to do our jobs and conduct oversight over the executive branch's operations, but we have not received one bit of information from them.

If the executive branch wants to make climate decisions, it must come through Congress first. John Kerry used to be in charge of this office. When I asked him how much his climate treaties were going to cost the American people, he responded with one word: Trillions, Mr. Chairman.

This is completely unacceptable. We are $32 trillion in debt. Every hundred days, we add another trillion dollars to our debt load. We have no plan to pay it back.

It is misuse of Americans' hard-earned dollars to push this administration's political agendas, and it is putting Americans out of work.

This office of unelected bureaucrats operates like a bunch of climate dictators, and it must not receive any funding from Congress.

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Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Chairman, I can remember in 1977 there was a TV show I used to like. It was called ``In Search of . . . ''

That year I remember very well because I had to go to school at Bearden Junior High School on Saturdays because of snow days. We used up all of our snow days.

The show ``In Search of . . . '' had one episode that was: ``In Search of . . . The Coming Ice Age,'' and that was the talk. We are going into an ice age. Then it was acid rain. Then it was global warming.

All these reactionary things that happen to us, all they end up doing is costing us more money and making some advisory group, a bunch of fat cats, rich.

Every time we put these environmental regulations on this great country, these unelected bureaucrats get out here and get together, and then they figure out what we are going to do, and guess what? We are the only dadgum country in the world that follows them.

We cut a deal with China. They don't honor it. In China, for instance, when they put a new coal-fired plant together, it is our 1950s technology. We follow the rules. No one else does.

These unelected bureaucrats fly around in their big jets, they look down their noses at us, and we have to suffer the consequences.

Let's talk about the reality here. This is just another boondoggle so we can run for reelection and scare people.

The water that we drink and the air that we breathe now is cleaner and safer than it ever has been in my lifetime. Those are the facts.

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Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of Representative Cammack's amendment, which would restrict funds at the Department of State from being used to finalize any rules and regulations with an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more.

Under the Biden administration, hundreds of billions of dollars in regulatory costs have fallen on the American people with no input from Congress--once again, unelected bureaucrats.

Biden's State Department is pursuing radical climate initiatives abroad funded by American tax dollars--again, none of our business.

A 2021 Department memo directed funding away from carbon-intensive initiatives overseas, threatening projects with national security implications, Mr. Chair. Now, taxpayer dollars are being used to subsidize clean energy initiatives abroad while our own electricity prices are still outpacing inflation.

We should not allow unelected bureaucrats to impose regulatory costs behind closed doors. Our Nation needs major regulatory reform, and this amendment is a crucial step forward to a more transparent and accountable government.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment to restore congressional oversight over burdensome executive actions and require that any major rule be approved by Congress before taking effect.

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

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