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

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. TIFFANY. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to this amendment.

Madam Chair, listen to the Orwellian language that we heard from the other side here in regard to irregular migration.

This is laundering that is going on. This is laundering via the welcome court and the Safe Mobility Office. The other thing that we heard was civility. How could this possibly be civil?

Is it civil to have human trafficking on an epic scale?

Is it civil to have cartels that are brutalizing people, women especially, who are being raped and murdered coming through the southern border and the fentanyl crisis that is the number one killer of our young people in America?
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chairman, my amendment would prevent the enforcement of arbitrary, self-imposed State Department rules that limit communication between U.S. officials and their counterparts in Taiwan.

In essence, these guidelines are designed to prevent high-level coordination between our two countries. That isn't just bad policy, but it is in direct conflict with existing laws that call for expanding bilateral cooperation, such as the Taiwan Travel Act.

These rules inhibit the ability of high-ranking U.S. Defense officials to work with military planners in Taipei. They impose degrading and embarrassing restrictions that serve no reasonable purpose, such as a ban on displaying Taiwan's flag and the playing of Taiwan's national anthem at functions held on U.S. Government property. They even police language, warning American officials not to refer to Taiwan as a country or its elected leaders as a government.

These directives do not help the United States and they do not help Taiwan, but they do help the Chinese Communist Party.

That is why former President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo got rid of them.

Unfortunately, the Biden administration quietly reinstated them in 2021, and that is why I am offering this amendment today.

Mr. Chair, it makes no sense that a State Department memo supersedes the laws we pass.

America should not have to ask China for a permission slip to talk to our friends and allies in Taiwan or anywhere else.

My amendment will make sure we don't by scrapping these so-called guidelines. I ask for a ``yes'' vote on the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, let's go back to 1979. The executive branch sometimes does not get it right, as we saw with President Jimmy Carter who adopted the One China policy here and Congress had to step in with the Taiwan Relations Act in order to make sure that Taiwan was identified as a country. That is what we have seen in the ensuing times since approximately 1980.

It is appropriate for Congress to step in in a situation like this when we see an administration that shows weakness toward China, and we have seen the impacts of that weakness across the globe.

Congress will stand with Taiwan, and I hope all of Congress will stand with Taiwan.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, I urge a ``yes'' vote on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, my amendment would withhold U.S. contributions from the corrupt and scandal-plagued United Nations.

It is about time.

Despite making up less than 5 percent of the world's population, Americans remain the largest single state contributor to the U.N., footing around one-quarter of its multibillion-dollar budget.

In other words, we pick up the lion's share of the tab, while unaccountable, international bureaucrats make the rules.

What have our donations financed?

Decades of mismanagement, waste, fraud, and abuse; endless anti- Semitic Israel bashing; more than a dozen UNRWA employees participating directly in the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, and potentially 1,000 more with links to Hamas; seats on the U.N.'s so-called Human Rights Council for the notorious rulers of countries like Communist China, Russia, Cuba, and Venezuela; incompetent U.N. agencies like the World Health Organization, which ignored Taiwan's early warnings about the dangerous Wuhan virus and chose instead to run interference for Beijing.

Mr. Chair, the know-it-alls at the U.N. don't limit themselves to headline grabbing matters of international concern.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization recently cooked up a plan to take on backyard barbecues, burgers, and brats, demanding that Americans eat less beef, less pork, less poultry to reduce emissions.

This meatheaded move is just the latest half-baked scheme on the U.N.'s menu of dumb ideas.

Mr. Chair, it is time to put the U.N.'s bloated bureaucracy on a diet and stop outsourcing our sovereignty to this shady transnational organization.

Mr. Chair, I ask for a ``yes'' vote on the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, I am being whipsawed here. We looked at the previous amendment that I offered with a chance to stand up against the PRC in reference to Taiwan, and we hear a ``no'' vote is urged.

Now we are being told that the PRC is going to take over the United Nations.

It is time to start looking out for America's interests. In particular, I have authored a resolution that I hope to see in July in regard to the World Health Organization, which stood with Beijing rather than the people of the world. We saw the devastation of what was done as a result of the virus that almost certainly came from a lab in Wuhan and devastated our world.

Mr. Chair, I urge a ``yes'' vote on this.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, I say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, join us in making America first.

I urge a ``yes'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source