Rescissions Act of 2025
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for allowing me to speak.
Mr. Speaker, this rescissions package isn't about fiscal responsibility. It is about abandoning America's legacy of compassion, ceding global leadership, and turning our back on the most vulnerable.
The President's demand to slash $8.3 billion in lifesaving foreign assistance is plunging America deep into moral bankruptcy. Despite what Secretary Rubio and others have falsely claimed, cuts to U.S. foreign assistance have caused unnecessary deaths around the world. The cuts in this rescissions package, based on outright lies, will cost many more lives.
Now, maybe they don't care about lives, but I think we have a moral obligation that we should. My Republican colleagues should know better. Why? Just months ago they voted for this funding. They understood, and I believe they understand now if they would tell the truth, that we all should know that foreign assistance is smart policy and a national security imperative. Rescinding these funds now will have real and immediate consequences.
This package cuts $400 million from PEPFAR. These aren't Democratic pet projects as some would have you believe. PEPFAR was established by President George W. Bush and has saved more than 26 million lives, while slowing the spread of HIV/AIDS around the world. Cutting these kinds of funds is another death sentence for children and women who depend upon lifesaving medication that costs us just pennies.
It cuts $1.3 billion from humanitarian assistance, while over 300 million people around the world urgently need food, shelter, and medical care. These aren't abstract numbers. These are real lives that are at stake.
To justify these cuts, the President has misled the public about the very agencies carrying them out. Take USAID, for example. It has never failed an audit, never been found out of compliance with laws or regulations. In 2022, it ranked third among nine Federal agencies for evidence-based budgeting and decisionmaking.
Let's contrast that with the Department of Defense, who is getting more money. The Department of Defense has failed its audit. Mr. Speaker, 7 years in a row they have failed their audit. If this was truly about waste, fraud, or abuse, we would be having a lot different conversation here this afternoon.
This package also slashes funding for UNICEF, which works to protect children around the world. It means yanking more than 40 million kids out of school. It eliminates programs that help almost 4 million people have clean drinking water.
Do you know who is excited about this package? I can tell you who is excited about it. China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, they are excited about this package. They would love to do this themselves if they could, because they know that this takes away our strength and our relationships, and then they will try to jump in. They are laughing. They are happy because they see us surrendering, because that is what this is. This is a surrender.
We cannot be fooled by this budget talk. You know what? Look at it. These funds really are less than 1 percent of our overall Federal budget, less than 1 percent.
Meanwhile, if you look at what the Trump administration and our GOP colleagues are doing, they are actually adding deficits of trillions of dollars to give tax breaks to billionaires.
This is not really about fiscal restraint. Saving lives is what we should be talking about. Those billions of dollars that they are going to get in tax cuts are not going to change the lives of those billionaires.
Let us reject this rescission bill. Let us vote ``no'' and restore the money to save lives.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source