Washington, DC – Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued the following statement on the conclusion of the committee’s markup of State Department authorization bills, which included a bipartisan agreement on providing foreign military financing to Ukraine:

“Regular authorization of the State Department is one of Congress’ core responsibilities. That is why, as Chairman in 2021, I undertook a rigorous effort to negotiate and pass the first authorization of the Department in nearly twenty years. In order to do so, I held key oversight hearings with administration officials and stakeholders to produce a final bill that was signed into law with strong bipartisan support.

“While I believe that Chairman Mast agrees it is this committee’s duty to regularly authorize State, the process he undertook this year broke long-standing bipartisan precedent. Democrats were excluded from the drafting process, resulting in a hastily assembled product that lacked proper consultation or oversight. The amendment process only made matters worse—loading the bill with partisan poison pills while failing to authorize a single dollar in top-line funding. Instead of strengthening American diplomacy, Republicans used this markup to provide cover for the Trump administration’s reckless campaign to hollow out the State Department and USAID.

“As much as committee Republicans attempt to portray this as a bipartisan effort, the final result speaks for itself. They simply did not do the work that an independent Congress should do to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch and effectively legislate.

“I am grateful to my colleagues, including some who worked across the aisle to preserve some vital programs, including my amendment to preserve the Rangel, Pickering, Veteran Innovation Partnership, and Payne fellowships – vital pipelines to the State Department for high-achieving individuals who have historically been excluded from its workforce.  I also appreciate bipartisan support for my amendments backing our Baltic allies and foreign military financing to Ukraine to defend against Russia. And Democrats were able to negotiate and amend text to vote yes for three-of-the-nine authorizing bills. However, such agreement was more the exception than the rule.

“Ultimately, Democrats were united in refusing to rubber stamp the Trump administration’s hollowing out of the world’s premier diplomatic institution, or the many MAGA culture-war distractions Republicans tried to inject into this process. We will remain laser-focused on doing our jobs to ensure that the State Department delivers for the American people.”