Ranking Member Shaheen Delivers Opening Remarks at Hearing on the State Department Budget Request with Secretary Rubio

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, delivered opening remarks at a full committee hearing, "Review of the FY27 State Department Budget Request." In her remarks, Ranking Member Shaheen outlined the State Department's refusal to brief Congress on key foreign policy issues as well as the numerous ways that the Trump Administration's foreign policy has made life more expensive for Americans.

You can watch her opening remarks here.

"I have a long list of unanswered requests sitting on your Department's desk and, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask that these letters be submitted for the record," said Ranking Member Shaheen. "I've requested a briefing on changes to U.S. force posture in Europe and, after 33 days, we still have no response. We've requested a briefing from the Iran War on displacement. After 90 days, we still have no response. We've asked for a briefing on Ukraine on a number of issues. After 180 days, we still have no response. We have asked for a briefing on lifting Milorad Dodik sanctions and after 225 days, we still have no response. We've asked for a briefing for the U.S. Agency for Global Media. No response after 344 days. The Romanian Visa Program termination. We've followed up five times 435 days and we still have gotten no response. In January, when you were before this committee, I asked if you would report to this Committee once an audit system was in place to track Venezuelan oil revenues. You said, and I quote, 'Oh, absolutely, yeah.' We are still waiting. And when you do notify Congress, it's to inform us of decisions you have already made. That is not consultation, as you well know. That is not advice and consent."

Ranking Member Shaheen continued by referencing a recent bipartisan delegation that she led to the Arctic to demonstrate how the Trump Administration's attacking our allies is doing real and lasting damage to American security.

"I just returned from a bipartisan delegation to the Arctic," said Ranking Member Shaheen. "We are on the verge of losing the very alliances that we have built for decades because the President manufactured a crisis over Greenland. And nowhere is that clearer than with Russia. In 2017, you wrote, as a Senator, that Vladimir Putin will never be a trusted ally or a reliable, constructive partner. But since taking office, you, the President, the Vice President, Steve Witkoff, not one of you has been to Ukraine. And yet, your envoys talk to Putin on a regular basis. The President has invited him, given him the red carpet treatment on American soil. But yet you won't come up here and brief Congress on any of it. And decisions Congress has made on Russia have been systematically undermined."

Ranking Member Shaheen concluded by pointing out the economic harm of President Trump's war with Iran is causing American families.

"Congress has asked basic questions about the war: Why are roughly half of our Patriot interceptor stockpile gone?" said Ranking Member Shaheen. "Why does the Strait of Hormuz remain closed? Why is gas up a dollar fifty? Why did thirteen American service members lose their lives in this war? Congress deserves to know why and Americans deserve to know why. Mr. Secretary, you would not have stood for this kind of stonewalling by the Administration when you were a Senator. And you certainly shouldn't stand for it as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor."

The Ranking Member's remarks, as delivered, are below.

Well, thank you Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Secretary Rubio. Mr. Secretary, you were a Senator. You sat on this Committee. You sat on the Intelligence Committee. You know as well as anyone that effective American foreign policy requires a strong partnership with Congress. Allies need to know that our commitments can stand the test of time, and that only happens if Congress is brought into the discussion. Congress cannot be a partner if it's kept in the dark.

I have a long list of unanswered requests sitting on your Department's desk and, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask that these letters be submitted for the record. I've requested a briefing on changes to U.S. force posture in Europe and, after 33 days, we still have no response. We've requested a briefing from the Iran War on displacement. After 90 days, we still have no response. We've asked for a briefing on Ukraine on a number of issues. After 180 days, we still have no response. We have asked for a briefing on lifting Milorad Dodik sanctions and after 225 days, we still have no response. We've asked for a briefing for the U.S. Agency for Global Media. No response after 344 days. The Romanian Visa Program termination. We've followed up five times 435 days and we still have gotten no response. In January, when you were before this committee, I asked if you would report to this Committee once an audit system was in place to track Venezuelan oil revenues. You said, and I quote, "Oh, absolutely, yeah." We are still waiting. And when you do notify Congress, it's to inform us of decisions you have already made. That is not consultation, as you well know. That is not advice and consent. Congress has been clear, on a bipartisan basis, we do not want to cede ground to China. Yet, this Administration is closing consulates and cutting funding in the Indo-Pacific.

The same pattern extends to global health. USAID supported Ebola detection and prevention activities in DRC and Uganda for years. And we can see in this poster, even Elon Musk admitted that "one of the things we accidentally cancelled, very briefly, was Ebola prevention." Well, those programs were dismantled and today we have to screen for Ebola at Dulles Airport rather than in the DRC and Uganda, more than 7,000 miles away.

You are asking for a [30] percent reduction in the State Department budget. That includes eliminating funding to the World Health Organization. It includes eliminating all disease-specific funds in the middle of an Ebola crisis that's affecting Americans. Yet, no one from your Department can explain to us why this is a good idea.

You sent Congress one notification saying you needed 19 billion dollars to close out USAID. Then you sent another saying you needed some of that money to respond to disease outbreaks. Congress has asked for an explanation and we still have not received one.

The same pattern extends to our alliances. I just returned from a bipartisan delegation to the Arctic. We are on the verge of losing the very alliances that we have built for decades because the President manufactured a crisis over Greenland. And nowhere is that clearer than with Russia. In 2017, you wrote, as a Senator, that Vladimir Putin will never be a trusted ally or a reliable, constructive partner. But since taking office, you, the President, the Vice President, Steve Witkoff, not one of you has been to Ukraine. And yet, your envoys talk to Putin on a regular basis. The President has invited him, given him the red carpet treatment on American soil. But yet you won't come up here and brief Congress on any of it. And decisions Congress has made on Russia have been systematically undermined.

Congress passed support for Ukraine. The Administration has slow walked it. And instead of sanctioning Russia, the Administration issued oil licenses that have sent billions to Moscow. Congress has asked what this approach has produced. Russia has conducted five times more drone strikes on Ukraine since 2024. More U.S. businesses are being directly targeted than at any point in this conflict and Russia is providing targeting intelligence to help Iran hit our facilities and personnel in the Middle East, while we're helping them fund this war.

When I talk to my constituents, they ask for economic relief at home-not regime change in Havana or Caracas or Tehran. Instead, you sent Congress a War Powers notification saying we are not in active hostilities with Iran while the U.S. was conducting strikes against Iran and Iran was bombing U.S. embassies and bases throughout the Middle East. That was not consultation. It was an attempt to avoid answering to this committee and this Congress about this war.

Congress has asked basic questions about the war: Why are roughly half of our Patriot interceptor stockpile gone? Why does the Strait of Hormuz remain closed? Why is gas up a dollar fifty? Why did thirteen American service members lose their lives in this war? Congress deserves to know why and Americans deserve to know why. Mr. Secretary, you would not have stood for this kind of stonewalling by the Administration when you were a Senator. And you certainly shouldn't stand for it as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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