Ranking Member Kamlager-Dove Delivers Opening Remarks at South and Central Asia Subcommittee's First Oversight Hearing with Assistant Sec. of State Kapur

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia, delivered the following opening remarks at the subcommittee's first oversight hearing with Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Dr. S. Paul Kapur.

Her full remarks as delivered are below and can be viewed here:

Thank you Mr. Chair for your tireless efforts to bring an administration official to testify at a regional Subcommittee hearing. And thank you Assistant Secretary Kapur for being here today and for talking with me yesterday as well.

While we have waited for more than a year for an administration official to publicly testify about the region, Trump has sabotaged U.S. regional interests and decimated our diplomatic toolbox, putting us on the backfoot as major changes swept across South and Central Asia.

In April, Trump announced tariffs on partners across South and Central Asia, an unexpected economic shock on countries already facing debt vulnerability to the PRC. 50% tariffs on India-one of the highest rates in the world-tore a needless rupture in bilateral ties that sacrificed decades of painstaking trust-building between our two countries. Dragging on negotiations for over a year cost us the timely convening of the annual Quad Leaders' Summit and weakened our posture in the Indo-Pacific.

In May, India and Pakistan fought their most serious military conflict in decades, risking nuclear escalation in a region of 2 billion people. But a reminder of the indispensable role of U.S. diplomacy was overshadowed by Trump's insistence on claiming credit for the ceasefire and offering to mediate the Kashmir dispute.

In September, Nepal experienced widespread anti-corruption protests that led to the prime minister's resignation and new elections next month. Tomorrow, Bangladesh will go to the polls to decide on a new constitution and choose its leadership for the first time since Sheikh Hasina's ouster. These major political transitions present a rare opportunity for the U.S. to strategically leverage our democracy assistance to support growing regional demand for accountable governance. Yet the State Department's rejection of democracy programming and the decimation of USAID has stripped us of the very tools that are needed to advance our interests.

Further hamstringing our engagement in the region, in December, Trump took the unprecedented step of recalling career Ambassadors in Nepal and Sri Lanka, weakening our diplomatic leadership in two key states.

While self-sabotage defines much of the Administration's regional policy so far, cruelty most accurately describes its approach to Afghanistan and our Afghan allies.

Nowhere in the region have Trump's aid cuts been more devastating than in Afghanistan, where child malnutrition has reached its highest level in a quarter century. The State Department did not even provide lifesaving assistance after two deadly earthquakes killed thousands of people.

Most shameful of all, the State Department is leading the betrayal of our Afghan allies who have been shut off from resettlement to the United States.

Secretary Rubio dismantled the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts and did not appoint a permanent Coordinator, violating the law passed under a Republican majority in 2024. When my bipartisan provision to reestablish the CARE Office made it into the final version of NDAA, Republican leadership yanked it out just days before it was set to pass.

On top of that, the Administration has created a living nightmare for over a thousand Afghans stuck in limbo at the relocation processing center at Camp As Sayliyah. In fact, when I asked Deputy Secretary Rigas about the fate of the Afghans at CAS, he'd never heard of it. Now, the State Department is closing CAS and offering payment to Afghan allies who self-deport back to Taliban terror, breaking our promise to provide them a chance at a future in the United States. I'm concerned it's only a matter of time before the administration leans into the unconscionable and recognizes the Taliban without improving the rights of Afghan women and girls.

Assistant Secretary Kapur takes the helm of the South and Central Bureau at a time when we are in sharp need of transparency, strategic coherence, and a return to humanity, and I look forward to gaining some clarity about the Administration's policies today.

Thank you and I yield back.