Durbin: Our Reputation In The World Is At Stake If We Pass Rescissions Bill To Cut $9 Billion From Foreign Aid, Public Broadcasting
In a speech on the Senate floor, Durbin underscored the devastating impact of passing President Trump’s rescissions package ahead of the Senate’s vote on the legislation today
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today delivered a speech on the Senate floor denouncing President Trump and congressional Republicans’ rescissions package that will claw back $9 billion in previously appropriated funding to foreign aid and public broadcasting. In his remarks, Durbin emphasized that the U.S.’ global leadership is at stake as Republicans target the foreign aid funding that developing nations rely on to make health, economic, and educational progress.
H.R. 4, which the Senate is voting on today, would also retract $700 million from more than 1,500 public radio and TV stations across the country that rely on the funding to provide around-the-clock news, educational programming, and emergency alert services.
“National public radio and public broadcasting are opportunities for Americans to learn information that is critical to their lives and their futures and their businesses and their farms. And do you know what the Republicans believe? Well, I can tell you. They want to eliminate the federal assistance for this public broadcasting,” Durbin began.
“The notion that we’re going to take what is a minuscule part of the federal budget and punish the people who are involved in public broadcasting particularly hurts rural areas that I represent in Illinois. Small towns in the part of our state that is limited in population count on public broadcasting, not only for the news, not only for the entertainment, but also for critical information when it comes to terrible emergency weather conditions. Is this something that we want to walk away from?” Durbin said.
Durbin then spoke about the bill’s disastrous cuts to U.S. foreign aid, which would also cement the Trump Administration’s move to gut the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), despite the U.S. foreign aid budget accounting for roughly only one percent of the federal budget.
“Let’s talk about Trump and Elon’s first target – U.S. foreign assistance to the world’s most vulnerable people. They have virtually ended USAID, which officially closed last week. What do they say about the program?” Durbin said. “Trump said these types of USAID programs were run by ‘radical lunatics,’ the exact words of the President of the United States. Elon Musk… [called USAID] ‘a criminal organization that should die.’”
“These programs have enjoyed broad bipartisan support, and they help make America stronger and more influential on the global stage. Moreover, these kind of deep cuts provided in the current rescissions package threaten the long-term safety, stability, and leadership of our country as well as growing markets for American goods. USAID programs stem threats that don’t respect borders – pandemics, failed states, dictatorships, and displacements,” Durbin continued. “The clean water and sanitation programs have provided more than 70 million people with first-time sustainable access to clean water in the last decade, programs that have a six-to-one return in dollars saved in health, economic, and educational terms.”
Durbin recalled a visit to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where he met a clinic administrator who spoke about the incredible impact of his Paul Simon Water for the World Act and the U.S.’ global efforts to provide clean water access around the world.
“I remember going to Port-au-Prince in Haiti, one of the most war-torn and devastated countries in the world. I went to a local hospital in Port-au-Prince, and the woman who was the head of the hospital said that they had a terrible problem with the cholera epidemic but it was under control,” Durbin said. “She said they ended up building a purification unit and a cistern with clean drinking water and provided it to people so they wouldn’t get sick from cholera… She showed me. It looked like a sewer lid out in the back of the hospital.”
“I said, ‘Where did he get the money to build it?’ She said, ‘It was something called Paul Simon’s Water for the World [Act]. I said, ‘How much did it cost?’ She said [it cost] $20,000. That kind of small investment of $20,000 literally saved hundreds of lives… But it also spoke about the United States of America. That this country would take a small amount of money and make a dramatic difference in the lives of people around the world,” Durbin continued.
“That’s what we’re voting for on the floor of the Senate today. This isn’t just some administrative battle that doesn’t have human consequences. This is a matter of life and death for some of the poorest people on Earth. This is the reputation of the United States as to whether we care,” Durbin said. “This is why American defense officials have even told us for generations that they support these programs. As they say, it’s far cheaper than military intervention and wildly effective.”
Durbin concluded his remarks by urging his colleagues to protect funding for foreign aid programs that have promoted the U.S.’ position as a global leader and provided lifesaving assistance to those in need around the world, much of which has broad bipartisan support.
“I believe it speaks well of the United States that we come together and take one percent of our budget and spend it for the poorest people on Earth. That’s why I believe it’s critically important today that we defeat this effort to rescind the spending is H.R. 4. The consequences of these rescissions will prove to be devastating here and across the globe. I urge my colleagues to stand up against the mindless cuts,” Durbin said.
“The President has turned this vote away from a discussion of the merits of the cuts, of which there are none, into a loyalty test. Because Donald Trump doesn’t care about the impact of these cuts, he only cares about the bended knee, the craven congressman, the servile Senator,” Durbin said. “We need four Republicans to stand up and vote on a matter of conscience. I hope they will join us to preserve these strategic bipartisan programs and vote no on this rescissions bill.”
“Please, today, to my colleagues on both sides, give a voice to the poorest children on Earth who survive only because of a caring nation called America. Our reputation in the world is at stake. Let’s do the right thing,” Durbin concluded.
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.
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