    [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 33 (Wednesday, February 19, 2025)]
    [Senate]
    [Pages S1024-S1025]
    From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                     USAID

      Mr. President, on a separate topic, this photo says it all. It shows
    the world's richest man Elon Musk--who has not been elected to anything
    and has taken the greatest pleasure in senselessly gutting U.S. food
    aid for some of the world's poorest people--somehow or another giving a
    tribute. I won't even try to describe it here.
      This month, President Trump and Elon Musk attempted to dismantle the
    USAID--the largest distributor of humanitarian aid on this Earth.
      Musk was gleeful when he said:

           [We are] feeding USAID to the wood chipper.

      USAID provides clean water in Haiti and Jordan; helps fight malaria
    and tuberculosis in Kenya and Uganda; and supports human rights
    programs in Burma, China, Iran, North Korea, and Sudan. It provides
    economic assistance in Central America to help address the root causes
    of migration and counter the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
    And it funds humanitarian operations in Syria, including for security
    at camps to prevent the resurgence of ISIS, as well as campaigns to
    counter disinformation from Russia and China--all programs critical to
    our national security.
      Not only are these cuts to USAID a betrayal of American values to
    satisfy the narcissism of Elon Musk, but they hurt innocent people, and
    they hurt American farmers, while we are at it, who for decades have
    helped provide such critical and strategic food aid.
      You see, despite the lies by Elon Musk and others about U.S. foreign
    aid, it accounts for about 1 percent of our Federal budget--1 percent--
    and the fact they conveniently leave out is that billions of these aid
    dollars actually flow back into the American economy. These programs
    have broad bipartisan support historically in Congress. They make
    America stronger, more influential on the global stage. And America,
    with these programs, is doing the right thing; that is, until President
    Trump's reckless and illegal freeze on such assistance already
    appropriated into law by Congress.
      Look at this headline: ``Gutting U.S. aid threatens billions of
    dollars for U.S. farms, businesses . . . including American farms
    dealing in rice, wheat, and soybeans purchased as food aid.'' Yes, I
    come from a farm State, and I am proud of what my agricultural people
    do. We grow some of the best crops in the world, and God has blessed us
    with the land and climate to achieve that. They not only feed the
    world; they feed the poorest people in the world as well.
      Not only is this sweeping U.S. aid cut illegal and counterproductive,
    but it hurts our farmers and people in America--in Illinois, Kansas,
    Louisiana, Nebraska, Iowa, Texas, Wisconsin, and many other States.
    American farms supply more than 40 percent of the food aid that USAID
    distributes around the world, and now, hundreds of millions of dollars'
    worth of such commodities are stranded in ports, rotting away at the
    direction of the new administration. Talk about waste.

      DOGE, take a look. You are causing it.
      Here is what the president of the Illinois Farm Bureau said recently:

           It's not just food aid to developing nations, and the
         exercise of soft power . . . USAID has substantially
         benefited farmers by funding crop research that has produced
         useful varieties of corn and soybeans over many decades. Some
         of that research happens at places like the University of
         Illinois.

      That is what the president of the Farm Bureau said about USAID
    programs.
      But even in instances where American lives and livelihoods are not
    directly threatened, gutting USAID threatens Americans' safety. USAID-
    supported programs help stem pandemics, help failed states, and
    displacements from war--threats that don't respect borders. But because
    of this President's sweeping directive to pause international aid,
    bipartisan, congressionally appropriated funds to provide help and
    lifesaving humanitarian aid in places like Venezuela, Iran, and North
    Korea have ground to a halt.
      Programs like PEPFAR have been a key example of humanitarian
    successes abroad. It was started under President George W. Bush--as a
    reminder, a Republican President--who wanted to curtail the AIDS
    epidemic ravaging many parts of the world, including Africa. PEPFAR and
    the Global Fund have saved more than 25 million lives so far, but
    because of President Trump's directive, it has been halted.
      Make no mistake, sad as it is to say, people will die as a result of
    this political decision.
      In the last decade, USAID clean water and sanitation programs have
    provided more than 70 million people with first-time sustainable access
    to clean drinking water--something we take for granted in America,
    which really decides a person's fate in the developing world. These
    programs have a 6-to-1 return in dollars saved in health, economic, and
    education; but because of President Trump's directive, innocent people
    across the world will suffer, and America's reputation will be
    weakened, not made stronger.
      American defense officials, for generations, have supported these
    programs. These have always been bipartisan programs because they are
    far cheaper than military interventions and are clearly effective--
    proven so over the years.
      Trump's first Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said that if we don't
    fund foreign aid, ``then I need to buy more bullets.''
      When did saving the lives of innocent people, strengthening the
    American economy in the process, and growing our soft power presence
    around the world become a political issue? Under President Donald Trump
    and the ``co-President,'' Elon Musk.
      Lastly, I want to highlight how lies about USAID have been spread
    online--some amplified by Russia, China, and other adversaries.
      For example, there is a false video created by a private company
    which links to the Kremlin alleged celebrities who were paid by USAID
    to visit Ukraine. This Russian influence campaign was reposted on
    Twitter by Elon Musk--no surprise--and became a viral disinformation
    rallying cry against USAID. But it was false, like so many allegations
    of supposed outrage by

    [[Page S1025]]

    USAID. Yet this kind of nonsense is used by Mr. Musk to justify gutting
    entire congressionally appropriated, American soft power programs while
    many of my Republican colleagues--virtually all of them--sit silently.
      Nations like China already sent strategic openings under President
    Trump's decisions to halt U.S. foreign aid. This Senate--Republicans
    and Democrats--cannot afford to roll over, play dead, and hand over
    congressional authority on these bipartisan programs and on larger
    constitutionally designated congressional appropriations powers.
      I know foreign aid is misunderstood by many Americans. They think it
    is about 20 percent of the Federal budget when asked. As I said, it
    turns out to be 1 percent. I have seen it in action around the world.
    Some of the scenes that I have witnessed, I will never forget: a dusty
    village in India or the children who are given for lunch something that
    my kids would never have touched and the Presiding Officer's probably
    wouldn't either. It was like a dough ball that they used for catfish
    bait in my part of the world.
      You look at that ball, and you think: You are going to eat that?
    Sure, it is full of good grains and nutrients, but it doesn't look very
    appetizing.
      They ate it like it was their last meal, but they didn't eat it
    quickly. They hesitated and stopped for a moment and bowed their heads
    in prayer, then lifted up and started eating their lunch.
      I asked the person who was running the program: What was the prayer
    about? They said they were thanking the United States of America for
    sending this food to them because, otherwise, they would have nothing.
      I take great satisfaction in that experience and memory. It says a
    lot about these programs and what they mean to people around the world,
    and it said a lot about America. This was one of our priorities, too.
    The nameless, faceless kids somewhere around the world got something
    eat to keep them alive because America cared. That defines America and
    its values, as far as I am concerned.
      The notion of ``feeding [the] USAID [program] to a wood chipper'' may
    be a big laugh for Elon Musk, but it is a sad commentary on the values
    of Mr. Musk and this administration. For goodness' sake, let's stand by
    American values. A lot of people depend on them.
      I yield the floor.
      I suggest the absence of a quorum.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
      The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
      Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
    for the quorum call be rescinded.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.