[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.