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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Foreign Affairs Oversight and Intelligence Subcommittee Chairman Cory Mills delivered opening remarks at a full committee hearing titled, “Deficient, Enfeebled, and Ineffective: The Consequences of the Biden Administration’s Far-Left Priorities on U.S. Foreign Policy.”

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-Remarks- 

Good afternoon and welcome to the first hearing of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Intelligence in the 119th Congress. 

As we start the new Congress, I am looking forward to working with my colleagues to deliver real results for the American people by advancing President Trump’s America first foreign policy agenda.

Over the next few months, through our State Department reauthorization deliberations, this Subcommittee will work to identify areas of the Secretary’s Office, or the “S Bureau,” that must be reformed and reprogrammed to reorient the United States as a leader on the world stage while ensuring that taxpayer dollars are effectively used to bolster U.S. national security efforts. 

For far too long, the State Department prioritized radical liberal political ideologies and woke policies over advancing diplomatic objectives that serve American interests and protect the American people from our adversaries.

While the Biden administration was trying to figure out what pronouns to use, our adversaries grew stronger and more emboldened. 

China aggressively enforced unlawful territorial claims in the South China Sea and has undermined the United States and our allies at every turn. Russia invaded Ukraine. North Korea ramped up its military provocations. Iran advanced its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program, empowering its proxies to cause chaos throughout the Middle East. Israel was attacked and global shipping routes in the Red Sea were blocked. 

Over the last four years, among others, the American people watched these foreign policy failures unfold and voted for real change and action on November 5th. The American people gave President Trump and the Republican-led Congress a mandate to reverse the damage and restore common sense to the federal government.

Today, this Subcommittee will take its first step to deliver on this mandate by examining the State Department’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion. 

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion detrimentally influenced operations across the Department by: making DEI a “core precept” for promotion consideration within the ranks of the Foreign Service; granting passport applicants the ability to select “X” as a gender; and using taxpayer dollars to fund numerous woke projects, including “commemorating black consciousness month with an event in which employees learned about the inclusion of Afro-Brazilian culture through music and LGBTQI+ culture through Vogue dance” in Brazil. That was a mouthful.

These policies corrupted the core mission of the State Department and we must restore unity and fundamental American principles to the Department, eliminate wasteful spending, and ensure that President Trump’s Executive Orders are fully implemented, not subverted by rebranding DEI-driven programs. It is our duty to ensure that America becomes safer, stronger, and more prosperous.

I want to thank our witnesses for appearing before the Subcommittee today. 

I look forward to a productive discussion on how we can enhance America’s security through common sense policies and responsible leadership.  

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