McCollum No Vote on H.R. 4665

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition of H.R. 4665, Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act , 2024.

This bill makes devastating cuts to our foreign assistance and will undo years of progress in the areas of humanitarian aid, bolstering our national security, and combatting the effects of climate change. With this bill, House Republicans have completely abandoned our country’s leadership on the global stage and made our country and other countries around the world susceptible to destabilization.

This bill eliminates U.S. support for climate adaptation, sustainable landscapes, and clean energy programming. Climate change is an existential threat to every single one of us – and this bill does nothing but bury our heads in the sand. These divestments will not only be devastating to our environment, but also to our national security. Cuts to climate programs will leave the Department of Defense more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Without adequate funding to address the climate crisis, people around the globe will be driven from their homes, unable to feed their families, and will fall deeper into poverty. At a time when a historic number of refugees are fleeing conflict and instability, the United States will turn its back and be unable to respond to and assist our allies.

The majority has authored this bill to satisfy the most extreme among us without considering the real-life consequences for our allies and for the world’s most vulnerable populations. This bill zeros out or dramatically cuts several critical peacebuilding funding accounts, which will severely impact the United States’ ability to prevent violent conflict, build sustainable peace, and save lives. This bill hurts women and children – codifying the expanded version of the harmful global gag rule, cutting foreign assistance for family planning and reproductive health, and prohibiting funding to the UNFPA, the United Nations reproductive health agency.

Mr. Speaker, this bill fails to protect Americans and cedes leadership to our adversaries. With this level of funding, House Republicans are ignoring reality and making it impossible for the United States to engage peacefully and constructively with the international community – all while our adversaries are engaging aggressively. Millions of lives are on the line, and instead of making a serious attempt to address these problems, the majority has injected politics into our foreign policy and have authored a bill that has virtually no chance of passing in the Senate. For all of these reasons, I must vote against H.R. 4665.

Thank you, I yield back.