Rubio to face tough questions on Trump policies in Congress
World
Rubio to face tough questions on Trump policies in Congress
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will testify this week before his former colleagues in the US Congress, some of whom have said they regret voting to confirm the ex-senator because he has not stood up to President Donald Trump.
The Senate voted 99-0 to confirm the Florida Republican senator as the nation's highest diplomat on January 20, as Democrats joined Trump's Republicans in giving the president his first permanent second-term cabinet member just hours after Trump was sworn in.
During his friendly Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing on January 15, Rubio promised a robust foreign policy focused on American interests, echoing Trump's "America First" approach to global affairs.
Some Democrats who backed Rubio in January have said they regret their votes, as Trump has seized more control of the federal government than any modern president, including cutting funding plans that had been approved by Congress.
Rubio will tell the Senate committee on Tuesday that the $28.5 billion budget request by the Trump administration for the 2025/26 fiscal year will allow his department to continue enacting Trump's vision while cutting $20 billion of "duplicative, wasteful, and ideologically driven programs," according to prepared remarks published by the State Department.
At the hearing, Rubio is likely to face tough questions about the decimation of foreign aid - Rubio was an advocate of such aid during his 14 years in the Senate - while slashing staff at the State Department and US Agency for International Development, which used to spend roughly $40 billion a year and is being folded into the State Department.
The administration is proposing a new $2.9 billion America First Opportunity Fund (A1OF) that would take on foreign aid, building on "lessons we learned from USAID," according to the prepared remarks.
"It will allow the Department to respond rapidly to crises, engage proactively with critical partners like India and Jordan, support essential repatriation efforts, and confront strategic threats from near-peer competitors like China," Rubio will say.
Senators are also likely to grill Rubio on Trump's plans to unwind Syria sanctions, Rubio's role in the administration's immigration crackdown, the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza and efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
