Subcommittee Democrats Call Out the Trump-Musk Administration for Undermining Global Democracy, Freedom, and National Security by Aligning with Russia and Dismantling USAID

Washington, D.C. (February 26, 2025)—Rep. Melanie Stansbury, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, led Subcommittee Democrats in condemning President Trump and Elon Musk for illegally dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and undermining global democracy, freedom, and U.S. national security by aligning with—and ceding power to—Russia and China.  

Ahead of the hearing, Ranking Member Stansbury joined Ranking Members Gerald E. Connolly and Suhas Subramanyam in sending letters to current and former Assistant and Deputy Administrators at USAID, requesting information on the repercussions of dismantling the agency and how President Trump and Musk’s shortsighted actions will jeopardize global health and destabilize nations. 

“Over the last five years, USAID has funded international aid to 212 countries around the world to promote international peace and security to help maintain stability and ensure that we are making good on America’s promises.  These investments are a fraction of the cost of weapons and defense, and the U.S. in the process is able to help promote national security, stop global pandemics, prevent hunger and mass migrations, and make the world and the United States a safer place,” said Ranking Member Stansbury in her opening statement.      

The hearing included testimony from Noam Unger, Director of the Sustainable Development and Resilience Initiative and Senior Fellow with the Project on Prosperity and Development at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Gregg Roman, Executive Director of the Middle East Forum; Max Primorac, Senior Research Fellow with the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation; and Tyler O’Neil, Managing Editor of The Daily Signal. 

Committee Democrats emphasized USAID’s vital role in countering threats, feeding the starving, and promoting America’s interests.   

• Rep. Greg Casar pleaded with Republicans to ensure that life-saving aid produced by American citizens is actually still going to those who need it:  “Republicans voted for this food, and Democrats voted for this food to get out.  Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the food should go out as a part of his life saving waiver ... We have paid for the food, and we have shipped it, and it is sitting trapped in the warehouse because DOGE is blocking the payments needed to get the food out to the people who need it.”  
   
• Rep. Jasmine Crockett noted:  “Soft power is our way of building diplomacy around the world, and how we build that diplomacy probably looks different in every administration, but the issue that I have right now is that some would argue that we’ve taken a butcher knife where we need a scalpel.  Or others would just say that we are throwing out the baby with the bathwater, but either way, we are not accomplishing our goal, because as it’s been laid out, we have people that have gone hungry, we have people that have died.”

Committee Democrats revealed that the illegal dismantling of USAID is part of the Trump-Musk plan to reorder the global stage to favor foreign adversaries at the expense of Americans. 

• Rep. Stephen Lynch called out Republicans for not standing up against President Trump’s lie that Ukraine started the war with Russia:  “We have a President saying that Ukraine invaded Russia, they started the war ... was there one Republican in the room that raised their hand and said, ‘No, Mr. President.  No, that is a lie.  That is false.’  I didn’t hear anything.  Not one of my colleagues corrected the President and stood up to him.”
   
• Rep. Robert Garcia emphasized the far-reaching impact of DOGE’s blanket cuts on USAID, stating that “over 14,000 adults and 1,500 infants have now been estimated to have possibly died because of the Trump Administration’s attack on AIDS treatment programs.”  He continued, “they’re hurting real people and damaging our national security.”

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