Lincoln Diaz-Balart: “I thank the gentleman for yielding but more importantly for bringing up this very important issue. I think this…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding but more importantly for bringing up this very important issue. I think this particular czar, envoy, is really emblematic of a serious issue. Here we have a person who travels the world, as the gentleman has mentioned, in jets going to royal coronations, royal weddings, lavish receptions in elite capitals around the world, and then lectures the rest of us and pats himself on the back. I thank the gentleman for bringing this issue up. That is why in this bill we prohibit funding for all special envoys that are not authorized in law or that have not been confirmed by the Senate. That eliminates 33 positions and their associated staff. This is potentially the most dramatic example of wasteful spending, of virtue signaling while, frankly, wasting taxpayer money. I commend the gentleman for bringing this to our attention. It is difficult to find a more obvious example of waste than the one that we are dealing with here, so I strongly support the gentleman's amendment, and I also thank him for emphasizing it, for bringing this issue forward.”