Bill Lee

But, Mr. Secretary, your budget does not say that. It is a road map to deconstructing the entire agency which you head.

So what in the world is going on, and how in the world would you survive with no public funding, or would you?

This zeroing out of PBS and NPR, once again, goes--and flies in the face of our democratic principles.

And I think that is the beauty of PBS and NPR, that, you know, my constituents may like some of the programming. They may not like some of the programming.

Regarding an estimate of the costs, including staff time and the cost to update the contract clauses with this new executive order, I defer to the Department of Health and Human Services, as the program official administering the funds.

Wherever there are any difficulties, we need to get them corrected very quickly.

We are saving a lot of lives, and we are moving towards an AIDS-free generation.

Taxpayers deserve better. And at some point... we have to know if taxpayers are getting a bang for their buck.

Our efforts to, quote, 'promote democracy' abroad do not end up undermining our goals and objectives.

I have long held the position that it should be eliminated. I think it is counterproductive at best.

We need to know which organizations received that $70 million.

These cuts are going to create more instability. And, in fact, China is going to fill in the void.

How can we justify cutting our development assistance programs and eliminating this program, which, of course, is going to do nothing but create more despair and instability in an already fragile nation?

This administration is turning its back on soft power diplomacy and humanitarian aid while increasing the military presence and overall militarization of U.S. foreign policy, especially on the continent of Africa.

I can't understand why, given what is taking place on the continent of Africa, why the President's proposed budget cuts, I think it is about $3 billion in aid to Africa.

The budget impacts the continent of Africa in many, many ways as it relates to their development needs from the past.

I am reminded of Steve Bannon's statement that their agenda and their goal was to deconstruct the administrative state.

I would like to know if you have looked at quantifying the costs associated with processing licensed applications and make some determinations about those resources, and could they be better applied towards trafficking terrorists or…

The only way that we can really approach this at this point, and we do you know many things and it just has not worked, would be to stop the profiteers from lining their pockets while their citizens starve.

How do you justify these enormous cuts while millions of children are severely malnourished and depend on this critical funding for lifesaving food and care?

I would think that you would look at this and see other areas where it could be better utilized in terms of your overall mission in the State Department.

It is very hard for me to understand how you can support this--and I say Steve Bannon's budget--given your presentation today.

We can achieve an AIDS-free generation by 2030. We can't do that if we back off now, Mr. Secretary.

The rest of the world is looking to us to lead. They won't step up unless we step up.

We can't do this with a $470 million cut to PEPFAR and a $225 million cut to the Global Fund, and eliminating the bilateral HIV/AIDS funding at USAID, we just can't do that.