WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, convened a hearing to discuss the reckless spending of the federal government on foreign aid. The Committee is responsible for ensuring prudent oversight of the entire government, including its spending of taxpayer dollars.
During his opening remarks, Dr. Paul highlighted several examples of ineffective and unnecessary projects funded by government entities like the State Department and USAID. These projects take money from American taxpayers and put it in the hands of foreign states and organizations, many of whom act contrary to our nation’s values. Dr. Paul has been a strong advocate in the fight against government waste for over a decade. His annual Festivus Report has continually exposed some of the most egregious examples of spending, with this last year’s report totaling over $1 trillion.
View the Chairman’s opening statement here.
Opening remarks as prepared below:
Today, we are going to dive into the reckless and wasteful spending of our federal government—particularly when it comes to foreign aid. The United States should not be the sugar daddy for the entire world, especially not for countries and organizations who act contrary to our nations’ beliefs.
Our country is $36 trillion in debt, yet we continue to send billions of dollars overseas, often funding projects that are not just useless but, in many cases, actively harmful.
Taking the path to fiscal responsibility is often a lonely journey, but thanks to Elon Musk and DOGE they’ve brought to light the waste I’ve been highlighting over the last decade. Every year, I release my Festivus Report to expose the ridiculous spending of the federal government, and this past year was no exception. I uncovered over $1 trillion in government waste, with the State Department and USAID being some of the worst offenders. Let me give you just a few examples of what these unelected bureaucrats are spending your hard-earned money on:
- $4.8 million went to Ukraine’s public affairs office in Kyiv—to fund social media influencers.
- Instead of protecting our own border, $2.1 million was sent to Paraguay to “enhance” their border security.
- USAID also funded a group of Ukrainian women-led designers to travel to the Paris Fashion Show. I don’t know about you, but I’d imagine Ukrainian women have more important things to worry about than appearing in Paris Fashion Week.
- USAID spent $2 million on transgender surgeries, hormone therapy, and gender-affirming care in Guatemala.
- $3 million was given to promote “girl-centered climate action” in Brazil. I’d love to picture what a conversation about girl-centered climate action looks like. “Hey, Barbie. Do you know what girl-centered climate change is?” Since when do we believe arguments need to be tailored for girls to understand?
- $25,000 to fund a transgender opera in Colombia. Was nobody in Colombia willing to buy a ticket, so American taxpayers had to foot the bill?
- USAID spent $32,000 in Peru to create a comic featuring a Trans hero to address social and mental health issues.
- $20,000 to fund a DEI promoting drag theater in Ecuador.
- $20 million was spent to produce a new Sesame Street show in Iraq.
- USAID spent $6 million to promote a project boosting sustainable tourism in Egypt. I guess the U.S. is now the travel agent for the entire world—since they also spent $50 million on Tunisia’s tourism, even though it is already one of the most visited countries in Africa.
- USAID gave $87.9 million to help Afghans farm poppy—the plant from which opium is extracted. As of 2021, Afghanistan supplied 90% of the world’s heroin. I thought the saying in the U.S. was just say no to drugs. How about we just say no to wasteful foreign aid?
- $70,000 for a live musical event to promote Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Ireland.
- State paid $330 thousand to compile a disinformation index to “blacklist” conservative media outlets.
- USAID funneled over $54 million to EcoHealth Alliance—funding the very organization linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the likely origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- $15 million was awarded to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to distribute oral contraceptives and condoms.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. These are taxpayer dollars being used to fund ideologically misguided, ineffective, and unnecessary projects thanks to the blundering bureaucracy, while our own citizens struggle to put food on their table. This is not what our government was designed to do. The U.S. government is not a charity, and it should not be doling out cash to foreign organizations, some of which actively oppose the United States, with no oversight.
We need to ask a simple question: Why are we borrowing to send money overseas? Even if USAID eliminated the crazy left-wing grants for trans operas, it still makes no sense to borrow money to send it overseas on foreign aid. Borrowing money to send as charity is like the worker who has no money left after paying for food, rent, and gas borrowing $1,000 to give to a homeless person. No individual does that and no government should either.
By my own estimation, we could save billions of dollars just by cutting wasteful foreign aid. That money could be used to pay down our $36 trillion national debt and take care of the American people—the very people who actually pay these taxes in the first place.
It is time for real change. America should not continue to be the world’s piggy bank. It is time to end the waste of the foreign aid bureaucracy.
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