DOGE Subcommittee Chairwoman Greene Opens Hearing by Exposing the “Dark Truth” About USAID’s Mission to Undermine U.S. Interests

WASHINGTON—Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) Chairwoman Marjorie Taylor Greene delivered an opening statement at today’s hearing titled “America Last: How Foreign Aid Undermined U.S. Interests Around the World.” She began her remarks with a description of how U.S. foreign aid has been weaponized and politicized to undercut American interests overseas. During the Biden Administration, USAID blindly doled out billions of taxpayer dollars to support its radical agenda in countries that were uninterested in putting America first. DOGE Subcommittee Chairwoman Greene exposed this “dark truth” by describing how the agency funneled money to terrorists and fueled anti-democratic principles around the world with its left-wing slush fund. To conclude her remarks, DOGE Subcommittee Chairwoman Green praised President Trump’s immediate actions to realign foreign aid with American interests and explained how the DOGE Subcommittee will provide congressional support to these efforts.

Below are Subcommittee Chairwoman Greene’s remarks as prepared for delivery.

Good morning. I want to welcome everyone to today’s DOGE subcommittee hearing on U.S. foreign aid. This hearing comes at an important time – a time where all of us are witnessing billions of dollars in taxpayer waste, fraud, and abuse being exposed across every agency of our federal government. It comes at a time where oversight of U.S. foreign aid has uncovered billions of dollars that have been weaponized in furtherance of globalist, far-left ideologies. The American people want change. The American people voted for change. The American people have spoken that they no longer wish to be enslaved by the bureaucracy’s agenda of undermining U.S. interests abroad.

In 2023 alone: Americans privately donated over $557 billion of their own money. Corporations donated over $37 billion. Foundations donated over $103 billion.

In 2023, nearly 76 million Americans –almost 30% of Americans—formally volunteered through an organization. The government didn’t make them do this. They did it on their own.

Donating and volunteering time is what supports schools and shelters, hospitals and hotlines, food banks, and more across not only our country, but across the world.

Whether it be individuals, churches, or businesses, the American people are the most generous people in the entire world. They should be the ones who decide where their money goes. They can choose if they want to donate to a charity, a school, a church, or a nonprofit. They can choose if they want to privately donate to a transgender salon in Mumbai. They can choose if they want to privately donate to the British Broadcasting Corporation. They can choose if they want to privately donate to the Wuhan Institute of Virology through EcoHealth Alliance, or to electric vehicles in Vietnam, or to changing the national census in Bangladesh to be more gender inclusive. That is something they should be able to choose, not be forced to fund by our government.

The Democrat-run USAID should not get to use our federal government—our U.S. taxpayer dollars— as their party piggy bank to push their radical agenda in countries that we have no business giving money to. 96% of all political contributions from USAID employees go to Democrat Party candidates or PACs. That’s 96%!

Not only is USAID giving $70,000 for a DEI musical in Ireland or $50,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia to entrench their left-wing ideology across the globe. USAID has been transformed into an America-last, foreign aid slush fund to prop up extremist groups, implement censorship campaigns, and interfere in foreign elections to force regime change around the world. That is the dark truth about USAID. That is the story the American people need to know.

Not only was USAID never designed to be what it has morphed into, but these things should never have even been funded in the first place.

In FY2023, USAID disbursed roughly $44 billion of aid across 160 countries and regions around the world. During the four years of the Biden Administration, 181 countries received approximately $240 billion in U.S. development aid, with Ukraine being the top recipient. Other top recipients include Ethiopia, Jordan, Israel, and Somalia.

So, after hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars have been distributed throughout the world, has the world become safer? No.

Is the world more stable? No.

Is the perception of the United States around the globe better? No.

But, have some of the most anti-democratic principles like censorship and the cancelling of elections been funded through USAID because of opposition to the ruling regime? Yes.

Has money through USAID been funneled to terrorists? Yes.

Foreign aid from USAID to the UN – particularly the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East – is directly funding Hamas terrorists.

Humanitarian relief intended for the Afghan people was diverted to the Taliban.

Money intended to support democracy is being used as a slush fund for liberal propaganda supporting terrorists, gender ideology, DEI, climate activism, censorship, and regime change. Do you think this is what the American people think of when they think of “foreign aid.”

Taxpayer funds have literally been used to undermine U.S. interests and counter American foreign policy goals under the guise of “foreign aid.”

This is unacceptable!

Thankfully President Trump has taken action to address these issues. The election of President Trump was a clear mandate by the American people that they will no longer tolerate this.

He is putting an end to the foreign aid slush fund, ensuring that hardworking taxpayers’ dollars are supporting America First policies and taking care of our own people at home. And we will do the same!

###