Chapter 3: “This nonsense needs to end.”
For this last part of our case study, we finally get to Mike Lawler’s performance at the February 13th House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) hearing, entitled “The USAID Betrayal.” And remember, this was 10 days after Elon Musk boasted about feeding USAID “into the wood chipper,” after declaring it a “criminal organization. Time for it to die.” Musk, the man who steered upwards of $1M into Mike Lawler’s reelection in 2024.
This was a 4-1/2 hour affair. I challenge anybody to sit through the whole thing. I couldn’t. Neither could the committee, as you can see from the image above while Lawler was speaking.
Mike Lawler was last on the agenda. He held the floor for only 6 minutes. You can watch it below, or just jump to my annotated highlights.
Lawler starts with his standard pitch on the topic of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID has an important mission, and Lawler has been a strong supporter of one of its most effective programs, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). See Chapter 2 for a fuller discussion of PEPFAR.
Lawler: “Unfortunately, as we peel back the onion here, we’re finding more and more that billions of dollars of taxpayer money are being misappropriated.“
This is just plain false, even if you accept an overly broad definition of “misappropriated.” HFAC’s Chairman Brian Mast had published a list of 19 “egregious examples” of wasteful foreign aid spending in advance of this hearing. Only 4 of those 19 examples were administered through USAID, the rest through the State Department. Take away the $15M for “condoms to the Taliban” that was already debunked, and the USAID examples add up to a bit over $5M. Out of a budget of $40B+.
Lawler: “What Secretary Rubio has done by putting a 90-day freeze in place, per President Trump’s executive orders, is to have a comprehensive review. Now during that review they have granted a waiver for life-saving treatment and care and humanitarian assistance, inclusive of PEPFAR and food.”
Mike Lawler would like you to believe that this was just a 90-day pause to do the responsible thing, with a waiver process to handle humanitarian considerations. In reality, there is plenty of reporting to show that the abrupt freeze caused widespread suffering, and that the waivers were a “train wreck.” With the mass firings, there were few people left to process the waivers, plus the payment system went down.
Lawler: “Some of my Democratic colleagues will say, ‘Under what authority are they doing this?’ Well, Section 7063 of the 2024 Appropriations gave the Secretary the authority to do this.”
Not this. The law requires “prior consultation” with Congress. Rubio simply issued a letter on February 3 providing notice of his intent to consult, but at that point USAID headquarters had already been closed and projects stopped around the globe.
Lawler: USAID “gave $3M to Tomorrow’s Youth. The head of that has produced numerous antisemitic, anti-Israeli songs as part of this cultural dialogue. . . . Do any of you actually believe that is a good use of American taxpayer dollars, to promote antisemitic rap songs in the Middle East?”
False. USAID did not pay to promote antisemitic songs. See fuller context in my prior post. And again, Lawler highlights one $3M program out of a $40B+ operation to justify the cruel shutdown of humanitarian operations around the globe without prior notice, meaningful review or operational plans for transition.
Lawler: “For those saying where is Congress, we’re here. We’re having this hearing. We’re providing this oversight.”
To call this hearing oversight is to reveal yourself as a mouthpiece for Elon Musk, Mr. Lawler. And from there, Lawler built to a crescendo of self-righteous indignation:
Lawler: “The Biden administration is the one that approved that $3M to go to an antisemitic rap artist to promote Jewish hatred. That is what we’re talking about. That is why the 90-day pause was put in place. And that is why this nonsense needs to end.”
There was no consultation, no meaningful review. On March 10, Rubio announced the result of his “review,” terminating 83% of USAID’s programs. On March 18, a federal court judge ruled that all of this “likely violated the United States Constitution in multiple ways.” Too late to save those who suffered under the weight and cruelty of this action.
Stop this nonsense, indeed. The nonsensical rule of Lawler.
Postscript
For anybody interested in facts,
who doesn’t want to just accept Lawler’s assurance that a waiver process was in place to safeguard life-saving humanitarian assistance,
who wonders what more responsible oversight might look like,
I encourage you to look at the “shadow hearing” conducted by the House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats on March 25th. Again, the video is hard to watch, but it’s easy to get a stark sense of the wreckage that flowed from Elon Musk’s chainsaw by reading the witness statements.
Shadow Hearing – Thrown into Chaos: The Dismantling of USAID and its Real-Life Consequences
Post Postscript from the Post
March 28: Trump administration moves to formally abolish USAID
Rule of Lawler 