MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will testify about the budget before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he used to be a member. He's likely to hear concern from his former colleagues, at least from Democrats, about the fate of America's soft power. The Trump administration has dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development and is making dramatic changes at the State Department, as NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: The ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has been surprised by the way Rubio is running the State Department.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JEANNE SHAHEEN: Yeah, I've been disappointed.
KELEMEN: At a recent roundtable with reporters, Jeanne Shaheen talked about the drastic cuts in foreign aid programs and her conversations with former recipients in Poland and Ukraine, who tell her they've lost faith in America.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SHAHEEN: I mean, you don't repair that just by turning the money back on. We have lost years of relationships of trust in America.
KELEMEN: Secretary Rubio has consistently said the U.S. will continue to carry out lifesaving aid programs around the world, though without a specialized aid agency. USAID is now being folded into the State Department to be more aligned, he says, with the Trump administration's foreign policy goals. Republicans on the committee have backed the changes he's making, but Hawaii Democrat Brian Schatz says this could have been done in a more thoughtful, bipartisan way.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BRIAN SCHATZ: So what I need and what everybody needs is Marco Rubio from all of his career up until about 120 days ago, to reemerge, reassert himself and save the enterprise.
KELEMEN: Senator Schatz told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations that he's not sure if this is a, quote, "requiem" or recess of America's leadership in the world. Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, says too much damage has been done, at least to America's aid efforts around the world.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SHAHEEN: I think a lot of it's gone, and it's not coming back anytime soon. And I think it undermines our national security. It undermines our position in the world. And ultimately, it makes Americans less safe.
KELEMEN: The last time Rubio was before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was for his nomination hearing in January, where he hinted at big reforms, but also praised career foreign service officers.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MARCO RUBIO: My entire service on this committee, which spans 14 years, we always had fellows from the Department of State I believe all of whom are still in the service of our country. And I intend - because I know them and I've worked with them - to utilize their skill sets in the department.
KELEMEN: So far, the Trump administration has not nominated any career ambassadors, and Rubio is cutting staff by 15%. Just last week, the junior officer put in charge of personnel alarmed career diplomats by canceling promotion boards. The State Department says it's just picking the boards in a new way, not upending a system that is written in law. But Eric Rubin, who used to run the department's union, says Rubio seems to be driving career officials out.
ERIC RUBIN: It would take a serious biographer or a psychiatrist to explain why he's turned his back on so much of his previous career and his previous views, but right now he's all in.
KELEMEN: Rubio is also in a far more influential position in the Trump administration, serving not just as secretary of state but also national security adviser. So he's likely to face many more questions about policy on Gaza, Ukraine and China than on budget cuts.
Michele Kelemen, NPR News, the State Department.
(SOUNDBITE OF NACHO DATUR'S "RODODENDRON") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
