Congressman Brian Mast says his office was made aware of millions of dollars in proposed obligations that offer no clear national security benefit.
A top House Republican is concerned about the Biden administration’s apparent attempt to pour millions of taxpayer dollars into international programs irrelevant to national security, including LGBT initiatives in Zimbabwe.
House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Brian Mast (R., Fla.) wrote a letter Wednesday to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Agency for International Development administrator Samantha Power criticizing the Biden administration’s proposals for spending tens of millions of dollars during its final days, National Review has learned.
Among those programs are efforts to fight climate change in the Middle East and to promote LGBT awareness in Zimbabwe, a small developing country in southern Africa with longstanding ties to the U.S.
“In recent weeks, my office has been made aware of hundreds of millions of dollars of proposed obligations for initiatives that offer no clear national security benefit to the U.S. or its allies,” Mast’s letter reads.
“The American people sent a clear message in November that they will no longer tolerate uncontrolled spending on programs that are incompatible with the United States’ interests abroad. As their representative, I cannot, in good faith, allow you to spend millions of dollars to combat climate change in the war-torn Middle East or fund LGBTQI awareness in Zimbabwe – both of which are among your recent proposals,” the letter adds.
Mast informed Blinken and Power that he is leaning on longstanding precedent to try to put the funds on hold, preventing the Biden administration from rushing them out the door during its final days. President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office is less than two weeks and his administration could re-evaluate American foreign aid it considers unnecessary.
National Review has reached out to the State Department and USAID for comment.
Mast, a decorated U.S. Army veteran, assumed the Foreign Affairs Committee gavel upon the start of the new Congress. He replaced Representative Michael McCaul (R., Texas) who oversaw the panel’s investigation into the Biden administration’s chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal.
Mast was previously chairman of the foreign affairs panel’s subcommittee on oversight and made politicized American foreign aid a top issue.
In December, Mast released a report detailing the State Department’s usage of American dollars to spread progressive ideology worldwide, with programs ranging from drag shows in Ecuador to the censorship of conservative news organizations domestically. The Biden State Department also provided assistance to illegal migrants crossing the southern border from Mexico to help them navigate the American asylum system, the report found.