Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday stood by the Trump administration’s controversial reorganization of the department and shuttering of large swaths of the U.S. foreign assistance apparatus, arguing that the intent of American foreign policy remained unchanged.
During his first appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as secretary, a panel he was a member of during his tenure in the Senate, Rubio said that the State Department was reviewing foreign aid programs and that some of the preexisting initiatives “made no sense,” like a $10 million initiative to fund male circumcision programs in Africa — part of an effort to counter the spread of HIV in the region.
The State Department is on track to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development by July, and Rubio has previously said that the State Department as a whole was bloated, top-heavy and overly bureaucratic.
Rubio told lawmakers that he intended to push decision-making authorities down the chain, empowering regional bureaus and embassies to have more of a say in their operations at the local level.
“The State Department had to change, I’m telling you. It was no longer at the center of American foreign policy. It had often been replaced by the National Security Council or by some other agency of government, when, in fact, we have these highly talented people, who many of whom have served in multiple posts around the world and have a holistic view of how foreign policy needs to be conducted, that were being edged out,” Rubio said.
The reactions from lawmakers to Rubio’s first four months atop the State Department fell mostly along party lines.
Panel chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, praised Rubio and the Trump administration for tackling foreign policy challenges, like competition with China and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
But ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., panned the State Department’s reorganization, characterizing it as an American retreat from global humanitarian causes that has created an influence vacuum that China is eager to fill.
“Beijing is making the case that they are a more reliable partner than the U.S.,” Shaheen said.
But according to Rubio, the U.S. still provides more humanitarian aid than the next 10 nations combined. He cited his recent visits to 18 countries in as many days as evidence that the U.S. is not taking a step back from diplomacy.
While the topic of the hearing was nominally supposed to be the State Department’s fiscal 2026 budget request, foreign policy and the department’s structural changes dominated the discussion.
No shortage of conflicts
Rubio also addressed a number of specific issues facing the U.S., including the new but unsteady transitional government in Syria, negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine and the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza amid Israel’s war with Hamas.
The top diplomat warned that the transitional authority in Syria that has operated since overthrowing the dictatorship of Bashar Assad in December of last year has a tenuous hold on power and that fractious collections of rebels, ethnic groups and terror organizations still swirl in the vacuum created by Assad’s ouster.
“Frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they’re facing, are maybe weeks away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions — basically the country splitting up,” Rubio said.
Last week, the Trump administration announced it was lifting sanctions on Syria — previously imposed on Assad — to give the new government a chance at success. The European Union has since followed suit.
On Ukraine, Rubio said the U.S. has warned Russia that Congress could act to impose a bipartisan sanctions package, led by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and that the White House cannot tell lawmakers what to do in that regard, if Russia does not negotiate in good faith to end its war.
“There is no military solution to this crisis, right? It will have to end in a negotiated settlement. And the fundamental challenge we have in Ukraine is this: Russia wants what they do not currently have and are not entitled to, and Ukraine wants what they cannot regain militarily. That’s been the crux of the challenge,” Rubio said.
And on Gaza, which observers say is on the brink of widespread famine resulting from Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid into the strip, Rubio said there have been discussions of relocating Palestinians who wish to leave, but denied recent reports that they could be sent to Libya.
“But if they’re voluntary decisions, because there is no clean water, there is no food, and bombing is all around you, is that really a voluntary decision?” asked Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.
“Well, ultimately, that’s the point, right? And that is, you don’t want people trapped there. They may want to come back. They may want to live there in the future, but right now, they can’t,” Rubio said. “We’ve asked countries preliminarily whether they would be open to accepting people, not as a permanent situation, but as a bridge.”
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