Secretary Rubio: At USAID, Only 12 Cents Of Every Dollar Went To Real Humanitarian Aid

Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the Trump administration's reorganization of what he calls the U.S. "foreign aid industrial complex" during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday.

Rubio said previously at USAID, "only 12 cents of every dollar was reaching the recipient."

"We still will provide more foreign aid, more humanitarian support, than the next 10 countries combined... and far more than China," he said, disputing the argument that the U.S. is handing over soft power to China by cutting foreign aid. "China doesn’t do humanitarian aid. China does predatory lending."

"Many of the reforms we’ve made were driven by people inside the building—many of whom have worked there for 20 or 30 years," he said. "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 It had often been replaced by the National Security Council or by some other agency of government."