Rep. Mike Waltz Questions State Department Chief D&I Officer Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley

Gentlemen's time has expired. Chair now recognizes Mr. Waltz for five minutes. Thank you Mr. Chair and I thank the Ranking Member for his words. I've served in countries all over the world where women aren't disadvantaged, they're brutalized. And I've seen that where women thrive in societies and villages and in countries, so does that country. And grew up under a single mom who broke barrier after barrier to provide a better life for me. At the same time, that same woman who broke all of those barriers was quite offended when a classmate of mine who was African American got a scholarship. I didn't. She had a lower score than I did. Even though this classmate came from a very financially well off background and we certainly did not. We used to have to sell things to afford grocery money. So I think what we're going back to and I think the disconnect here that you'll find with the thrust of your program and in my experience and Representative Mills is what we're talking about really is poverty. And how we address that. So you mentioned 80% of the Deputy Assistant Secretary's first senior line of management were European American. That was a problem. At least in how I characterize your words. You've now opened it up, fully agree with that. What do you do, what does your office do systemically then if you compete those positions and you're still at 80% European American? Well, no, it's not because we were secretive about how we put the position up there. Let's move beyond that. Competition, good thing. Yes, but remember the I is inclusion. So I'm not saying equal outcome. I'm not saying that we're going to arrive at a specific number of people anywhere. We just want to make sure that playing the field I think one of the issues is Vice President Harris when asked about the difference in equality and equity said, I quote, equitable treatment means we all end up in the same place. So a lot of people in this space are saying equity means equal outcomes. And if we, if some people aren't starting in the same place, then we provide them more resources than the others so that we all end up with equal outcomes. And in an exclusionary environment, in an elite environment, whether it's in the military or the, or the state department where we need the best of the best, you can't square that circle to end up all in the same place. Do you, so do you disagree with that characterization? I take it that you do with, from Vice President Harris that said, quote, equitable treatment means we all end up in the same place. That isn't how I would, I would define it, but let me tell you something I've learned because I sit on the committee, but you have the first, yeah, I think she, I don't know how she identifies actually, but first vice president of color saying this is her definition of equity as the president signing DEI executive orders. Yeah. So let's, let's get that squared away because that's my concern is that I don't see how you have everybody end up in the same place. Frankly, a lot of, uh, a lot of the folks in this place also have Marxist backgrounds. You can agree or disagree with it. They do, uh, in terms of equal outcome for all is, is a key definition of communism and Marxism. I mean, and that is I don't even know what to say about the Marxist, but I will point out. And something that I say often is that everybody doesn't want to end up in the same place. Everybody doesn't want to be a U S ambassador. I never wanted to be secretary of state. So it's never going to be, we end up in the same place. You, you will hear me say again and again, desire plus ability. You need both of those. So let's go back to the deputy assistant secretaries. You compete it. You end up with 80%. You didn't get a real answer or if you do percent did not, was when it wasn't advertised and competed. And what is it now? So I will check. How would you not know? I mean, this was a key achievement. You listened at, I mean, you listed your office was transparency and leveling the playing field. Now the results of it, I will. So let me, let me pause it. This is, I think it's part of the crux of our issue. I grew up poor as dirt. He grew up bouncing from home to home. Probably most people would describe us as, in your words, European American white, but yet that was an issue. That's an issue. If something is overwhelmingly white or people of color are underrepresented by ill-defined statistics that I don't think we can get from you. And from our perspective, we earned it. I mean, we, we exceeded all kinds of odds, but yet a lot of people in this space would tell us we're privileged because of our skin color. I didn't feel privileged growing up. People in the poorest County in Florida don't feel privileged at all. And so how long do we atone for the sins of the past with the current generation is a very key question. And we can't fight discrimination from the past or even discrimination today with more discrimination. And that is, you will always hear from us as a fundamental issue that we will seek to fight against. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield my time.