Jeanne Shaheen Cuts Off Vatican Ambassador Nom After He Falsely Claims USAID Was Funding 'Transgender Mice'

4/8/2025

During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Tuesday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) corrected Vatican Ambassador nominee, Brian Burch after he claimed that transgenic mice experiments were 'transgender'.

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Transcript

00:02Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:04And yes, actually, of course, I do have some questions for Ms. McGraw.

00:10Because Croatia does play an important role in stabilizing the Western Balkans,

00:15particularly Bosnia-Herzegovina, where Bosnian Croats represent one of the three constituent peoples in the country.

00:22Previous administrations have provided assistance to Bosnia's energy sector to work toward the completion of a gas interconnector

00:31that would link Bosnia's gas infrastructure with Croatia's, which, if completed, would break Bosnia's total dependence on Russian gas.

00:40It would make Croatia a regional leader, and it would provide an easy pathway for U.S. liquefied natural gas to reach the Western Balkans.

00:49The holdup, and the reason I'm focusing on Bosnia here, is because the holdup has been the Bosnian Croat leader,

00:57Dragan Kovic, who has actively blocked this effort at every move, attempting to leverage the project to increase his own personal power.

01:06So, if confirmed, will you engage with the Croatian government to prioritize the completion of this pipeline

01:13and to put pressure on Kovic to agree to the project?

01:19Thank you, Senator, for the question.

01:22Yes, if I am confirming the U.S. ambassador to Croatia, I will make sure that I engage with the embassy in Sarajevo

01:30and Ambassador Murphy there, as well as my Croatian counterparts.

01:34It's extremely important that we continue to work on trying to get that southern interconnection built.

01:41Not only will it advance more energy from U.S. exporters to the region, but since the Kirk LNG terminal is going to double its capacity,

01:51it will position Croatia as a leader in the Balkans to be able to then become an energy exporter

01:58and deter the Russians from continuing to be the only one that supply gas in the region.

02:03Well, thank you.

02:05I appreciate your knowledge of the project.

02:08And will you also commit to calling on for U.S. sanctions for Kovic if he continues to block the completion of this project?

02:16Thank you, Senator.

02:17I haven't been updated on the sanctions yet since I'm a private citizen, but if confirmed,

02:23I will definitely look into finding out more about that and getting back to you to work with Congress

02:28and to work with you specifically on that.

02:31Great. Thanks very much.

02:33Mr. Birch, when the Trump administration began to shut down foreign assistance programs globally,

02:40Caritas, the charitable arm of the Catholic Church, stated, and I quote,

02:44quote, stopping USAID abruptly will kill millions of people and condemn hundreds of millions more

02:51to lives of dehumanizing poverty.

02:54This is an inhumane affront to people's God-given human dignity that will cause immense suffering, end quote.

03:02So if confirmed, Mr. Birch, how will you reassure the Holy See that the United States really is committed

03:09to saving the lives of those in need and to preventing suffering around the world?

03:15Well, thank you, Senator.

03:18I'm not surprised this question came up.

03:20I know this is going to be a very challenging issue for myself in this role because of the Holy See's

03:27pattern and record of leadership when it comes to humanitarian causes and humanitarian assistance.

03:36Do you agree with that leadership?

03:38Absolutely.

03:40I think the Holy See, in fact, has been an exceptional partner for the United States.

03:44In fact, some of the NGOs that perform work are some of the best, some of the lowest costs of overhead

03:50and some of the most effective and most impactful programs.

03:54So how do you explain then, how will you explain the U.S. position?

03:59Because it seems to me to be totally opposed to what the Holy See has advocated for.

04:08Yeah.

04:09This is going to be, you know, the challenge because I think the president, and I fully support

04:15the president and the secretary, have addressed a long overdue problem within some of our foreign

04:20aid, which is millions if not billions of our dollars have been going to places around the

04:25world that are not aligned with United States interests.

04:28And the secretary has made clear when he took office that he was recharting and refocusing our

04:34foreign aid on places that would make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous.

04:39And I think those criteria have to be met by these places.

04:43Of course, again, I think the partnership with the Holy See can be a very good one.

04:49But I think those partners have to understand that our foreign aid is not endless, that we

04:54can't fund every last program.

04:57Are you aware of how much we spend on foreign aid a year, foreign assistance, or how much

05:01we did until Elon Musk came in and cut the program?

05:05I'm not aware of the exact numbers, Senator.

05:06It's about 1% of the entire federal budget.

05:10So if you were going to name three places where you think that that foreign assistance has

05:15not been in keeping with our foreign policy, where would you name?

05:21You know, I've read some of the stories about some of the places that our money has been

05:25spent, particularly on some transgender mice experiments.

05:29Let me just correct you.

05:32That is not the case.

05:33That has been interesting and has been used time and again as the reason that Mr. Musk has

05:42cut foreign assistance, but those just are not accurate stories.

05:46Well, Senator, I understand there's going to be disagreements over whether or not certain

05:50places deserve or don't deserve some of our dollars.

05:53Right, but we should be able to agree on the facts.

05:56Well, absolutely.

05:57So I don't doubt that most Americans agree that some of our money has been misspent in

06:02places, that we haven't spent our foreign aid perfectly, and that every single grant we

06:06make is perfectly aligned with the United States' interests.

06:09This is why I compliment the President and the Secretary.

06:12I compliment them for having the courage to take seriously the dollars that taxpayers invest

06:17in our country, and that we spend around the world to make sure that they are aligned

06:22with the United States' interests, and this is going to be a process.

06:26I understand the Secretary is continuing to review a lot of these grants.

06:31I have actually spoken with some of the Catholic Relief Services groups that are working and

06:36are recipients of these grants.

06:37I understand some of them have recently been reauthorized.

06:41Others, of course, are still pending.

06:43So I think this is a process that is still under review inside the State Department, and

06:47I look forward to working on this issue.

06:50I'm out of time.

06:50I have some more questions, Mr. Chairman, for the next round.

06:53We'll come back if that's all right.

06:55Senator Ricketts.

06:57Great.

06:57Thank you very much.

Jeanne Shaheen Cuts Off Vatican Ambassador Nom After He Falsely Claims USAID Was Funding 'Transgender Mice'

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