Senators Slam Tillerson for Proposed State Department Cuts
- Budget ‘a devastating assault’ on U.S. interests and values
- Congress will work out its own budget, Republican Corker says
Rex Tillerson, U.S. secretary of state, speaks during a news conference in Washington on May 18, 2017.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson faced withering criticism from senators of both parties over President Donald Trump’s proposal to slash his agency’s budget by about 28 percent, with lawmakers saying in a day of hearings there was no chance the cuts would be allowed to pass.
At the opening of Tillerson’s testimony Tuesday to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, its two top members, Republican Bob Corker of Tennessee and Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland, made clear the hearing would be just as much a debate about Trump’s foreign-policy decisions as about the line items in the budget itself.