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Floor Speech
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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you to my colleague from Virginia, Senator Kaine. I am really pleased to join you on the floor in support of Dr. Gupta to be Ambassador at Large for Global Women's Issues at the Department of State.
Sadly, this isn't the first time that I have come to the floor to raise Dr. Gupta's nomination here with our colleagues in the Senate but also with our colleagues on the Foreign Relations Committee.
I have to admit that it is disappointing to still be standing here trying to convince my colleagues that women's rights matter. They matter whether they are in the United States, in Afghanistan, in Iran, in China, or in Venezuela.
Partisan obstruction should not prevent a qualified nominee from undertaking the necessary work of the Ambassador at Large for Global Women's Issues. I have to be honest, it feels to me like what is at issue here is more than just the Office of Global Women's Issues. It feels like the Members of this body don't understand the role of that office and think that anytime there is something that has ``women'' in the title, that we must be talking about reproductive rights. Well, that is not what the Office of Global Women's Issues does. Reproductive rights are not part of that office, and it is disappointing that we are here still debating whether we are going to put in an Ambassador into that office, when since the beginning of the Trump administration, we have only had about a year when we have had an Ambassador at the Office of Global Women's Issues.
I would say to my colleagues across the aisle who are worried about Dr. Gupta's record to meet with her. Sit down and talk about what she would prioritize as Ambassador for Global Women's Issues. They should request a briefing with USAID's Office of Global Health because that is where their work is done to address women's healthcare.
What USAID's Office of Global Health has done is to reduce maternal deaths by 30 percent annually. It saves the lives of 1.4 million children under 5 each year, and it decreases--let me repeat that--it decreases the number of abortions, particularly unsafe abortions, that happen around the world. But that is not what the Office of Global Women's Issues does.
I hope they won't continue to hold up Dr. Gupta's nomination because they don't understand how women's health is supported by the U.S. Government or which offices do the work that they object to.
The Office of Global Women's Issues is charged with advancing the rights and liberation of women and girls around the world through our U.S. foreign policy. It endeavors to empower women and eliminate barriers that prevent them from achieving equity and equality, particularly economic equity and equality.
Not only does the Office of Global Women's Issues prioritize policies and programs to advance the status of women around the world, it ensures that U.S. policies incorporate a gender lens at all levels of policy and decision making.
And now more than ever, we need an office that is charged with leading U.S. policy on women, because around the world, what we have seen as the result of the last few years of this pandemic is that the gender gap has grown. Girls are dropping out and staying out of school at a higher rate than boys; the female labor-force participation rate has declined, with women holding less secure jobs and taking on even more unpaid child and housing labor than before the pandemic; and gender-based violence has increased to such an extent that U.N. Women-- the U.N. body charged with advancing the rights of women globally--now warns of what they are calling a shadow pandemic of violence.
These are issues of consequence to half--more than half--of the world's population. They need a champion in our U.S. foreign policy. They need Dr. Gupta.
Gender equity, equality, and the empowerment of women and girls must be a focal point of U.S. policy, and that is exactly what the Ambassador at Large is intended to facilitate.
The reason it matters to our foreign policy is because what we know is that when women are empowered, their families are empowered; they give back more to their families and their communities than men do; and societies that empower women are more stable societies.
These are issues that we need to pay attention to. We need someone in that role who is going to pay attention to those issues. And that is what Dr. Gupta would do if she is approved.
(Ms. SMITH assumed the Chair.)
So, Madam President, Senator Kaine, that is why we are here again on the floor in support of Dr. Gupta's nomination in hopes that our colleagues on both sides of the aisle--but particularly our Republican colleagues--will recognize what the Office of Global Women's Issues does and understand that it is not the office that is working on reproductive rights for women.
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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Will my colleague yield for a question?
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Mrs. SHAHEEN. I think, perhaps, I wasn't clear. I didn't talk about Dr. Gupta's position on reproductive rights for women. I talked about the role of the Office of Global Women's Issues.
When I supported Kelley Currie, who was nominated by President Trump to be the head of the Office of Global Women's Issues, I didn't ask what her position was on choice; I asked her what she was going to do if she took that role. And she had an excellent history of working on issues that matter to women and foreign policy, and because that is not the Agency that is charged with women's reproductive health in our government, I didn't think that should be the basis on which I judged whether she was the appropriate person to take over that role.
And, sadly, what seems to have happened is that because Dr. Gupta personally says she is pro-choice, all of the anti-choice organizations have made her nomination an issue.
So I would ask my colleague: Have you sat down with Dr. Gupta? Have you asked her what she would do in her role if she is approved to be the head of Global Women's Issues and whether that was something that she was going to talk about or work on?
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Mrs. SHAHEEN. I would just say to my colleague, having sat through those hearings, which my recollection is only one or two Republicans on the committee showed up and that most of the people who I talked to had not actually talked to Dr. Gupta, didn't actually know what the Office of Global Women's Issues does. And it is very disappointing that they are going to make a decision based on a press release from Planned Parenthood as opposed to looking at what she would actually do in that role and the responsibilities of that office.
So I am--you know, you guys think that every time you see ``women'' in a title, as I said, we are talking about reproductive rights. That is not the case. There is a lot that women do besides having babies.
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