Risch on ICC and Federal Aid Review

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today gave the following remarks at the Senate Republicans’ weekly leadership press conference:

On the ICC:

“When the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for simply defending their country against a brutal attack, the ICC grossly exceeded its mandate. There’s no question about it,” said Senator Risch. “The first objective of a court of justice is to recognize right from wrong. The ICC greatly fell down on what is incumbent upon them. Any entity that would put the leader of Hamas and the leader of Israel in the same bucket and treat them the same, doesn’t know right from wrong.”

On the federal aid review:

“I’ve talked to Secretary Rubio several times- over the weekend and on Monday- because of questions from my colleagues, questions from you, questions from a lot of people asking how this is going to go down. Well, the way it’s working is there is constant input on programs going on right now,” said Senator Risch. “One of the best things about this is, from the Foreign Relations Committee and from the Intelligence Committee, we’ve tried to get information out of these agencies and it is tough, as you all know. Now that the agencies realize their programs are on the chopping block, they’re running out of their cubby holes in mass and are showing us information that we’ve been trying to get. This is going to work.  Everybody stay calm. We’ll get this done and we’ll reduce spending.”

Read the full transcript of the Chairman’s remarks at the press conference below:

“Thank you very much leader. First of all, you will recall that President Trump placed sanctions on the ICC before he left office. President Biden immediately took those off. Ever since then, now that I’m chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, I’ve been working to put those back. I want to thank Senator Thune for his leadership and Senator Cotton for his leadership on these important issues.

“It has been very well near a full year since Democrats obstructed this bill and I’m glad that Republicans in both the House, the Senate, and the White House are taking action to protect American sovereignty- the sovereignty of American citizens and the rights of our ally, Israel. Better yet, I’m glad a sizable number of House Democrats voted for this bill not once, but twice. I expect we’ll see Democrat support here in the Senate as well. How much remains to be seen.

“When the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for simply defending their country against a brutal attack, the ICC grossly exceeded its mandate. There’s no question about it.

“This move was clearly political. It’s just another example of the politicization and antisemitism that has become endemic across a number of international organizations.

“The first objective of a court of justice is to recognize right from wrong. The ICC greatly fell down on what is incumbent upon them. Any entity that would put the leader of Hamas and the leader of Israel in the same bucket and treat them the same, doesn’t know right from wrong.

“This needs to end. It’s past time for us to pass this legislation and sanction those responsible for this decision and show the ICC that we won’t tolerate the corruption there.”

In response to a question about the federal aid review:

“Look at this from a 50,000-foot standpoint. To begin with, for all of you who haven’t noticed, this is a different day in Washington, D.C. The President of the United States wants to do something about inflation.

“Where does inflation start? It starts with government overspending, and particularly when it is deficit spending. We’re going into trillion dollars of debt every 100 days. The best way to go after inflation is to ratchet that back. What he has said is “let’s pause for 90 days.” This is a work in progress. Everybody takes a deep breath, stay calm.

“Every one of these programs is going to be looked at. He didn’t say “we’re going to do a two-year study…blah blah blah.” He said “90 days. We’re going to look at it.” And it’s working. I’ve talked to Secretary Rubio several times – over the weekend and on Monday – because of questions from my colleagues, questions from you, questions from a lot of people asking how this is going to go down. Well, the way it’s working is there is constant input on programs going on right now.

“One of the best things about this is, from the Foreign Relations Committee and from the Intelligence Committee, we’ve tried to get information out of these agencies, and it is tough, as you all know. Now that the agencies realize their programs are on the chopping block, they’re running out of their cubby holes in mass and are showing us information that we’ve been trying to get.

“This is going to work. Everybody stay calm. We’ll get this done and we’ll reduce spending.”

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