Trump administration scrapping $1.8B ‘anti-weaponization’ fund, Blanche says

The U.S. military has stopped a seventh ship trying to run its blockade of Iranian ports on Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said in a social media post.

The Botswana-flagged merchant vessel M/T Lexie was stopped by a U.S. aircraft firing a Hellfire missile into its engine room after the crew ignored repeated warnings from U.S. forces over 24 hours, the post said. The halting of the Lexie comes just days after U.S. forces halted another merchant vessel, the Lian Star, using a similar approach.

This latest halt brings the total of commercial ships disabled by U.S. forces to six because one stopped vessel was ultimately allowed to continue on its way. Another 122 ships have been redirected, the military said.

Blanche said that while the Justice Department was scrapping plans to create the ‘anti-weaponization’ fund, it was standing by another part of Trump’s settlement with the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.

As part of that deal, the IRS agreed to drop all pending probes of Trump over whether he’s paid his fair share of taxes.

Pressed over whether it was also abandoning that part of the deal, Blanche said “nothing has changed with that,” and that the administration was only retreating on plans to create the $1.8 billion fund.

Blanche revealed that the administration was backing down on the proposed fund under questioning by Rep. Grace Meng, the top Democrat on the subcommittee.

Meng pressed Blanche on the administration’s plans for the fund, asking him: “Not moving forward, ever?” Blanche responded: “Correct,” prompting Meng to let out a surprised “oh.”

The Justice Department on Monday had only committed to temporarily pausing the plans for the fund to comply with a court order blocking it.

Blanche told lawmakers that the administration was backing down after widespread political backlash and setbacks in the courts.

Blanche’s comments during a House committee hearing came in response to mounting pressure from Republicans for reassurances that the Justice Department’s plans were off the table before they would move forward with legislation funding President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies.

The Trump administration had previously defended the fund as an appropriate measure make up for what officials insist was a weaponized Justice Department during President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration, a claim the Biden administration strongly denied

Democrats opened the hearing with Blanche to rail against the administration’s plans to create a $1.8 billion fund to compensate Trump allies who believe they were unjustly investigated and prosecuted.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat from Connecticut called the proposed fund an “extraordinary display of self-dealing” and a “corrupt payout scheme for the President and his political allies.”

“It is unconscionable, this sort of a scandal would ruin any other administration,” she said.

The Secretary of State testified for nearly five hours in total before lawmakers on Capitol Hill, starting with a Senate Committee hearing in the morning and a House subcommittee hearing in the afternoon.

Rubio faced a wide array of questions that ranged from the Iran war, Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, U.S. support for Taiwan and a U.S. stockpile of birth control that was supposed to go to foreign countries.

Both hearings were punctuated by the shouts of protestors, some of whom called Rubio a war criminal for U.S. operations in the Middle East and Latin America.

Rubio will face the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Wednesday morning.

Democratic Rep. Grace Meng of New York questioned Rubio about the fate of the stockpile, which as of last year was stored in a U.S.-funded warehouse in Geel, Belgium. It includes contraceptive pills, contraceptive implants and IUDs that could spare women in war zones and elsewhere the hardship of unwanted pregnancies.

The Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which managed foreign aid programs, left the supplies’ fate uncertain.

Meng also asked about the cost of storing the birth control. Rubio said he didn’t know what the cost was, adding that some of the contraceptives have been destroyed. He said they’re not distributing them per an executive order.

“We’re not going to use them or the government of the United States is not going to be involved in distributing contraceptives and all these other things around the world,” Rubio said.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is expected to face questions from lawmakers over the Trump administration’s plans to create a $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate allies of the Republican president.

The administration is facing pressure from Republicans to scrap the fund that has provoked outrage over the mere possibility that violent pro-Trump rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, could be eligible for payouts.

A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Monday that Trump was reconsidering whether to move forward with the fund established to resolve his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.

Democrats in Congress are introducing legislation to rein in AI use among the military as the Trump administration pushes for its expanded use.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York introduced legislation Tuesday that, if passed, would prohibit the use of AI for nuclear weapon launches, establish controls on its use for surveilling U.S. citizens, and broadly restrict the use of fully autonomous weapons systems, according a statement released by her office. The bill also codifies a policy that requires humans to always be involved in decisions to use force or other “high-consequence” actions.

Gillibrand’s bill comes just months after Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, also a Democrat, introduced a similar bill.

The proposed legislation comes as leaders in the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have insisted that the Pentagon be allowed to use the technology in any legal way it sees fit.

Rubio told lawmakers on a House subcommittee that Iran has Chinese military equipment from their previous ties but said the U.S. has seen no indication that anything provided has “changed the dynamic in the battlefield.”

The remarks came several weeks after the State Department sanctioned three China-based entities for providing satellite imagery that enabled Iran’s military strikes against U.S. forces in the Middle East.

The Trump administration alleged that one company collected satellite imagery of U.S. and allied military facilities to support Iranian imagery request during the Iran war. Another company provided satellite imagery to Iran during the military operation and the third published open-source images detailing U.S. military activity.

Rep. Rose DeLauro of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, pressed Rubio on where the U.S. stands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal of seizing 70% of Gaza to defeat the Hamas militant group.

Rubio said Netanyahu’s statement was not part of President Trump’s 20-point plan to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The plan would end Hamas’ rule and rebuild the territory.

“We have a plan — it doesn’t call for that,” Rubio said. “And at the end of the day, we understand that what we want, and I think what the Israelis would ultimately want, is a Gaza that is governed by a non-Hamas” entity.

The budget hearing with DHS Secretary Mullin is already getting heated.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy used his opening statement to lambast Mullin and his department.

Murphy said while Mullin vowed during his confirmation hearing to keep the department out of the news, he’d done the opposite. He slammed Mullin’s threats to pull CBP officers from airports and accused the department of reckless spending.

“Every day, this agency is breaking the law at scale and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars. DHS does not implement the law any longer. It makes up the law,” said Murphy.

Mullin, who until just a few months ago was a senator alongside Murphy, diverted from his prepared remarks to respond to Murphy.

“I do have an opening statement here, but, wow, Senator Murphy, the outlandish claims you made there, it’s just flat wrong,” said Mullin who blamed rhetoric like Murphy’s for a growing number of threats and attacks against his officers.

Rep. Lois Frankel, one of the senior Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, said that when Rubio was first confirmed to be America’s top diplomat she was hopeful about what he had presented as his “commitment to democracy and American leadership.”

“And then what happened? DOGE came in with Elon Musk,” the Florida lawmaker said.

She added that Musk and his allies’ time in the administration has had “devastating consequences” that resulted in the dismantling of USAID agency, terminating critical health and development programs, and forcing thousands of experienced public servants out of government.

When Rubio began his testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday afternoon, a man stood up with a sign and urged the Secretary of State stop supporting Israel and what the man said was “genocide.” The man was quickly led out of the room.

Rubio faced protesters during an earlier hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. They raised concerns that sanctions against Cuba were hurting children on the island nation.

This is the first time Rubio is testifying to lawmakers since the Iran war began.

A Senate budget hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is getting started.

Mullin is at the appropriations subcommittee on homeland security.

The Senate is currently weighing legislation that would fund immigration enforcement agencies through the end of President Donald Trump’s term.
That’s designed to bypass any need for Democratic support. They’ve demanded restraints on ICE and Border Patrol before agreeing to fund the agencies.

But that funding attempt has been caught up in Republican opposition to a $1.776 billion settlement fund to compensate Trump allies who believe they have been politically prosecuted.

Mullin’s likely to face questioning about conduct of immigration enforcement officers, treatment of detainees at an ICE facility in New Jersey and security preparations for the World Cup.

Rubio is testifying for the second time Tuesday before lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

The stated reason is the State Department’s budget, but questions will likely veer into issues concerning the Iran war, the Trump administration’s campaign against drug cartels in Latin America and U.S. support for Taiwan.

The former Republican senator from Florida sat for well over two hours of questioning on Tuesday morning in front the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In the afternoon, he’ll be testifying before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations.

Like the Senate hearing, the hallways outside the room included protestors. Some called Rubio a terrorist and told him to stop killing children in Gaza and Iran when he walked into the room.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is slated to appear Tuesday in the Senate to answer questions about the agency’s budget, at a time of intense scrutiny about how the Trump administration is carrying out immigration enforcement and preparing for the World Cup.

The Senate is weighing legislation to fund immigration enforcement agencies through the end of Trump’s term in a maneuver that would bypass the need for support from Democrats, who have demanded restraints. The attempt has stalled over separate Republican opposition to a $1.776 billion settlement fund to compensate Trump allies who believe they have been politically prosecuted.

Mullin, who was tapped by Trump to lead Homeland Security after his predecessor Kristi Noem was fired, is appearing in the Senate Tuesday for the first time since his confirmation hearing in March. On Wednesday, he’ll testify in the House about the budget.

The CMS administrator faced another question about the president’s more-than-annual physicals. The president went for the fourth known checkup of his second term last week.

“I think he likes the results,” Oz responded. “He aces the test every single day, and I do actually believe that he is curious to make sure everything is going in the right direction.”

His getting so many physicals was more of a sign of his “very meticulous” nature, Oz contended, because he “wants to know all the numbers” and stay on top of them.

Oz was repeatedly questioned about why Pulte is qualified for the role when he has no known experience with intelligence or national security.

He called Pulte “a great guy” and said, “I know him socially” but had not worked with him in his job.

When pressed, Oz said, “You’re asking me a question that’s not in my lane. I’m so focused on making sure Americans are healthy.”

He later said that he appreciated reporters want an answer but said, “I’m not going to be the one giving it to you.”

The CMS administrator, who is a physician by trade, says the almost 80-year-old president has “excellent” health, according to his medical records.

Trump went for another checkup at Walter Reed last week.

“That amount of energy and that amount of mental acuity does not exist in a vacuum,” Oz told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. Referring presumably to Trump’s physical body, Oz said: “you have to have a vessel to carry it.”

An investigation by KFF Health News and The Associated Press has found that hundreds of detainees across at least 33 states allege immigration detention facilities are failing to provide adequate medical care.

Detainees allege they didn’t receive medications on time — or at all — for conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, epilepsy, Parkinson’s and HIV. Requests for help went unanswered for weeks. Blood sugars rose. Infections festered. Cancers remained untreated. Detainees collapsed and had seizures.

U.S. jails and immigration detention centers have long struggled to meet the medical needs of the people in their charge. But the system is sagging under an influx of detentions since Trump returned to office: More than 75,000 immigrants were being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as of mid-January, up from around 40,000 a year earlier.

KFF Health News and AP asked the Department of Homeland Security to respond to the findings six days before publication but it did not provide comment.

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Trump in a social media post on Tuesday disputed that Iran has cut off communication with mediators, calling Iranian reports of a cessation in talks “false and erroneous.”

“The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and today,” Trump said. “Where they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, ‘It’s time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal. You’ve been doing this for 47 years, and it cannot be allowed to go on any longer!’”

Fars and Tasnim, two semiofficial Iranian news agencies, reported earlier Tuesday that Iran had stopped communicating with mediators about extending a ceasefire in the war with the U.S. and Israel.

The CMS administrator announced during the White House press briefing that 160 new medications are being added to the government’s discounted drug website TrumpRx.

That brings the total number of drugs on the site to more than 750, Oz said.

The news comes two weeks after the Trump administration unveiled partnerships with various online pharmacies to add some 600 generic drugs to the platform.

Even with generics added, experts said the potential savings heavily depend on a patient’s situation. For the vast majority of Americans who have health insurance, using that coverage to get medications is cheaper than paying cash through TrumpRx.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has wrapped up his hearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, which was his first before Congress since the Iran war began.

Rubio will face the House Appropriations Committee at 2 p.m.

Dr. Mehmet Oz is about to be in the spotlight. It’s a place where he’s already comfortable.

The heart surgeon and longtime daytime TV host, now running the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will lead Tuesday’s White House press briefing as the fourth administration official to stand in for press secretary Karoline Leavitt during her maternity leave.

Oz rose to prominence on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show before spinning off his own series, “The Dr. Oz Show,” in 2009. And though he now leads one of the Trump administration’s wonkiest agencies, he’s still found ways to use his camera showmanship to his advantage.

With social media videos and speeches around the country in recent months, he’s become one of the most public promoters of the administration’s efforts to fight healthcare fraud.

Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada called out her former senate colleague for being at a party while Vice President J.D. Vance led a delegation to Pakistan in April to meet with their Iranian counterparts.

Rubio was actually cage-side with Trump at a UFC event in Miami as the peace talks with Iran failed on the other side of the world.

“I just feel that’s embarrassing for us and it’s embarrassing for you,” Rosen said. “We confirmed you to be in the negotiations that are happening. And it’s just unthinkable to me that you are not you are missing high stakes negotiations or that you’re not involved. It’s sad.

In one of his more sharp rebukes, Rubio defended his absence.

“I was co-located with the president in the midst of a high stakes negotiation, so that I could immediately inform him about events occurring halfway around the world,” he said. “I was where I needed to be at that moment.”

Some Republicans are voicing skepticism about the qualifications of President Donald Trump’s choice to serve as the acting director of national intelligence.

“I don’t see any evidence of qualifications for that job, but as you know, the Senate doesn’t have a role to play in acting (appointments,)” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said of Trump’s choice, Bill Pulte.

“I do not know Mr. Pulte at all. I do not know if he has any intelligence or military background. I don’t even know if he has a security clearance. I know nothing about him at all,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Collins said she had not made a firm decision yet “because maybe there’s a lot in his background that is relevant to this important position.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said Pulte “doesn’t seem qualified.”

“Beyond his absence of apparent qualifications, maybe there’s something I don’t know about,” Cassidy said.

In a tense back-and-forth, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker and Rubio argued over who has the upper-hand in the more than two month war between U.S. and Iran.

The New Jersey lawmaker pointed to the unsteady ceasefire between Washington and Tehran, which has been further tested in recent days by back-and-forth attacks.

“We are the strongest nation on the planet Earth, and we’re in a stalemate with Iran,” Booker said to the secretary. “And now we’re begging to get back into a deal that you all trashed in the first place.”

“There’s no one begging,” Rubio responded, detailing what he called the dire situation of Iran’s economy. “I don’t know where you’re getting this perception that Iran is stronger.”

The secretary said he could not commit to Democratic Sen. Chris Coons to resettle more than 1,000 Afghans who assisted America’s war effort and relatives of U.S. service members to the U.S. as was promised under the Biden administration.

Rubio said the U.S. is in talks with multiple countries to take a few hundred of them in order to avoid sending them back to the Taliban where they will likely face reprisal.

Those individuals have been stranded at a U.S. base in Doha for the past year as the Trump administration’s immigration actions have left them in a limbo.

The refugees at Camp As-Sayliyah include Afghans who served as interpreters and with Special Operations Forces as well as the immediate families of more than 150 active duty U.S. military members.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, questioned Rubio over last year’s U.S. withdrawal of funding from the global vaccine alliance Gavi amid the growing Ebola outbreak abroad.

In his response, Rubio said the State Department is taking matters into its own hands after letting Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist before entering office, have his say.

“The president had asked that we allow Secretary Kennedy to play a leading role on the Gavi decision because of his strongly held views with regards to vaccine safety and he wanted them to conduct some reforms,” Rubio said.

“We have certainly allowed him to play a leading role in determining what we’re going to do next but right now we are sort of at a stage where we are going to re-engage. We need to drive this to an outcome.”

Rubio said a U.S. arms deal to Taiwan is not under review right now because of pressure from China, although he said the Chinese almost always bring up the issue in discussions with the United States and Trump has described it as a great negotiating chip.

“They are constantly talking about Taiwan arms sales, but that in no way is what is holding up our decision making or the White House’s decision making,” Rubio said. “It is something the president will have to decide on the timing of when and how that is executed on. It’s been approved by Congress, it’s been noticed, the money is available.”

Rubio added that the U.S. recently sold arms to Taiwan in December.

“So there are a variety of reasons why these things don’t happen immediately,” Rubio said.

Van Hollen pressed Rubio on whether there’s any evidence to support his suggestion of a continuing link between Cuba and the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups in the Middle East.

Van Hollen noted that a thorough review by the intelligence community under the Biden administration had concluded there was no evidence that Cuba was involved in state-sponsored terrorism.

Rubio pointed to Cuba’s historical support of leftist and Marxist groups in the Western Hemisphere. However, Rubio didn’t answer Van Hollen’s question about whether the current administration had found new evidence of Cuba being a state sponsor of terrorism. “Why would I need new evidence?” he said.

In a sharp diatribe against the status of U.S. foreign policy, Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen blasted Rubio and his boss, Trump, for the actions taken in the year and a half in office regarding aid and foreign intervention. The Maryland lawmaker specifically took aim at the U.S. and Israeli decision to strike Iran, accusing Trump of entering the war on behalf of Israel.

“Netanyahu said he’s been waiting 40 years to do this. It turns out he finally found a president who was both stupid and reckless enough to join him,” Van Hollen said.

He then detailed war’s impact, including the death of 14 U.S. service members and thousands of civilians, and the increase in gas prices.

“Let’s face it, Mr. Secretary, the Trump foreign policy has become a dumpster fire,” Van Hollen added.

TotalEnergies is getting $1 billion — essentially a refund of its leases for offshore wind projects off New York and North Carolina — if the French company invests it in fossil fuel projects instead.

State attorneys general from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont joined New York on Tuesday in challenging the cancellation of the lease off of New York and the bulk of the payout.

“This administration cooked up a sham deal to pay a foreign energy company hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to abandon offshore wind and invest in oil and gas instead,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “We are fighting back to stop this illegal agreement that threatens to erase over a thousand union jobs and cheat millions of New Yorkers out of clean, affordable energy.”

The Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

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Detailing the fractured Iranian leadership, Rubio says U.S. negotiators have seen signs that Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father to become the country’s new supreme leader, has been engaged with negotiations despite not being seen publicly.

“I would imagine, given what’s happened to multiple leaders in that system, being very public is probably not something that’s recommended for them internally,” he said. “But that said, I think there are indications out there that he is increasingly engaging at some level, although all of his communications have been in writing and through intermediaries.”

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy pushed Rubio to see what incentives, if any, Washington is willing to offer Tehran in exchange for a deal.

Rubio said that any sanctions relief would have to come after major concession on the nuclear issue and the enriched uranium.

“Will they receive relief just in exchange for reopening the strait?” Murphy asked.

Rubio responded, “No, that’s not been discussed. That’s not been offered.”

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia pressed Rubio on why the U.S. military’s targeting criteria for attacking alleged drug boats in Latin American waters do not include drugs on the boat. Kaine described it as “odd” before adding that he can’t share much more because the targeting criteria are classified.

Rubio pushed back, saying that every strike follow’s a legal officer’s determination on whether a strike is legal or not. Rubio also said that the U.S. military has “walked away from strikes” multiple times because they did not meet the targeting criteria.

The U.S. military has attacked dozens of boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, killing roughly 200 people since early September. The Trump administration says the U.S. is at war with drug cartels, while many Democrats have questioned the legality and effectiveness of the strikes.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., says he’s trying to get more insight from the White House about the decision to make Bill Pulte the acting Director of National Intelligence.

“I’m trying to get more information about the current state of their thinking about that position,” Thune told reporters Tuesday.

Thune said if the White House wants to nominate the real estate scion and Trump loyalist to that position permanently, he would have “a lengthy road ahead of him.”

Asked if he has concerns about a weaponized DNI position, Thune said “we don’t need a weaponized DNI, we need professionals there.”

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer criticized Trump’s decision to tap his housing finance director as acting director of national intelligence, saying Bill Pulte is “a partisan thug with no experience in intelligence.”

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a lengthy statement that Pulte was picked because Trump “believes he will provide the narrative it wants, not the intelligence we need.” He warned that a pick like this leaves Americans “vulnerable to a terrorist attack.”

Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said “it is critical that Pulte go through a full security clearance process before he walks into the building.”

Shortly after Pope Leo XIV issued his sweeping manifesto calling for robust regulation of artificial intelligence, the Instagram meme account Saint Hoax posted this reaction to its more than 3 million followers about the pope’s call to “disarm” AI.

Similar reactions to Leo’s first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity), seem driven by a perception among young people that few political or global leaders are taking seriously the ramifications of AI’s rapid rise.

The pontiff reiterates throughout the roughly 42,300-word document that the church must engage in contemporary questions and challenges. For Leo, that has included rebuking certain policies, actions and leaders, including Trump and the ongoing war in Iran. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, invoked the “just war” theory in response. Leo’s encyclical calls this church teaching “outdated.”

“Humanity possesses far more effective and capable tools for promoting human life and resolving conflicts, such as dialogue, diplomacy and forgiveness,” Leo wrote.

In a very sober assessment, the secretary of state was clear-eyed about the innovation that artificial intelligence can have on the U.S. and global economy but also acknowledged that the emerging technology will also cause destruction to certain industries and white-collar jobs.

Those jobs will have to be replaced with new jobs or new skills, he said.

“That’s not just an economic issue. That is a political issue, that over time could destabilize societies all over the world. And so we have to start thinking about AI in those terms, as well,” he said.

Shaheen, the committee’s ranking Democrat, pressed Rubio on whether the U.S. will extend a waiver on Russia oil sanctions. The U.S. has issued extensions for countries to import Russian oil that is already in tankers at sea in order to ease oil shortages caused by the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Rubio said the decision will ultimately be made by the U.S. Treasury Department, “but I will tell you, it depends on the circumstances at the time.”

“We would like to end it as soon as we possibly can, because the underlying policy of this country has been to sanction their oil. These are time limited waivers for the purpose of opening up more global supply,” Rubio said.

Pressed by Democrats and Republicans on the status of negotiations with Tehran, Rubio tried to present a more optimistic view on the progress Washington has made with the Iranian regime.

“They have agreed to negotiate aspects of their nuclear program that just a month ago, just a year ago, they were refusing to even mention,” he said. But he added that it’s “not a guarantee that ultimately it will lead to a deal that’s acceptable” by Congress. He said these negotiations have been made difficult by the instability of Iran’s leadership.

U.S. and Israeli officials said the talks between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States began on Tuesday at the State Department, as planned, despite intensified fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that has thrown the already fragile ceasefire into new uncertainty.

The two days of talks — the fourth round of such direct discussions — follow a security meeting between the two sides that was held on Friday at the Pentagon.

None of the participants in Tuesday’s meetings spoke as they posed for photos before the talks began.

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Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, lambasted Rubio in her opening remarks. She said his office has refused to provide information requested about the Trump administration’s changing troop posture in Europe as well as U.S. operations in Iran and American support for Ukraine.

“When you do notify Congress, it’s to inform us of decisions you have already made,” she said.

She also focused on the U.S. military’s declining stockpile of advanced weapons used in the Iran war.

James E. Risch, the Republican chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has kicked off Tuesday’s hearing, the first for the U.S. secretary of state since the Iran war began.

Risch has praised Rubio’s efforts to reduce illegal immigration and the flow of fentanyl into the United States.

The former Republican senator is set to defend the Trump administration’s bulldozing of American soft power in his opening statement to senators Tuesday as part of an annual budget request hearing.

“The U.S. government is not a charity. We are not here to play social worker,” Rubio’s prepared remarks say.

The written remarks focus mostly on the Western Hemisphere, with no mention of the ongoing, sprawling U.S. operations in the Middle East.

They call the capturing of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro “one of the most extraordinary feats of lethal precision in military history.”

“We have made it clear to every government in this hemisphere that America can either be their greatest friend or their most feared enemy — the choice is theirs,” he added.