America’s foreign policy apparatus is an arm of the Democratic Party.

The White House has requested a record $70.5 billion to fund its diplomatic, development and humanitarian activities overseas. As it considers authorizing such massive expenditures, Congress must also take steps to address the rampant politicization, corruption and misuse of our foreign policy apparatus. 

Federal Elections Commission data show that, during the 2019-2020 election cycle, 93% of all political contributions from U.S. State Department employees and 96% of all political contributions from U.S. Agency for International Development employees went to Democratic Party candidates or political action committees.  

Excluding the contributions from political appointees, employees of the two agencies sent a combined $2.9 million to Democrats and less than $200,000 to Republicans. In terms of individual donations, the gap widens further. Of the 1,051 donors at USAID, only 50 supported Republicans. 

We found a similar grossly partisan gap in the political contributions coming from the top PEPFAR and USAID grant recipients and the top democracy-promoting nonprofits trying to influence the funding decisions of State and USAID.  

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The most lop-sided giving record was at InterAction, an advocacy group representing international NGOs and UN agencies disbursing humanitarian aid. All 366 contributions from InterAction employees went to Democrats. 

The political disparity within our foreign policy institutions is cause for alarm. A bureaucracy captured by one political party undermines democracy. Public institutions ought to be in the service of an administration elected by the people, irrespective of their employees’ personal political affiliation. Yet there is strong evidence that a sharply partisan federal workforce is actively working to advance a Democratic Party agenda regardless of who occupies the White House. 

For example, in June 2020, just months before national elections, over 1,000 USAID staff issued a statement echoing Democratic Party talking points. They demanded that the agency address "systemic injustice, racism, colonialism, and police brutality." For its part, the State Department issued "anti-disinformation" grants that targeted American conservative media. 

The Democratic capture of the federal workforce largely explains why successive Republican administrations have found it hard to execute their policy directives. Faced with bureaucratic foot-dragging and resistance, it often takes a full four-year term to institute policies.  

In contrast, Democratic administrations can implement their policies within weeks. The difference between party and state has become blurred.  

USAID, for instance, has installed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) advisers "in all bureaus, offices, and [overseas] missions," and created "an agency-wide dashboard and DEI scorecards for all bureaus, offices, and missions," to track staff compliance with the administration’s DEI directives. These blatantly political scorecards demand ideological conformity and should have no place in the government workplace. 

Similarly, at the State Department, career advancement is now tied to adopting the administration’s identity politics. Its "Decision Criteria for Tenure and Promotion in the Foreign Service 2022-2025" requires foreign service officers to "support the Department’s efforts to promote diversity, and equity inclusion" if they seek to advance in their careers.  

DEI acts as a political loyalty test that discriminates against anyone who disagrees with the notion that America is systemically racist. Gender ideology represents another political loyalty test in which one is forced to reveal their preferred pronouns; failure to do so renders one suspect. 

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This is nothing less than systematic discrimination. It creates a hostile work environment for those in foreign policy who don’t agree with these leftist ideologies. And it will deter many patriotic Americans from even considering a federal career in foreign policy.  

The political capture of our foreign policy apparatus has also undercut our national security. Most countries retain traditional cultural and religious norms and view the "American values" now being exported—support of drag queen shows for example—as a threat.  

Many African and Latin American officials have told us, "China does not ask us to reject our own value systems like you do," Even French President Emmanuel Macron denounced American "wokeness" and its impact on France as "weakening democracy, weakening the republic …[by] looking at everything through the prism of wanting to fracture and divide." 

Though restoring political balance within our foreign policy apparatus would take a generation, Congress can take steps now to restore nonpartisanship. It can direct the Congressional Research Service and inspector generals at the State Department and USAID to investigate why the political chasm exists and suggest policies to redress it.  

It should prohibit appropriated funds from supporting discriminatory DEI, abortion, and gender radicalism, and tying these to career advancement. It should restrict official use of gender pronouns to protect those that disagree with identity politics. The most effective means to restore State’s and USAID’s public integrity, however, is to cut their budgets.