Rubio Testifying Before Congress For First Time Since Iran War Started
The American Lookout Headlines homepage has 60 new headlines every 24 hours - click here to see it.
Marco Rubio will be testifying before Congress.
He is going to be sitting before House and Senate committees for the State Department’s annual budget.
It is expected that the focus of this testimony will shift to the foreign policy of the Trump administration.
This is the first time he is testifying before Congress since the start of the Iran war.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to face a litany of questions Tuesday about the Trump administration’s fragile or stalling diplomatic efforts around the world when he appears for back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill for the first time since the Iran war began.
The Republican former senator will sit before House and Senate committees to make the State Department’s annual budget request. But the focus is likely to shift quickly to the already unsteady ceasefire between Washington and Tehran, which has been further tested in recent days by back-and-forth attacks.
Cabinet members, including Rubio, have defended President Donald Trump’s decision to launch the conflict despite promises over the years not to engage in “forever wars” in the Middle East. That work has been made more difficult by Trump’s shifting goals for the conflict.
While Rubio is testifying before Congress for the first time since the Iran war started on Feb. 28, he took part in a classified briefing for lawmakers days after the first U.S. and Israeli strikes. He faced Democrats’ anger over the lack of congressional approval but strong support from most Republicans for taking action against one of America’s oldest adversaries.
Rubio will also face questions about Venezuela and Cuba.
Members of Congress have said they want more information about Venezuela, after Trump sent U.S. forces to seize Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3, given that Maduro’s number two has been serving as Venezuela’s acting president and there are no current plans for elections.
They also have questions about U.S. forces firing on boats off Venezuela’s coast since September, in a campaign the administration says is intended to stop “narco-traffickers” that has killed more than 200 people.
There also have been questions about Trump’s plans for Communist-controlled Cuba, amid growing concerns about a possible U.S. military attack as his administration increases pressure on the island.
