Amna Nawaz
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WATCH: Booker questions Rubio on Ebola prevention after cuts to foreign aid
Posted
June 2, 2026
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June 2, 2026
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2:04Now PlayingSen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., pushed Rubio on the United States’ ability to prevent or react to infectious disease outbreaks following State Department cuts to foreign aid in a hearing Tuesday held by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
“I don't need to tell you, Secretary Rubio, that we're living in a place where an infectious disease crisis anywhere is a threat to public health everywhere,” Booker said, referencing the Ebola outbreak of nearly 300 cases in Congo that has killed 42 people.
Booker added that State Department personnel have told him “we're less prepared for global outbreak than we were before.”
Rubio said he disagreed with Booker's assessment, and Booker challenged him.
“If you're telling me we are as prepared or more prepared before the Trump administration came in,” Booker said. “I'd like to see the facts.”
Rubio said, “we are responding today faster, not just to humanitarian crises, but to outbreaks than we were before.”
Rubio faces back-to-back hearings before Senate and House committees on Tuesday, his first since the Iran war started at the end of February.
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