the committee will come to order welcome madam secretary in order to maximize the time for member question look at opening statements to myself and the ranking member i intend to keep my statement short well shorter than usual and all other members are welcome to submit stamens for the record madam secretary we appreciate this opportunity to explore with you the president's international affairs budget request for fiscal year two thousand and eleven the supplemental appropriations request for the current fiscal year and the various policy initiatives you have championed as secretary of state this is the second budget request submitted by this administration but the first one prepared from start to finish under president obama's and your leadership so this is the first opportunity for congress and the nation to see a clear and comprehensive picture of your vision and the priorities you have set we applaud the president's decision to define national security to include not only the defense budget but also the international affairs budget as you have said on many occasions america's national security depends not only on our men and women in uniform but also on the civil servants who risk their lives on a daily basis to support america's interests abroad regrettably this point was brought home by the recent deaths of a dedicated foreign service officer in the haitian earthquake and seven cia officers at the hands of a suicide bomber in afghanistan these courageous civilians gave their lives in service to our country our diplomats and development specialists work day and night to head off international crises before they arrive and to prevent the onset of failed states where terrorists who threaten our security find safe haven over the long run these civilian efforts are much more cost effective than putting our brave soldiers in arms way investing in the international affairs budget is the proverbial prevention for example if we are to resolve the iranian nuclear crisis whether by diplomacy or saying and it will be thanks mainly to the creativity and hard work of our diplomats and civil servants madam secretary you set a very clear priorities in this budget working with local partners to defeat al qaeda in afghanistan and pakistan ensuring that children around the world have enough food to eat and don't die of easy diseases helping nations reduce emissions and adapt to climate change putting woman front and center in our humanitarian and development efforts and rebuilding our still willian workforce by hiring a new generation of foreign service officers and giving them the training and resources they need to make a real difference there may be differences of opinion about the relative priority of these initiatives and the optimum optimal amount of funding for specific countries and programs but i and i hope my colleagues on this committee will do everything we can to maintain the overall funding level because we recognize as you do that diplomacy and development are integral to our national security in fact a full eighteen percent of the international affairs budget request ten point eight billion dollars is for the front light states of afghanistan pakistan and iraq that includes one point six billion for programs that were previously carried out by the pentagon including iraqi police training the pakistan counterinsurgency capabilities fund and section twelve zero seven reconstruction and stabilization assistance by having the state department assume responsibility for these programs we place them in civilian hands where they belong and now the allow the military to focus on its core mission there are many different ways to look at the budget figures i would argue that in order to and eleven request represents a very modest increase about two point eight percent in these difficult economic times it is particularly important to remind ourselves in american people that the international affairs budget is little more than one percent of the entire federal budget and only a small fraction of the amount we spend on defense madam secretary we look forward to hearing your testimony on the budget request and the administration's foreign policy priorities and i'm very questions into the opening statement to allow time for more members to raise their concerns during the question period on our existing public that is already more than twelve trillion dollars under the president's overall budget for fiscal year twenty eleven our national debt would grow at an estimated rate of almost four billion dollars per day our foreign aid funding is not a major part of the overall budget we know and we want to accomplish many things overseas but in light of our fiscal situation the international affairs budget should also be subject to selective breezes or slower rates of spending in order to assist in the battle for our nation's economic future the nine point five billion dollars requested for the state department basic salaries and operations when combined with last year's increases amounts to a thirty three percent jump from fiscal year twenty nine levels these increases do not include of course funds sought in the anticipated supplemental for iraq afghanistan and pakistan there are reports that we're spending one billion dollars one billion dollars for a new u s embassy in london described as crystals form that is light filled and light emitting we all want to provide for the security of our overseas personnel but we should be able to meet those needs without seeking to build a crystal palace this is a twenty two percent increase for the international atomic energy agency which according to g a o has provided millions in assistance to the nuclear program of iran and syria the international affairs account has grown significantly over the past decade it was twenty three point four billion in fiscal year two thousand by twenty ten it was at fifty point six billion that's an one hundred sixteen percent increase i'd like our foreign aid budget to move to a greater reliance on development credit assistance which would help us achieve considerable savings as the state department's own documents note the development credit account has historically leveraged significant amounts of private funds for development projects twenty two policy questions  secretary on iran the recent report stated concerns quote about the possible existence in iran of undisclosed activities related to development of a nuclear payload payload or a missile and quote then today's news reports have russian officials refueling claims that iran could be pursuing nuclear weapons while emphasizing russia's commitment to delivering it bans air defense missiles to  some european officials are also quoted suggesting that sanctions sanctions should come later and investments in iran continue madam secretary success of u s administrations under the guise of seeking spain's repsol going to be held accountable for their actions when will we take action to address the almost three billion dollars and vestments by china's sinopec when will we be leveraging  sanctions act for concrete cooperation from our allies and cutting off the regime in iran and turning to cuba i'm also deeply concerned about reports that the ministration might bend to the cuban regimes of blackmail and agree to end anti censorship and pro democracy programs in exchange for the release of u s citizen alan gross as you know that my you a cuban dissidents in jail died very weak from a hunger strike and we must do all that we can to help with the dissident movement and help with the opposition in cuba i'd like to hand to you a copy of february third letter addressed to you from former u s ambassador to western hemisphere countries urging you to not make any concessions to any dictatorial regime and particularly hundreds of millions and in the foreign aid yet the administration is requesting another half a billion dollars including a hundred fifty million dollars in direct cash transfers for the palestinian authority similarly with respect to the united nations relief and works agency the homicide bomber who killed seven americans at a base in afghanistan previously worked at an ra and in iraq amp and had significant radical islamic ties and also continues to agitate against israel while refusing to vet radical islamic extremists in a very rank yet the of i will do it in a new york minute you take all the time that you want well well first let me just important to you and to the ranking member and to all of the members of the committee that it is a pleasure to be back with you today when i was last here discussing our budget i emphasized my commitment to elevate diplomacy and development as core pillars of american power and since then i have been heart by the bipartisan support of this committee and the rest of congress and i want to take this opportunity to thank you on behalf of the men and women who work every day for the state department for us here at home and around the world  putting our foreign policy into action advancing america's interests and values and that's what this budget we're presenting today intends to do our fiscal year two thousand and eleven request for the state department and usa id total fifty two point eight billion dollars that's a four point nine billion dollar increase over two thousand and ten of that increase three point six billion will go to supporting efforts in the front line states afghanistan pakistan and iraq other funding will grow by one point three billion which is a two point seven percent increase that will help us address global challenges strengthen partnerships and ensure that the state department and usa id are equipped with the right people and resources over the past six weeks in haiti we've been reminded yet again of the importance of american leadership i am very proud of what our country has done our military and civilian personnel have performed extraordinarily and we are continuing our work with our haitian and international partners to address the ongoing suffering and transition from relief to recovery now mr chairman i know that this is a time of great economic strain for our fellow americans and as a former member of congress i know what this means for the people you each represent for every dollar we spend we have to show results that's why this budget must support programs vital to our national security our national interests and our leadership in the world while guarding against waste duplications and irrelevancy and i believe it achieves those objective the figures in the budget are more than numbers on a page they tell the story of the challenges we face and the resources we need to overcome them we are fighting two wars that call for the skill and sacrifice of our civilians as well as our troops we have track approach to iran that has exposed for the world to see its refusal to live up to its responsibility and it has helped us achieve a new unity with our international partners iran has left the international community little choice but to impose greater costs for its provocative steps and we are now working actively with other countries to prepare and implement new measures to pressure iran to change course we also achieve this past year unprecedented unity in our response to north korea's provocative action even as we leave the door open for a restart of six party talks and we're moving closer to a fresh nuclear agreement with russia one that advances our security while furthering president obama's long term vision of a world without nuclear weapons with china we're seeking areas of common purpose while standing firm where we differ we're making concrete our new beginning with the muslim world and we're strengthening partnerships with allies in europe in asia with friends in our own hemisphere and with countries around the world from india to indonesia to south africa brazil and turkey and yes we are working every day to end the impasse in the conflict between israelis and palestinians at the same time we're developing a new architecture of cooperation to meet global challenges that cross national boundaries like climate change and the use of our planet's oceans  so many instances our national interest and the common interests converge and so from the western hemisphere to africa asia and the middle east we're promoting human rights the rule of law democracy and internet freedom we're fighting poverty hunger and disease and we're working to ensure that economic growth is broadly shared our agenda is ambitious because the times demand it america is called to lead and we need the tools and resources to exercise that leadership wisely and effectively we can bury our heads in the and pay the consequences later or we can make hard nosed targeted investments now addressing the security challenges of today while building a stronger foundation for security and prosperity in the future let me quickly highlight the three areas where we are making significant new investments first in the security of the frontline state in afghanistan we've tripled the number of civilians on the ground and this presence will grow by hundreds more with the five billion dollars in this budget our diplomats and development experts are embedded with our military they have moved into marjah along with our forces they are now still helping to set up institutions expand economic opportunities and provide meaningful alternatives for insurgents ready to read out violence and al qaida and join afghan society in a peaceful way in pakistan our request includes three point two billion to combat extremism promote economic development strengthen democratic institutions and build a long term relationship with the pakistani people this includes funding of the kerry lugar berman initiative and i want to thank you mr chairman for your visionary leadership on this legislation our request also includes a fifty nine percent increase in funding for yemen to help counter the extremist threat and build institutions and economic opportunity in iraq we are winding down our military presence and establishing a more normal civilian mission our civilian efforts will not and cannot mirror the scale of our military presence but rather provide assistance consistent with the priorities of the iraqi government so our request includes two point six billion for iraq to enable us to support the democratic process and ensure a smooth transition to civilian led security training and operational support as these funds allow civilians to take responsibility for these programs the fence department's budget for iraq will decrease by about sixteen billion dollars that's a powerful of the return on civilian investment we are blessed as we all know with the best troops in the world as we have seen time and time again but we've got to give our civilian experts the resources that we ask them to exercise as they go about doing what they're expected to do and the budget takes a step in that direction includes one hundred million dollars for a state department complex crisis fund replacing the twelve o seven fund through which the defense department directed money toward crisis response and include support for the pakistan counterinsurgency capability funds which previously also fell on to the defense department the second major area is investing in development this budget makes targeted investments in fragile societies which in our interconnected world bear heavily on our own security and prosperity these investments are a key part of our effort to get ahead of crises rather than just responding to them positioning us to deal with the threats and challenges that lie before us the first of these is unhealthy building on our progress treating a malaria and tuberculosis our global health initiative will invest sixty three billion dollars over six years starting with eight point five billion in f y eleven to help our partners address specific diseases but also to build strong sustainable health systems for themselves the minute administration has also pledged to invest at least three and a half billion dollars in food security over three years and this year's request includes one point six billion of which one point two billion will be funded through the state department this funding will focus on countries that have developed effective comprehensive strategies where agriculture is central to prosperity and hunger remains widespread on climate change our request of six hundred forty six million dollars seeks to promote the united states as a leader in green technology and to leverage other countries cooperation including through the copenhagen accord which for the first time brought developed and develop countries together on this challenge this is part of the administration's total request of one point four billion to support core climate change activities in developing nations our request also includes four point two billion for humanitarian assistance programs our efforts in haiti have made clear that state and usa id must be able to respond quickly and effectively to human tragedies initiatives are designed to enhance american security to help people in need and give the american people a strong return on their investment our aim is not to create dependency but to help people develop solutions that they can sustain for themselves over the long term and essential to this is a focus on advancing equality and opportunity for women and girls who are the key drivers of economic and social progress in the developing world and that brings me to the third and final area of investment none of this could happen if we do not recruit train and empower the right people for the job the state department and usaid are full of talented and committed public servants but too often we've neglected to give them the tools they need to carry out their missions on the ground rather than building their expertise we have often relied on contractors sometimes with little oversight and often with increased costs this budget will allow us to expand the foreign service by over six hundred positions including an additional four hundred ten for the state department and two hundred usa id it will also allow us to staff the standby element of the civilian reserve corps which is a crucial tool we are developing to respond to crises now while deploying these personnel does generate new expenses and some accounts it will reduce expenses in others by changing the way we do business we are ending an over reliance on contractors and finding opportunities to save money by bringing essential functions into government and improving oversight one thing that i hope is clear from this budget is that state department and usaid carrying out the united states foreign policy and national security agenda as we finish the first ever quadrennial diplomacy and development review we have a unique opportunity in the capabilities we need and then match resources with priorities this budget aligns our investments with the strategic imperatives of our time tried engagement and i believe we should remain open to a diplomatic solution but i think it is time to shift our focus to implementing effective sanctions sanctions that maximize the chance  that iran will change its decision to change its course and and its effort to seek that nuclear weapons capability the question is what kinds of sanctions work i think it's a mistake for us to try and draw you out fully as you are engaged in a important diplomatic process at the security council and with other countries  bilaterally to develop that strategy but i do want to raise a more general issue there are people around who say the words targeted and smart sanctions get thrown around all the time the test is whether the sanctions maximize the chances of achieving the goal of change behavior on these issues and some say we should just we should target our targeting of sanctions should be limited to individuals we don't want to cause any economic deprivation to the iranian people beyond that which the teams own policies have foisted on their people i don't understand how we can have the level of sanctions that can change behavior without it unfortunately having consequences on their ronnie and people but we are talking about  rally behind the very regime that has caused them to go in the streets makes no sense and i'm i guess i'd like to get your thoughts on the issue of me underscore what you said about the importance of the president's strategy this past year we believe strongly that the president's leadership and willingness to reach out for engagement with the iranians was exactly the right approach for two reasons first as he said in his inaugural address he was willing to stretch out his hand but people had to unclench their best  offering the iranian leadership the opportunity to engage in a serious was a necessary and important step which the president has been willing to take some political  criticism as you know but secondly the fact that the iranian regime has failed to respond and indeed in the course of this past year has shown its brutality toward its own people and the revelations that have come to light about the undisclosed facility of their failure to accept russian u s and french offered through the  helping to provide the uranium they they were needing for the tehran research reactor their decision to try to enrich to a higher percentage of all of the that we know the actions they've taken and the much more robust conclusions about that have demonstrated to the rest of the world what the facts are about i ambitions and about its refusal to engage in a serious manner therefore we in the pursuit of a very aggressive diplomatic campaign believe that the broader the approach on sanctions against iran the more isolation and pressure iran will feel it is therefore important that we speak with one voice one voice within our government and one voice internationally against iran's failure to live up to its responsibilities and so we have done a intensive consultation process around what we see as the most effective approaches actions and i personally have engaged in numerous discussions with many countries when i was in london just recently in the gulf next week in latin america pointing out how the evidence all adds up and i think because we were willing to engage we have a much warmer set much more receptive audience than we might have had otherwise and i  think that our efforts to move forward in the security council should not be viewed as our exclusive efforts because we've also state clearly we will look at additional bilateral and preferably multilateral sanctions with willing nations on top of whatever we get out of the security council so in some we believe in a broad approach we believe that we have to be as focused on what could change attitudes and behavior within the leadership of iran as you might have noticed i was very clear in my remarks when i was in  just last week about the increasing role that the revolutionary guard is playing in the politics and economy of iran so our goal is your goal if we're going to go to the international community through the n through other multilateral effort we want sanctions that will be effective and we think the broader the more likely that is to be thank you very much i do know the consultation with the ranking member  we did something which which should not be considered a press with respect to time and but i thought this was important to fully develop and pleased to recognize the ranking member if we were going to do nothing by being on the council we were supposed to change it from within yet in the time we've been there the u s has not called for a special session or even sponsored a resolution try to promote it on the human rights violations in iran and north korea and syria sudan cuba venezuela saudi arabia russia you name it nada and lastly madam secretary if you could please comment on the death of e death of orlando zapata miles and we send our condolences to his family and we also reiterate our strong objections to the actions of the cuban government this is  prisoner of conscience who was imprisoned for years or speaking his mind for seeking democracy for standing on the side of values that are universal who engaged in a hunger strike the united states one of more than two hundred prisoners of conscience held by the cuban government and we continue to reiterate and in the strongest possible terms put forth a strong objection to the existing behavior these prisoners of conscience will eventually be released secondly with respect to the human rights council actually congresswoman there was a human rights council session on iran and the deplorable human rights  record of iran just last week the united states was there and made a very strong and forceful presentation assistant secretary michael posner from democracy human rights bureau in the state department led our efforts and i think we again made a historic record in front of iran now they don't care about their people so they're not going to care about the world exposing these constant human rights abuses but i think it is far better for us to be exercising our freedom of expression and our strong believes inside that council and forcing others to look at the evidence that is presented so for the past year that's exactly what we've been doing and we will continue to do so and finally on the free trade agreements as president obama said in his state of the union address last month we are committed to these free trade agreements and we hope that we can begin a process of consultation and consensus building within the congress i'll be going to latin america next week i share your characterization of  colombia and panama two of our strongest allies and two countries that have worked very hard to make changes and create a conducive atmosphere to these free trade agreements being confirmed here in our congress so we're going to be working on this and appreciate your raising it because i personally believe it's a very important issue thank you so much madam secretary  this historic moment go by without noting that so many of us are feeling buyer's regret that the previous incarnation we allowed your health plan proposal to go by the  very country that has attempted to defend itself against terrorists and terrorist attacks and suicide bombers and murder and destroy so much human so many human beings and  civilization but it's not israel that i raise a concern about it's the implications that has this has for the united states this report which addresses the new kind of warfare that isn't traditional battlefield warfare which has general rules and regulations that the whole world has operated under but going after terrorists who have no conscience who would themselves and meld into civilian populations hiding their arms and weapons and shutting their uniforms the way they have in the middle east and the way we have them as well the implications for the united states are more than serious i won't quantify it but the number of civilians that have unfortunately and regrettably report is accepted as the international standard to see what happens to our country and in the limitations that it would place on your travel ability madam secretary or the indictment of some american president or future secretary or even for international war crimes because civilians were killed in the pursuit of terror would put chilling on our ability to fight the war on terror how do we address that and i want to commend the administration for jumping out ahead of this as quickly as it did and and do all of the not adequately addressed or even taken into consideration there are a number of other deficiencies within the report but you have as usual put your finger on one of the potential ramifications that go beyond the findings relating to what happened in one place at one time in history and we believe strongly that the issues raised in the goldstone report should be  subjected to strong domestic review processes we believe israel has the capacity and the institutions to do so and in fact israel as you know is undertaken such review as i might add the palestinian authority the group that has it is hamas and those who support and fund hamas and we we believe strongly to that other countries have a stake in supporting our perspective on this because not only the united states if this international standard as you say were to morph out of this report but nearly every other country would similarly be held to account e it's always great to see you today mr chairman ultrasound imaging has given us a window to the woman the child within and microsurgery myriad of fetal health interventions are commonplace today is never before unborn children ought to be viewed as humanity's youngest patients in need of proper prenatal care nurturing and when sick diagnosis and treatment the prevention of mother to child transmission got a major boost from pepfar and i'm happy to say that committee continues and is expanded in the global health initiative the global health initiative must however ensure that even unplanned and unintended unborn child is welcomed cared for and included in the initiative i was disappointed to read on page fourteen of the consultation document that unintended pregnancy seems to be relegated to the status of a disease just opposed between  a tropical diseases pregnancy isn't a disease the child in the woman is neither a tumor nor parasite to be destroyed i am mr chairman deeply concerned that with the elimination of the mexico city policy by executive order last year geo implementing partners actively seek to integrate abortion with the many necessary and noble undertakings funded by the global health initiative therefore i respectfully ask that the administration consider that for many of us all abortion legal or illegal is violence against children significant under appreciated risks to women and especially and this is largely focused upon to children forty six can never ever be construed to be compassionate or safe millennium development goal number four seeks a reduction in child mortality child mortality save abortion new evidence as uncovered a clear link between abortion and mental illness in women with no previous history of psychological problems they found that women who have had abortions have twice the level of psychological problems three the government of sudan of course governor of sudan of signed a lot of agreements and have broken every one that popped a mistake however there was a ten percent reduction in the s f funds for south sudan which is coming up with a big referendum next year i don't think that's the way to go this very important referendum is coming up thirdly liberia has a problem with about thirty five hundred liberians who are here running on the thirtieth of march d e d will expire they came here under the reign of charles taylor it's homeland security department but if you could look into that i really would appreciate being able to call you about that have a conflict of two presidents and the problems in liberia and nigeria right now finally i am concerned about morocco's occupation of western sahara and i do think our people should have an opportunity to have the referendum there in western sahara the united nations said this should be done the baker plans that it should be done i think we should go ahead and and do that finally on another issue on march ninth there will be a vote in northern ireland as you know the hillsborough castle agreements with the u p d and the shin fein said that  devolution process will go on however we can anticipate there may be violence coming up because we had the car bombing last week so i would wonder if you could look at that and  speak very quickly congressman and as always thank you for your personal and very welcome attention to africa with with respect to somalia there are decreases in the funding from the state department but we are working very hard in other accounts as well as with other donors we share your commitment to shake sharif in the t f c with respect to sudan however we are  actually increasing the request it's about three percent over the f y twenty ten total estimate and we again share your concern which is why we're putting both more funding and more diplomatic attention met when i was in doha with the prime minister of qatar who has been a facilitator of that effort with liberia we are making a decision to extend that deferred  status with nigeria assistant secretary johnny carson was in nigeria and was very much involved in the peaceful transition with the return of the president we are going to maintain vigilance over what is happening inside  that we support the u n process concerning morocco and western sahara and finally on northern ireland as you may know i went to northern ireland i spoke in storm and i have been deeply involved in meeting with and telephoning with  all of the major players and just met with shawn woodard who is the secretary for northern ireland i share your hope that the march ninth vote is affirmative amazing report and i just signed a letter to the secretary along with you mr chairman and others regarding that second thing i wanted to say is that the sanctions act that you had through the house and it's been passed in the senate still has to go to conference committee and i would hope that we could get that passed into the president as quickly as possible and then third i want to thank the secretary of state for her hard work she's been working very hard is pretty apparent she's been all over the place and we appreciate your work i have two questions for you first of all regarding iran iran and we've been talking about this now for several years they have not moved one inch from their development program i said that they're planning ten more sites and several thousand more centrifuges and they're also talking about building a bomb proof the cell of the in the side of a mountain and so while we're talking about negotiating all kinds of measures to put pressure on them i think that we ought to also be talking about an attack on those sites and let them know that the united states and israel  working together will do whatever it takes to stop a development program that will threaten the middle east our energy supplies and the state of israel and while we're talking about this you know working with our allies to put pressure on through sanctions i really think that a message should be sent to them either publicly or three you privately that we're prepared to give israel whatever they need to be able to go way below the ground maybe one hundred two hundred three hundred feet whatever it is to knock out the development sites if necessary because we don't want them to have as a terrorist a nuclear weapons that can just destabilize the entire region and maybe destroy israel as so i hope you'll maybe comment on that the other thing i'd like you to comment on amount of secretary is i was informed that the justice department has somewhere up to nine or maybe even more people working there who did pro bono work for some of the terrorists or detainees that are guantanamo and if that's the case i'm very concerned about the decisions is being made by the justice department to bring those people to the united states for a civil trial people may have a biased attitude over there and i hope that those people aren't involved in the decision making process i personally feel that the terrorists or the detainees should be tried in kuantan a moser's water all the way around and they can't get away and they should be tried by a military tribunal and the vast majority of the american people feel exactly the same way so i would like for you to address those two things if you can't address the first part because of a classified information that's fine but i wish you would take to the president the message that many of us in congress want john to know that we're not going to let them develop a nuclear weapons capability and a delivery system as i understand it now they're working on a missile with a delivery system for possibly had a nuclear weapon at least that's what the i a e a says and that that's very troubling so i hope you'll deliver that message and if you did comment on those two things i'd really appreciate it congressman i will convey the message our policy decision making one of the benefits of having supporting it as proposed doing in this budget because they are viewed as an independent source of information and i agree with you that their recent study under the new director general ambassador amano has been given an enormous amount of credibility which helps to make the case that we are making with respect to your question about the department of justice obviously i would ask you to refer that to the attorney general i have no information on what point you're making concerning who's working there but i would say that i think that the president's commitment to close guantanamo has been a very valuable asset to us as we have made our case around the world fairly or  not came to be seen as not reflective of american values of the strength of our constitution and our institutions and i think there are ways to accommodate the concerns that are rightly held about the detainees and the sanctions or waive your budget contains tens of millions perhaps hundreds of millions to work in the world for democracy rule of law but for ten years three administrations have made a mockery of democracy and the rule of law here in the united states as three administrations have deliberately failed to follow the minimum non wave above portions of the iran sanctions  act in fact the prior administration told me flat out foreign policy we don't follow those statutes that we think are bad policy this can only be called the dick cheney approach to the rule of law last october a number of us read led by congressman ron klein sent a letter outlining twenty one firms that had invested a triggering amount in the iran oil sector this was prepared by not the but the c r s the congressional research service we were promised by the relevant assistant secretary a response a report in forty five days that was october this is february we received a response and says he's still working on it but that he has identified some transactions that are quote potentially problematic madam secretary will you be providing congress with a report perhaps classified detailing the findings of this additional review will you provide us with an explanation in each instance of why certain transactions have been determined to be not problematic and most importantly when you break with ten years of state department practice and actually follow the law by reviewing each transaction that is that seems to trigger the act and by naming shaming and either sanctioning or waiting with regard to the offending transactions thank you very much for your both your concern and your thoughtful approach deputy secretary jim steinberg has led an internal department team on this issue as you well stated there were no determinations made under the act in the prior administration we have completed that preliminary review we responded at the beginning of february to the inquiries you mention and we indicated that some of the cases we reviewed deserved more thorough consideration which is what we have undertaken we have aggressively moved on three fronts to ensure that the review is serious and through thorough and we have a rigorous process in place for implementation first we continue to raise in our bilateral engagements with countries that need to strengthen their own reaction and present a united front in restricting investment in iran's energy sector second we have worked with our embassies overseas to collect information on potentially sanctionable activity there wasn't a big thick file when we got there mr sherman we were we were very much started pretty you know pretty well from scratch and we've already engaged with all of the companies and the governments that were included in the house letter as well as some additional companies that we believe could be engaged in similar activities and finally we are undertaking a review with the intelligence community with respect to certain activities of some companies that are warranting further scrutiny and requested and all source intelligence community assessments so that we can make whole of government assessments and i understand that the state department is working to arrange a briefing a classified briefing with members on the outcome of this preliminary review or do that i do want to working with the government to ensure the rights of the tama minority are protected particularly the over three hundred thousand refugees given the likelihood that southern sudan will choose independence what is the you very much secretary of fellow illinois and welcome here the state of america's economy continues to struggle with unemployment acceptably high and i'm sure you've heard the jobless claims f it continues to climb to show that orders are coming into our manufacturers however despite this promising signs there are two points that remain yesterday we brought the first one up  dangerous to our security but would help our manufacturing so i will have someone follow up with you specifically the help of the bipartisan on both sides of the hill members who will support what we're madam secretary thank you very much for the wonderful extraordinary job that you are doing as our secretary of state and all mr manzullo talked about your illinois roots you mentioned in new york minute before in new york is very very very proud of you so to really talk about is iran and no we've had a lot of discussion here about about iran but obviously it's a very serious situation and we all agree that iran must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and i really believe that ultimately nothing should be taken off the table because they really must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon syria i was the author is you know the syria accountability act which slapped sanctions on syria for aiding and abetting terrorism i know that just last week we have now opened diplomatic relations with them exchanging baskets with them for the first time in many many years i know that the rationale for it probably is to get them to engage and help but frankly i haven't seen any change this is a game syria's been playing for years and years i haven't seen any change in that in that regime's behavior maybe perhaps to something going on behind the scenes that i'm not privy to but i'm wondering if you could if you can comment on that but we were talking about iran the dissidents in iran and i know that the feeling in some quarters is that we don't want to publicly identify with them too much because it will just help the regime to say that the dissidents are just agents of the united states but i really think that we need to have more public support for the brave people of iran who are standing up  extraordinary conditions against against their or their regime kosova they just turned two years old last week and we're trying very hard to get other countries to to recognize them i know the administration has been doing that as well with the officials of guests over they are very interested in getting into the e b r d which is the european bank for reconstruction development and they need some countries to do both the men and i would hope that behind the scenes we are helping to convince countries to support them in that i want to quickly talk about since i chair the western hemisphere subcommittee a couple of those issues versus first of all thank you for the extraordinary effort of you personally and the administration with with haiti this is something that of course as old as all gripped us and i think that it's very important i'm delighted to hear if you have coming travel to latin america i think that we are we are engaging the hemisphere after years of neglect and i think it's very very important and i want to talk about drug policy i believe that we need a more holistic approach to our counter narcotics strategy in the western hemisphere i support strongly the andean counter drug initiative america initiative in the caribbean basic european it should have but i think we need to do a better job in weaving all of these things together so i'd like to hear your thoughts on that what efforts are you taking t bed integrate these efforts so that our successes in certain countries don't contribute to problems in other countries i personally have suggested designating a coordinator at the state department to oversee all our western hemisphere security initiatives and would you consider doing this would you think about this and lastly to two comments number one venezuela yesterday the oas is human rights agencies criticize venezuela for its interior writing human rights certainly give you responses to these important issues in writing let me just briefly say on syria the president decided to return an ambassador because it's in our national interest to do so this is not in any way a avoid strategic miscalculation on the parts of the part of the syrian we are very committed to making clear to the syrians what we expect there's a lot that we do expect but we think having an ambassador back on the ground actually gives us more california mr right thank you madam secretary i appreciate it very much your comments last week on iran but we should be doing more i think to target those who are who are hanging who are raping who are maiming iranians and ranking member and i have legislation that would target iran's human rights abusers with travel sanctions with financial sanctions and i think a concerted effort here would do much to discredit the regime both inside and outside iraq second i wanted to point out that there are some two hundred thousand political prisoners we discussed a little bit the problem in iran where we have the same problem in north korea people are being tortured to death people are being worked to death starved to death in the gulags in north korea and i think pressing human rights should be part of our strategic policy toward north korea lastly and i think most importantly for me it is an issue that came to  amendment protections against unreasonable search searches allow the police to american civilians somehow the administration went forward and i can't understand how we have foreign terrorists somehow being granted fourth amendment reasonable rights that the courts intended to protect americans from being searched by local police those are two different issues americans enjoy special rights and protections because we carry out the responsibility of being americans those outside our borders have no part in that compact especially enemy combatant but increasingly we have this issue you know our intelligence officers allowed now to make these hunches and that hunch should have been that the visa should be reviewed and searched and he should be searched before being allowed to get on that plane and so we have to allow our intelligence agents to make those determinations and i do you know with the obama administration leaning toward terrorism as a matter for domestic law enforcement such as christmas day bomber was treated and certainly speaking for the state department we have moved to plug any slight gap that we needed to but since two thousand and one the state department has revoked fifty one thousand visas for a variety of reasons including more than seven hundred for suspected links to terrorism and in addition to  fiscal year two thousand and nine counselor officers nearly two million one million eight hundred eighty five thousand to be exact so we have people acting on their gut on evidence on hunches on have someone in the administration who believes that hunches are not enough to constitute reasonable suspicion it only takes one getting through and that's why i bring the point up and i appreciate that and i take it very very seriously congressman every single russian duma and it would appear that progress significant progress is being made on the stock treaty let me congratulate you if we can get that done that is a significant achievement in terms of you and the president's ambition to deal with this issue of nuclear proliferation but i want to talk about iraq i'm very concerned about the upcoming elections in iraq and chairman berman and chairman ackerman and several of us on this side of the aisle sent a letter to the president last month we hear a lot about the deficit  and my understanding is we're quickly approaching a trillion dollars in terms of the not the human but the financial cost of the war in iraq so that is obviously a significant  the deficit challenge that we have to address and there's a lot of talk about iran and there was an interesting op ed piece this morning in the post by david ignatius where he reports the observations by general odierno that the administration is clearly concerned about the possible manipulation of the iraqi elections but one section and then asked for your response to the question is what are we doing about this apparent manipulation by the iranians in terms of the iraqi is more aligned with iran as some of us six seven years ago was a possibility this is just an observation by general odierno comment please welcome congressman we are very focused on these elections and i make three quick observations first there is no doubt that not only iran but other neighbors are doing what they can to support or influence the outcome of the election we are most concerned and focused on iran because of their ties with many  iraqis who had previously sought exile or in iran who were supportive of efforts against saddam hussein and you know very well the story yet at the same time we see that balance the iraqis are much more nationalistic and much more willing to stand up for themselves with the exception of some people some iraqis who have a different agenda  are carrying water if you will or iranian so i cannot sit here and predict what the outcome of the election will be but we're trying to ensure as big a participation as possible which we think  mitigates against the iranian influence we're trying to ensure that iraqi refugees in syria jordan and elsewhere are empowered to vote we're trying to ensure in so far as possible that there are  significant elector electoral observers both of the voting and of the counting process and then we're going to be very active in supporting the government formation process three billion dollars fifty four that's a tremendous increase and that's not all this is ministration obviously but during that same time the real wages of most american workers has gone down and  you could come to my district and talk to some of my unemployed people and explain to them why it's in their interest for the american people spend a billion dollars building a fortress in london when they're falling through the cracks in their in their wages have gone down the ones that have work and work see if you can relate to them and explain the importance of in a way you have to say that dollars will have to be more debt because we're going to save it could you explain that  unemployed people congressman with respect to the embassy we are selling eleven sites that we currently rent at very high cost in london to consolidate in one building and therefore the money that we gain from the sale of these buildings will be used to fund the embassy so we're not asking for additional or new money and the reason we need a platform like that embassy in london is because we do so much work in every department of our government through london it's not just our diplomats but obviously every other part of the american government is represented there so i believe i can make the case that we're not asking for new money on that but i take very seriously your larger point congressman  breaks my heart that ten years ago we had a balanced budget that we were on the way to paying down the debt of the united states of america i served on the budget committee in the senate and i remember as vividly as it were yesterday when we had a hearing in which alan greenspan came and justified increasing spending and cutting taxes saying that we didn't really need to pay down the debt outrageous in my view  interrupt quickly any place in your budget you could cut anything significant we are cutting a part of our problem is that we are now assuming so many of the post conflict responsibilities and that is that is the learned in terms of vast amounts of money that was thrown into iraq without having adequate structures in place over money literally billions of dollars not being able to be accounted for and i guess as we ramp up the military and civilian tripling the civilians on the ground under this budget what measures are in place to be sure that we are doing this in a targeted way that we can account for the congressman i take the lessons from the mistakes in the last years in iraq and afghanistan very seriously we are trying to apply those lessons with much greater accountability with much greater oversight of contractors and it is one of my highest priorities because i do believe strongly that i or someone should have to be able to justify not just to you but to your constituents you know why we're doing we're doing and do the very best job we can in order to  eliminate the outrageous overruns and fraud waste and abuse i cannot justify the past we're going to work as hard as we know how to make the present in the future better and we're looking at every single contract there's so much waste in these contracts and so much that was literally just allowed to continue in the rush of everything that accompanied military action so we're looking very hard at that and trying to make these adjustments and we'll be reporting to you as we go forward thank you and i wanted to ask additionally about the global engagement understand of the follow up to the president's speech in cairo will focus on expanding opportunity science and technology partnerships and human development issues could you provide us some details on what you hope that can accomplish yes and we can give you more specifics in the time permits but this did arise out of the president's cairo speech and his vision for a new beginning with muslims around the world we are in hansing our public diplomacy outreach we are using more  of the tools that america has our science and technology and education strengths we have science envoys distinguished nobel prize winners and other very well known leading scientists going to muslim majority countries we have a lot of english language programs for young people that we are expanding so we have a full range of such issues that bring a different message and we don't want to forget that where we have a very diverse muslim population in the world people get focused on just one part of the world often to the exclusion of the entire spread of islam from north africa to indonesia so what works in one place or what we're trying doesn't necessarily mean that it will be the same in somewhere else and one of the just want to voice my support for your request to increase funding to  to get through the election process and to be sure they are on track with constitutional reforms and momentum to be able to join the e u and nato well i appreciate your raising bosnia and i know that's a  particular concern of yours because there does need to have to be constitutional reform and we are pushing that as an important part of our outreach i wanted to just specifically respond to you that  at this has been a priority for me this past year we have to do it with the european we cannot do it alone the e u and the neighbors have to take more responsibility and we have worked with the european union and i made this one of my highest agenda items with the new high representative baroness catherine ashton the e u and europe has to make a stronger case to bosnia as to our engagement with china issues that have to do with human rights with the rule of law with environmental protection the kinds of actions that we think are important programs provide pilots and models that the chinese people can subsequently adapt to using their own resources and we also provide assistance programs working with tibetan communities to promote move well but but clearly the president came with a two track approach one was an offer of engagement iranians would engage seriously on matters that were critical to us namely their nuclear program and there has not been a response but the fact that the president reached out has brought us an enormous amount of credibility and goodwill and the rest of the world at the same time   including working to make sure that information continues to flow into iran over the efforts by the government to block the internet and satellite television and the like if you look at the information coming out  by those who've been detained and i've talked to several people who've been imprisoned by the iranian regime they actually think that president obama has struck exactly the right tone and approach to give heart to the people who are putting their lives on the line who know that we stand with them know that we support their efforts but also recognize that they've got a long hard road ahead and what we're trying to do is international opinion that will force the iranian regime to change it secretary thank you again i think it's always appropriate to acknowledge the seismic change of the policies of the obama administration with your leadership in policy knowledge that we really change the story of america around the world i think that is an important point that we should affirm we should also make note that in actuality budget is very fiscally responsible it is a budget that includes some of the hot spots of the world pakistan afghanistan and iraq and so in my comments i'd like to make mention and my publicly say i'm delighted to know the president is mending and we thank him for his work about two weeks ago and so my question would be what do you think going forward with the potential supplemental in haiti what is the going forward approach for reconstruction and rebuilding you know many americans want to be engaged thank you for your work on the evangelists and others that had missteps and were arrested we talked about that to ask for them to be given emergency relief and they are gone but i do think it's important to have some banded for organizations all of them are trying to come down their intentions are good and i'd like to see of have that so i'm just going to give you my point of questions i'd like to get your assessment of the progress and the work of pakistan as you well know i have advocated for pakistan in the bad days but i have seen a jest as i had expected and and hope major commitment by the government colleague talk about the loss of life i'd like to get a sense of whether you have a focus and i would this last point is a comment for your staff if they could take their staff i have a constituent whose daughter was c h that person is in peru and we have not been able to have that person brought back just as they have a felony of skipping bail and interpol has this matter this isn't a tragedy which occurred  policy thank you congresswoman and thank you for your attention to haiti we are working on a supplemental that we hope will come to the congress in the next few weeks it will include both replenishment of  funds in the defense department and usa id principally but also funding for the recovery and reconstruction efforts going forward i think that the leadership role of the united states has played has redounded so greatly to our benefit not only in the hemisphere but around the world and we're going to be having a conference march thirty first co hosted by the u s and the u n along with other major donor countries that will look very specifically about the way forward so we will hopefully continue to have strong bipartisan support in the congress thank you for your continuing attention to pakistan i agree with you i think that this last year has demonstrated significant changes in approach and commitment from the pakistani government the democratically elected government as well as the military and intelligence services their cooperation with us in the recent arrests and apprehension of leading taleban figures i think is very strong evidence of that i share your concern about children in afghanistan or really anywhere in the world and we are focused on doing what we can again in cooperation with our partners who are sharing the donor responsibility afghanistan we can give you more information on that and finally my staff will work very closely with you on this concessions have been offered not just by this administration but by many administrations in the past i would argue that the policy we have where we deny americans the freedom to travel to cuba is a concession to the cuban government  whether they admit it or not whether they quietly lobby or publicly lobby for that change i don't think they want it and every time we seem to get close they all provoke a somehow and so we change our policy i think we ought to do it because that simply what's right i was excited to hear i think all of us were that the obama administration would recast our cuban policy and they take took a good first step by allowing cuban americans the ability to visit their family members without restrictions and money to their family members that does a good deal to help the did who are there in the families of those who are held prisoner and that is a good thing but beyond that it that our policy is on autopilot the contractor who is being held by the cuban government was he was on a contract that was awarded by the bush administration we still have policies going forward that don't serve us well i would argue we have i mean it goes from four hundred thousand dollars in scholarships that brought two cubans to america hundreds of thousand dollars in europe to try to persuade european governments to change their cuba policy bumper stickers made in miami that cuban dissidents or others were supposed to put on their cars for crying out loud we have some of the craziest things going and i see your smile so i think you probably agree with that we could simply say and i'm assuming we have put the u s some of these usa id contracts on ice given that we have one contractor in jail why don't we simply turn and allow americans it doesn't cost anything simply allow americans to travel to cuba unabated now i have no doubt that the cuban government will try to impose its own restrictions they want the revenue that would come with travel but not the influence but if somebody is going to limit my travel in the travel of my constituents it should be a communist not this government and we shouldn't be in that business we should simply say americans should be able to travel and so i know  that and we talked about this the last time you were here i know that you're open we have legislation moving more than one hundred eighty co sponsors i believe at last count to lift the travel ban but there are things that the obama administration can do prior to the passage of that legislation we could lift some of the restrictions or or dial back some of the restrictions imposed by the bush administration on people to people and allow more of that thoughts on that congressman the reason i'm smiling is because i think that we all share the same goal the goal is to create changes for the better in the lives of the people of cuba promote democracy and freedom and hopefully see the time soon when the cuban people have the same rights as we do that is our goal and that is what we're pursuing and the president's april announcement last year changed u s policy toward cuba in a number of ways based on the evidence that we should try some different approaches and we should really look at what it is we're doing that is actually helping the cuban people because there is evidence that every time we  more communications systems back and forth and we're working very hard to break through the control of the media but in a smart way and i am looking at every single program because frankly i want things that work and if we've been doing  and all of that leads to very weak states states that cannot survive the pressures on them the budget increases development assistance by eighteen point three percent proposed budget twenty three point mean that is what we do every single day we have incurred responsibilities in the front line state in iraq afghanistan and pakistan because the policies that were there when we came into office but which we have a responsibility to fulfill as you rightly point out a significant percentage of what we are doing in development and assistance is going to those three countries at the same time we've tried to identify countries that are in that petri dish that you described that are really on the brink of collapse  becoming a failed state from which extremism is being exploited yemen is obviously the example and we are our involvement and assistance in ways that we hope will stabilize those countries but there are so many places now particularly in africa that are vulnerable and it concerns me greatly what i see happening across the continent and i think we have to do a better job coordinating other investment non governmental donors from the private sector so that we know what's happening and where it is and what the consequences are and we is a country that there's increasing interest from many others as well i represented the united states at a conference about yemen in london about a couple of weeks ago and we're trying to do a better job coordinating some of the gulf countries are much larger contributors and we are and i was heartened that the government of yemen came to that meeting with a plan for development that they had adopted which was sensible and a recognition of a lot of their shortcomings they have to change their objectives thank you mr chairman and again i want to send you warm greetings from your many many friends in arkansas and we appreciate having you here i'd like to ask you real quickly about the fact that the committee seems to have indicated that they are going to propose the armenian genocide resolution and right now we currently are the  armenians you're in the process of having protocol normalization talks and things i guess what i'd like to know is your opinion of how that would affect that and also the impact on the  turkish united several years ago when i was in visiting with the commanders there they were really concerned about force protection really far reaching problems if that were allowed to go for congressman on turkey armenia relations it is our position that the normalization process that turkey and armenia have undertaken carries important benefits both sides and it should take place without preconditions and within a reasonable timeframe last year and his armenia remembered stay statement president obama made clear that our interest remains a full frank and just acknowledgement of the facts related to the historical events but the best way to do that with all respect is for the turkish people themselves to address the facts of their past as part of their efforts to move forward and in that in regard congressman in response to a question from congressman sherman i laid out the process we have followed the preliminary report was delivered in february it made clear that we are doing in depth investigation into a number of companies we've already reached out to other countries on this we've asked our embassies around the world to acquire additional information and we are offering in the near future a classified briefing for members who wish to get into depth there is a lot of information that would be better conveyed in a five setting but we are taking this very seriously there wasn't any action taken in the prior eight years the only time there has been action on the iran sanctions act was by former secretary madeline albright and then that was waived because of national security interests so this is an incredibly complex arena but we are moving in a deliberate and thorough way and we look forward to briefing you in a classified setting thank you  problem congressman our information is that we actually have an increase in assistance for southern sudan and so we will get to you a written response because that's the second time i've been asked that question so either we haven't presented it in a clear enough way or there may be some interpretation we're not aware of but i take the point the larger point very seriously we have to do more to help prepare southern sudan for a  future depended upon the choice it makes if it if it is going to choose independence then it needs a lot of work to have the institutions of statehood and we're putting more diplomatic and development to assets in order to try to help the southern that you continue to do as our secretary of state i'd like to focus on yemen again having been there last year i think we need to go a little deeper into this because  that is a very dangerous place and it appears to me this on the front lines there now are our state department personnel our embassies and our special operations  people particular navy seals and you know what a recent question i ask about any effort from a military standpoint getting in there and of course the question is no so that leaves that you're on the front lines there and trying to miller you mentioned that the of our aid that's going in there but the problem is president zelaya has still reluctant first of all he has a reluctance to go after al  problems in the north and the south in addition to in the in the international conference about yemen in london it became clear that other countries particularly in the gulf provide much more funding for yemen than we do or that we will therefore they have to be united with us in the messages that we convey to president saleh and i agree that we have to work very hard to have a united front with all of the international donors some of the european countries have longstanding connections with yemen certainly saudi arabia qatar and others in the region do and i am focused on how we send as clear and unequivocal a message as possible as to what is expected in return for this we do have to be sensitive to some of the the local concerns about american involvement but at the same time sits twenty five miles across the gulf from somalia and we know that there is that constant continuing connection we will have more to report to you as we follow through on our policy here  but it is a mixed policy it is an international policy and it is all aimed at influencing presidential decisions because as you saw that's where they all come from and we have to support  e the president in making the right decisions but this is going to be challenging what do you suggest that we should do specifically about the evidence of the growing  after training camps and identified members of al qaida so they are beginning to do what we would hope they would do which is to protect their own country against the threat of growing extremism but i think that we and others in this international effort have to continue to support them provide intelligence assets provide surveillance assets  abortion as reproductive health care and including it as an integral component of our foreign affairs considerations i believe this actually undermines our good diplomatic initiatives abortion is not health care abortion is so often the result of abandonment women deserve better and certainly taxpayers should not be put in a position of paying for it either here in the united states or under our underwriting in our international program so i respectfully request that you reconsider your position with that let me turn appreciative of your intensified efforts of late in this regard i would like to hear your outlook for the next six months just so little time well secondly i like to hear what the state department is doing to lead international diplomatic efforts to prevent bioterrorism especially within the context of the global health security initiative for medical counter countermeasures including stockpiling and deliberate as you're aware the weapons of mass destruction your point and to some of the points made by congressman smith first of all the united states government does not fund abortions we don't we are increasing our funding to organizations that provide family planning services and maternal health in fact the budget provides seven hundred million dollars to combat maternal mortality with expanded coverage of prevention and lifesaving interventions such as the prevention and management of post partum hemorrhaging and other terrible consequences of cared for pregnancy that i take very seriously i think that in many ways you and congressman smith and i have actually some of the shared  views and concerns but we do believe it's important to provide money which we do in this budget five hundred ninety million dollars for family planning and reproductive health because so much of what happens in the health of women in developing countries is because they cannot control their reproductive health and it is a matter of  great concern to me because many of these women are very young they are not prepared for pregnancy they often suffered grievous injuries during labor and birth because they do not have adequate treatment and that is one of the reasons why in our global health initiative we are expanding america's commitment to maternal and child health so we share some of the very same goals and i hope to be able to work with you where we differ is on the question of a woman's right to choose but we would like to avoid the choice that could lead to abortion by providing  resources and support for women around the world through the other two questions you have redefined abortion as a part of reproductive health care for the first time and overturned the mexico city policy which would underwrite organizations who be deprived of information that might be important to their health and to plan for their own families and as we exchanged views the last time i was here i have seen the consequences their own interests but we will we will not agree that we will agree that we need to do more to help with maternal and child health i hope with respect to the outlook for iran obviously we believe that we have made progress in changing the attitudes of a number of nations toward iran we're going to continue to do so we share your concern about iran's ambitions and its  program and we are making the case very vigorously around the world about what the consequences would be for other countries i think when i started a year ago many countries were not convinced that this was a problem that had anything to do with them and we have every day made the case that a nuclear armed iran will create an arms race in the gulf that will destabilize the region that so much of the rest of the world depends upon for oil and gas it could even leave a conflict which would be an economic catastrophe for many countries that are so reliant and therefore countries should join with us in doing everything we can to demonstrate international unity and pressuring iran to change direction and that is what we are engaged in vigorously right now and finally congressman you know the united states leads the world in terms of overall bio preparedness but there is a lot more we need to do we're trying to work with the international community to pay more attention to the bioterrorist threat to implement new policies to stockpile vaccines we're assisting with that through a wide range of activities for example we have foreign assistance programs that act or that does provide critical services and assistance that would otherwise be provided by extremist groups you know we can't have it both ways if we're not in there supporting in actually providing services i  believe that the situation would become even more threatening to us and to israel is an indispensable counterweight to radicalism and terrorism particularly in gaza and lebanon and in fact efforts are supported by the governments of israel lebanon syria and jordan and the palestinian authority so that's a pretty broad cross section of the region and we do closely monitor what  neutrality of its staff including free employment sharing the list of staff member names with governments on an annual basis and so much else and i share your concern that you know we're not getting not provide any any threat to israeli security and we raise that with the israelis on a regular basis but i think you're right that what we want to do is support the regular not do anything that empowers hamas and much of the material that gets into gaza which still comes through the tunnels through smuggling actually is taxed by hamas which then provides hamas with the money that they used to buy arms and other material that is used against israel so i look at things from a real logical perspective what can we do to undermine hamas to support the security of very hard we have a range of programs that assist refugees we also have tried to target aid to women refugees one example which is a great public private partnership as last summer we reached out to pakistani american doctors and nurses and asked them to go to the refugee camp because women were not getting adequate medical services and we had several dozen  pakistani doctors mostly women who went to time off from their practices took six weeks went to work with refugee women so we're always looking for ways that we can get the aid to women and children  regarding the protection of the uranian who are in camp ashraf in iraq we're very worried about their plight we have made commitments to them to make sure that they will not be taken against them here today and introduced a resolution saying i thank the ranking member for co sponsoring in condemning the human rights violations in iran and supporting the voices of freedom and democracy i hope you'll take a look at that i think it's something that we need to be doing i'm also concerned about iran's influence in the region both in iraq afghanistan and pakistan and i wonder if you could touch on that point and then my second question from a budgetary standpoint has to do with i think we're making some great military success in afghanistan now i think the pakistan military really starting to step up to the plate really for the first time in years and i commend you and the administration for that is doing in that respect because i think we have to win militarily but we also have to provide economic stability and win the hearts and minds congressman i agree with that and i hope every member has gotten a copy of the afghanistan and pakistan strategy if not we will be sure that you do because it's very specific about what we're trying to do doing in agriculture education women's rights and so much else in order to do that we have to have the civilians on the ground we have nine hundred twenty that's more than triple what we had when we started last year they are doing extraordinary work i mentioned earlier that we had civilians embedded with our forces going into marjah and they are now literally moving in to help stand up the presence of afghanistan governmental  authority it is it is a very challenging task but we have people that are dedicated to doing that and to make sure that what charlie wilson said doesn't happen again you know he  glad he was he was so honored at arlington and you know so many people who really understood his contributions and yet this is going to be hard work part of it is that there are no quick answers to begin to rebuild afghanistan agriculture and move people away from poppies pomegranates is a long term investment we're seeing results already but we have a long way to go building up local governance  when we cleared marja by the courage of our military forces we have to have the presence of an afghanistan government at the subnational level that can begin to build the confidence of the people a police force that will keep law and order we are working hard on all of these which are laid out in the stabilization strategy but i appreciate your reminder of what might happen if we did walk away  let me begin by stating my firm conviction that under your leadership and that of president barack obama the united states is well on its way to restoring credibility of the united states in the eyes of the world i also want to especially thank you critical emergency donations from our samon and talking to communities in the united states to be airlifted airlifted for your leadership in quick response and all the for the sambal and will always be grateful opinion and the time and thought did you have put into our policies towards the region have demonstrably improve the u s position in this important part of the world i also want to say that i had an excellent meeting a couple of days of our foreign policy in this region and madam secretary it was announced this month that the president is going to visit guam indonesia and also australia and mary also suggest if at all possible on the president's visit on his return from a stranger that he should stop by an american someone to say thank you to the thousands and thousands of our men and women who are in the military i don't know if appreciate if the president would just stop by there and say hello on his way back from australia the last presidential visions that my little territory had was in one thousand nine hundred fifty seven that's forty three years ago now i realize the president wants to celebrate some seventieth anniversary of the treaty of friendship with australia but i just like to say that this month this year in april we'll be celebrating the one hundred ten years of the american flag was humble request if at all possible that the president would do this a couple of the issues i want to share with you about him i know there wasn't enough time i visited laos we've got a serious problem with unexploded ordnance and cluster bombs that we created this country never attacked us we need to make improvements on that debt forgiveness in cambodia the problems of agent orange in vietnam that we never really have addressed properly  and so we might have a time to talk about some of these issues more then but first of all on the free trade agreements both the president and you have talked about the support for the free trade agreements in colombia  panama and south korea i have a resolution that i'll be dropping today to try to push the congress into moving on these issues and i know we need to get them from from the president i would like if you could talk to us about what is holding that up i was excited to hear in the state of the union that this is something that we can work on in a bipartisan fashion so i'd like to get your thoughts on that i'm also very concerned about the relationship with iran and venezuela and now that you madam secretary seem to be taking a much harder stance when it comes to iran that we can get some policies that really sends a message to venezuela hugo chavez that we're not going to continue to stand for his complete destruction of democracy in venezuela and that we are going to support the venezuela people and the people of latin america you know i sponsored legislation that would put that as well on the state sponsor of terrorism listen i'd like to get your thoughts on that also in haiti i want to commend the state department and our government in its swift actions in haiti there are a lot of people who are suffering to continue to suffer and will be suffering for a long time and one of the requests that i would make instead of spending sending a lot of this money to the u n to then be used to help and aid in that we just go directly and s citizens for political purposes so i'd like to get your thoughts on that the last thought is on the budget concern that we are continuing to spend to give aid to countries like bolivia in quickly congressman we are working on the free trade agreements as the president said we support them we would like to move them we have to get the votes for them so we're reaching out and anything that members can do on their own we welcome to make the case why this is good for america not just good for the country's this is a plus for the american economy by our analysis but we have to be able to make that secondly venezuela is already certified as not cooperating fully with us any terrorism efforts we renew that certification in may and so there is a prohibit a prohibition against the sale or licensing of certain items we agree with you completely about the need to stand up to what we see happening with the attack on democracy i was pleased to see the oas come out finally and criticize venezuela and what it's doing in that area others who are trying also to target effective aid you're absolutely right one of the biggest needs i had a meeting about this earlier this week are restroom facilities sanitation facilities and finally on cuba congressman we share the same goal we do not want to do anything that supports the regime but we do want to create more movement toward democracy and it's a question of what will work and what won't and that's what we're trying to figure out time of the gentleman from  regards and love to you and look to see you come back for a visit i want to just echo the comments of some of my colleagues to thank you for putting forth a budget that is a continual reflection of  resetting if you will america's foreign policy and really bringing forward a true american foreign policy which first and foremost protect and promote national security concerns and interests of our country stands by strongly our allies our democratic allies and those with whom we have good partnerships and also continues to engage those parts of the world that we hope will someday be our allies through strong security but also in light element eight and i think that certainly you are writing a great new chapter on american foreign policy we thank you for that also if you would express from myself and my constituents our good wishes for president clinton speedy him recover and also thank him for his work in a bipartisan fashion with president bush again to help those who need help in haiti many who have relatives in brooklyn in particular and some in staten island but also again  doing you know appealing to the better angels of us in america to do to help those who need help madam secretary i'd also like to just go on record by reiterating many of my colleagues concerns in regards to iran it's certainly time to move on the sanctions effort and i know you've spoken to that but in particular human rights abuses should be sanctioned as well as the petroleum manufacturers and smugglers and i just want to call to your attention bill a bi cameral bill that i've introduced about the human rights violations i'd also just like to ask one of two questions one is that last year you were leading very strongly and continue the initiative which looks at the protocols between armenia and turkey and i just wondered if you would think it would be appropriate in that regard to a point maybe someone from the state department would focus on bringing about the adoption of the protocols in the two parliaments of those two countries that's something you would consider and then also in that regard being that our relationship with turkey is so important we need to maintain our leverage or our strong relationship which is very much leverage and i was just a little concerned to see when america's ambassador to turkey james jeffrey recently said in a newspaper interview that turkey was has quote security concerns on cyprus certainly you can't be supporting this rationale for keeping troops on cyprus and just ask you if you missed folks on that point thank you very much and thank you for the kind wishes for my husband and say a lot everybody in staten island and brooklyn  that led to the signing of the protocols i'm on the phone probably more with the leadership in turkey armenia and azerbaijan than any other part of the world on a regular basis and we are very committed to doing everything we can  both in furthering the protocols for normalization between armor and armenia and turkey and working for a durable diplomatic solution of the conflict over nagorno karabakh that is not a precondition for the normalization process between turkey and armenia but it is essential for the long term regional stability in the caucasus so we have a whole team committed to that congressman and we are working it as hard as we can with respect to what the ambassador said it's my understanding that he was reflecting the turkish belief not that we ascribe to it supported it but that is what the turkish position is that they agree with  not they view a continuing security interest we are working to support the u n process of mediation to try to get to a resolution in cyprus between the greek and turkish cypriots some progress that made their bed intensive negotiations over the last six weeks but a lot more needs to be done well madam secretary as we notified our staff  members of the committee members and announced earlier it is twelve fifteen deals a deal and so without objection members have to legislative days to submit questions for the record we thank you very