>> one of her sketches for the dance routines she wanted to put on. here are dance notes that she made. >> watch the program on the first lady betty ford on our website or see it this weekend.

>> a survey from the research center found americans are not interest in typhoon haiyan. the survey conducted a week after the storm hit shows americans donating to the relief effort is trailing behind other recent natural disasters. 14% made a donation to charities and 17% plan on doing so. 18% of americans contributed after the hurricane last year and 18% planned to donate. a look at the united states funding and this is heard from the asid members.

>> i want to apologize for being a few moments late. we had a vote on the floor. and some of the members will be arriving as they finish on the floor. nearly one month ago, the deadliest typhoon hit the philippians with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour. the surge reached a height of 40 feet. it killed more than 5600 people. another 1,759 are listed as misses. 26,000 were injured. it is the strongest storm

recorded at landfall and 5th in terms of wind speed. the storm was three and a half times the size of katrina. last week i led a delegation to the philippians to get a better understanding of the unmet need going forward. joined by colleagues we were unanimous in our deep respect and gratitude for the military and catholic relief services who alone have committed over $20 million to assist victims. the filipino fiphilippine milit

playing a role as well. supplies were brought in including food, water, housing materials by the planeload with victims over 19,000 homeless victims hitching flights back to manila for safety and shelter. as was the case for the tsunami, we provided assistance with planes. smart rapid response combined with unique airlift capability made all of the difference in the world. i met the chief of staff of the third marine force there and i nomina nominated eric in my first term and it was clear he had earned respect from the top of the

command down to the lowest private. his leadership and that of kennedy and whistler assured a shell shock population got immediate aid. every marine we saw, including lance corporal james and lance corporal michael were working around the clock to protect victims. sleep? what is that one marine said with a smile. we are saving lives. the principle advisor for disaster relief said quote when the united states hit the ground things were moving and we saved lives. i know that for a fact. close quote. the cooperation of the military

and leaders including the director of the disaster assistance, the philippine officials was a textbook example of how disaster assistance ought to be done. the emergency face is now in the recovery face and much more needs to be done. with donald riley, we were with him the entire day. and our delegation visited a sanitation distribution at a local parish and received a briefing from the mayor whose daughter is a medical doctor in my state of new jersey and we met with numerous survivors who told heart breaking stories but had a calm inner peace. one man told us his father

drowned a few foot from where he stood and he carried water logged bodies to a mass grave. he said he nearly collapsed when ker kercar car carrying a 3-year-old little girl. he was full of faith and desired to rebuild. that resilliance was summed up by saying the filipino's soul and stronger than yolanda. on board with jason coffman we were diverted to seek the rescue

efforts of a helicopter that crashed. after a flawless flight, the pilot spotted two individuals with no life jackets and opened the back of the plane and kicked out a yellow raft to the swimmers. it was clear that their lives had been saved and it was a symbol of what everything that was going on in the ground was all about. aboard the crew was colonel john peck and a group of individuals who were eees -- esstatic -- to save lives.

we met with people from the development corporation, matt bound was one of them. and he said a contract of $435 million had been minimum damaged. our interests wasn't just on how effective our emergency response was, but going forward where they should be directed in the long-term. we felt two areas can deserved attention: preventing epidemics and minimizing human traffick g trafficking. it takes 2-3 weeks for health

crisis to spread, but gangi fever was in the area and cholera, hepatitis a, lepto, other diseases. there are vaccines for some of them, but none for gangi ferve and lepto. efforts to address the epidemic is complicated. they are undergoing their rainy season and that hedampens effor.

there has to be save blood for woman and 90,000 women are pregnant and have lost their ability to go to a vendor. 200 health clinics have been destroyed. a venue to give birth safety and access to safe blood is a challenge going forward. many roads are badly damaged. many filipino health workers left the area or they died in the storm. foreign health workers will continue on on-going donor funding. internationally funded efforts focus on family unification, personal unification, and safe spaces for women and children. they are establishing women and

child-friendly places to address the needs of women, ad teens, and young boys. there is acknowledgment of increased risk of human traff trafficki trafficking, the lack of reports means it isn't in full focus for protection. we know traffickers are ready to pray on the vulnerable and we know the philippines has a huge problem of women and children being trafficked. also important is providing shelter for the 1.2 million families whose homes have been destroyed. $1.3 billion is needed to repair and erect homes that have been

destroyed. the philippians is a major ally and trader. we are found by a common value system and a great deal of friendship that spans well over a centry. we have an important stake in seek our friends can recover. what do we do next and how do we proceed and go forward? i would look to yield to my friend bass. >> i want to thank you for your leadership in hold thiing the hearing and making the trip to the philippians. i want to expand the welcoming to the witnesses and thank you for your participation for the work each organization is doing to provide relief to those in need.

los angeles is home to a large filipino population. i have friends who cannot find family members for many days. the u.s. response to the crisis has been immediate and swift and i want to thank the important work underway and the rapid response that is saving lives and preventing death and injuries. and let me thank the u.s. based troops over there. and i want to yield the rest of my time to representative green who i know -- okay. mr. chair, go right ahead. >> before i go to mr. green, i want to go to chairman royce.

>> i would yield to mr. al green if that is okay. thank you, mr. chairman. >> well, thank you very much, mr. chairman and mr. royce. i want to thank you mr. royce because you started this process with a resolution immediately and i know you will say more about it so i will not step on your words, but thank you for moving as fast as you did. you were not only a great leader, you were a great inspiration while we were there. your summary you accorded us is entirely accurate and i would like to associate myself with each and every word. i am proud to say it was bi-partisan and our effort was a

sincere non-partisan effort. we went there to be of assistance and i am proud to be associated with the endeavor. to may ranking member, i thank you for allow me to be a part of this. i seem to find my way into places and you have greeted me warmly and i have great respect and admir -- for you. i would like to extend my sympathy to the people in the philippians. i want to assure them we have strengthened my believe there is much to do to assist them.

i would like to thank the witness and i had an opportunity to read your testimony. i found it quite compelling. and very extensive and it v validated what i saw while i was there. i was am spired by the unity of the effort. there was a tri-par tide effort that involved our embassy that was there at the forefront. the united states was stellar and outstanding. we had people all over the place and it was remarkable to see how the organization managed to become almost uniformly. you were there and everything

where. and we had dod. i was proud to be an american and to be there because the marines landed and people applauded. the marines didn't just show up. in the parlance of many of my friends who live where they live, they showed up and showed out. they acquitted themselves well. the chairman talked about the rescue mission which was something that happened while we were in route to do something else, but they did it with the la lackty and i was proud of them. i met 15 marines from texas and they give me phone numbers and on thanksgiving i received one of the greatest rewards you can receive when you call a family

member and say i saw your son, daughter, husband, or wife and they are doing well and serving the country well. there were tears of joys that emanated from some of the relative and others were gratified to know that we took the time to go. mr. chairman, i think we did a good thing. i thank you for the leadership. mr. franks is here you, from arizona, we had an opportunity to spend a lot of time together, and gratified that we had that chance to see and understand many things about the philippines. mr. chairman, i don't know how much time you have given me, but if you would allow me a couple more minutes i would appreciate it. our relationship with the

philippians is one that is solid, in my opinion, because the relationship is based on business. we are their second largest trading partner. but it is more than a relationship. it is partnership. it is more than a partnership, it is kinship as well. we have many americans who live in the philippians. about 300,000. and we have americans with children that are being born in the philippians. and this relationship/partnership/friend ship/kinship makes the association unique and i am proud of it. i read the testimony and in your testimony you mentioned, ma'am, that about 800,000 people were

moved out of harm's way. that answers the question that i had when i went over there, when i saw the devastation, i immediately asked myself, why weren't more people killed and a lot has to do with the way the government was able to evacuate 800,000 people in short order. that was a fantastic effort. i am proud to say that i know we had a hand in it. but i am proud to say that saved a lot of lives. i don't know how many. only god knows how many. but a lot of lives were saved by the effort to evacuate people. and i want to acknowledge we

have a bill and any bill i file is one that i am amenable to changing. there is nothing in the bill that is sealed in any sort of permanent way. what it does is accord filipinos who live in the united states of america temporary protective status. we can change the name or find another way to do it. but i think it is imperative we do this in some way by some name: because the people there in the philippians, 42%, live off less than $2 a day. to send people back into harm's way in a sense, i think that is a little bit to be very kind and sensitive, there are many other adjectives but we can allow them

to stay, and work, and sent remittance back to the philippians. last year more than $10 billion in remittance was sent to the philippians. we can help the people of the philippians help themselves with something, call it anything you want. anybody can sponsor it. we need to get it done and allow people to help themselves. $2 a day. not a lot. we have people working here, their visa will expired, let them continue to work and sent the remittance back home. those people who want to send

money and are not sure who they should send it to, these money gets to people that need it because they are family members and friends of people living in the country. now to angel hooper. he was the commander of the c-130 when i had an opportunity to go on the flight deck. i want to put in a good word for the women who serve in the marine. they are doing an outstanding job as well. i salute her. she is from texas, yes. and she had her co-pilot in training and i was so proud of the way she was training her co-pilot. and i salute all of the men and women. i yield back the time i don't have. >> i would like to yield to ed royce. >> thank you, mr. chairman.

thank you to yourself, mr. franks, al green, mr. green, you are right. we have a kinship with the people of the philippians. our hearts go out to the families and victims and 5600 people that lost their lives. i want to commend the three of you because your focus on the trip was what additional steps could the united states take to make certain we didn't have an epidemic that would follow. that being mal-nourished wouldn't add to the toll. i support the effort to recover and rebuild. and the united states national agency is playing a critical role. along with the brave men and women of the armed forces.

and to date, we have allocated $60 million to recover efforts. the uss george washington is stationed offshore for relief efforts. and many in the filipinos community were directly affected. we heard from families about how the worst typhoon on record took from them friends and family members and in main cases they are still unaccounted for. we applaud the community's effort to come together, raise fund, donate supplies, filipinos-americans are proud of their heritage and are committed to helping those effected by the typhoon. i want to thank also karen bass and andy weber. we had a hearing not long ago

where we heard from the filipinos who went through being labor trafficking. and it is in wake of disasters like this there is more traffics. and we are working on making that not happen. i want to say that i had the pleasure of meeting with the assi assistant administrator nancy l linburg after the typhoon hit landple fa landple -- landfall -- we thank you and your team for bringing comfort and compassion to those that need it most. i do have one issue that i want i want to raise concerning our nati nation's disaster relief effort. we met with bill gates on one.

it is one of the issues which he addressed in this meeting. and that is the unacceptable long transit times for supplies to reach those that need it most. the 60-year-old law that governs food aid prevents timely measures by forcing they are sources from the united states and imported. 60 years ago it made sense, but now it is unnecessary. the first shipment of united states rice to the philippians is arriving now. it just arrived three weeks after the typhoon made landfall.

it is time we update the laws. and mr. angle and i had language we believe and hope is in the farm bill. mr. chairman, i am moved by the outpouring support the community is showing to the philippians. two weeks ago the committee voted unanimously in an effort to support the recovery effort that is being waged by the department of defense and earlier this year, i led a bi-partisan delegation with my good friend to the philippians to strengthen our bilateral relationship with the company. we will do that again in the wake of the interest. but in the interirks --

interim -- i want to say we are all filipinos at this time. >> thank you for your leadership and comments. i would like to recognize mr. minnow now. >> thank you for calling the hearing. as we start to look at the issues, the personal first-hand testimony of uand/ors who have visit -- and/or others -- who vis visited the region you cannot help but feel for those who have been displaced. the size of the state of oregon has been displaced. if everybody in oregon was displaced it would be monumental in terms of impact. in a town where we can be

critical many times of agencies and their roll and what happened, the testimony that has been shared by mr. green and the chairman is certainly something that needs to be applauded and we need to celebrate the successes and hopefully put model going forward on how we can make sure response is rapid and it is one that is sustainable. i think the difficulty we have is with so many tough situations throughout the world is being able to replicate that and make sure burr nothing gets in the way of providing support. chairman royce mentioned this particular issue on a 60-year-old law we need to address. and look at that in a real way to make sure that in times of

emergency people can work together. i just want to thank the chairman and ranking member bass for the continued bi-partisan support. there is little that is bi-partisan in this town. and time and time again i find on this committee and with the interest of the people, not only the united states citizens, but in this particular case the filipinos who are hurting and suffering, my heart and prayers and my continued support to advance the cause to provide relief is unyielding. with that i yield back. >> thank you very much mr. meadows. mr. weber? >> i have lots of question, but i am short on time because i have a 4:o0 meeting. so i will let it go. >> mr. franks? >> well thank you, mr. chairman.

i want to thank the, i guess chairman royce went on to another committee, but we appreciate his work on this. it has been a precious honor to have been part of this d delegati delegation. congressman chris smith is always at the forefront of doing whatever he can to recognize the image of god and i have seen him to go the first one to care about and love those that everyone has forgotten about. he is a hero to me. it was one of the great memories of my life to company him. and congressman green was someone i held to be a friend before we went. and now i hold to be a precious friend. and i was so touched by the way as he put it that this was a bi-partisan effort to making a

non-partisan goal to try to reach out to the philippifilipi people. i appreciate congressman green very much. i have the privilege and i mean that, the privilege to have been married from a lady from the philippians for 33 years. i don't know how that happened, but if she leaves me i am going with her. she has been the delight of my life. and she is represented of the noble nature of the filipino people. this is people who refused to be brought down ultimately by the storm. they were stronger than the storm. and i could not help but notice a banner that someone took a picture of on a high hill that had been devastated and the banner said roofless, homeless,

but not hopeless. and i was deeply moved by that. the filipino people are people of deep abiding faith and have courage that goes beyond their stature. i cannot express the warmth i felt from them. i would like to point out they have been strong allies of the united states. one of the places where the storm came to shore was a place that marked john mccarther coming to shore decades ago. and i thought the simpymbolism profound. i would be lax in not pointing

out my agreement with green and smith related to the coordination that occurred between all of the groups and ngo's and i have to say especially the american military. there is no enemy on earth more to be feared than the american military. but there is no friend that can be more capable and more committed than the same group of men and women that represent what america is all about. they provided the base of uperation there -- operation -- there and the muscle to make it work. i know there is so many people that we didn't get there in time to help. and i only hope that somehow that they are not forgotten and their memories are a catalyst to

recognize being an american is a privilege and we forget how much easier we have it than a lot of places in the world. it is about being appropriate to expand the hand of freedom and hope to those in need. this is what they are about and it shows what american believe and stands for, but it can have sh ligthe light of freedom fall across every lonely face on this planet. let me suggest to you that i am very honored to be an american and have been part of this effort. and i am grateful to all of the people that have given their lives to these kinds of causes. and i am hoping, mr. chairman, that i can just ask her when she

has the opportunity, because my challenge is i have to leave as well, but i am hoping she can address the whole issue about what usaid's plans and efforts are to address traffic and abuse children and what they have to protect children in situations like this. and i will mention the whole epidemic situations that might follow and what we need to be prepared for those crisis. and when people like chris smith and congressman green talk about this in the media it keeps this issue in front of the public and allows them to respond financi l

financially and otherwise. and i am hoping you can offer up ways to extend and make sure we are doing everything we can to see protection and health extended. and just a sense of gratitude and grateful to all of you and you especially serve. god bless the filipino people. >> it was a privilege to trafl travel with both of you. i would like to introduce the first panel member. she has testified before the committee on several occasions.

since being sworn into the office in october of 2010, she has led teams in response to the syria team, the original of africa, 2011 droughts, arab spring people, and has been on the ground in the philippians recently briefed our staff from the typhoon. she was pres of the mersey core and has held a number of positions. one of the founders and board members of north korea and share of the speer committee. he has a ba from stanford and an ma from john f. kennedy school

at harvard university. >> thank you very much. members of the committee and others thank you for inviting me to testify. a special thanks to you congressman smith for leading the delegation and to you who went during this important time. and thanks to all of you for the ongoing support that enables us to do this live saving work and express who we are in americans. this is the worst year since 1993 for the philippians and the november 8th was the worst of an already bad year. 195 mile per hour winds, a storm surge that reached higher than the indian ocean tsunami.

we know 11 million have been affected. and many of you express my sympathy for them and these changes will take years to regroup from. i travelled there one week after the landfall and saw the deaf stati devastation. you see the photographs, but when you are in it, it is an eerie twisted landscape of boats and cars in dtrees and lives destroyed. but you see signs of hope and humanity during these moments. i met a brother and sister and her brother rescued 13 people at great personal sacrifice during the typhoon. these are the stories that are side-by-side with the devastation and loss and great resilient people as they

emergency -- emerge -- from the storm. i arrived an a military c130 that was carrying life-saving supplies. i saw the rice that we had in enabled the world food program being put into packed and put into the hands of 2.7 million people within the first week making a life-saving difference. i visited command centers were that mapping out distribution and sending out supplies on pedy cabs and buses. this is a result of a ten year partnership to increase being

prepared. we delivered 2,000 tons of supplies and evacuated 21,000 people from the areas. the united states government has provided $60 million in assistance. all of that is on the ground and made a difference during the early life- saving days. we are looking ahead to recovery and reconstruction. i have submitted a detailed testimony but let me hit on a few highlights from the relief and recovery. we have applied key things we learned from others. we were able to pre-position members of the disaster resistance team in manila to

work with the embassy is military to prepare an immediate response. u.s. aid worked with pacific command to set up a bridge and at a time where communication was shutdown and roads were not accessib accessibl accessible, we were able to get supplies in right away. and we invescted to set up land and sea bridges to help clear the roads so that we were able to wrap up the military engagement and bring forward the longer term civilian ability to insure the deliveries were able to continue. logistics were the number one

focus. followed by emergency shelter, sanitation, water and food. there were a million homes destroyed. he airlifted plastic sheeting to help construct temporary shelters. the water supplies were ravaged so we focused on clean water, tablets for chorline and we were providing a hundred percent of the water in the area by the time i was there. the philippians and international community continued to respond to the health concerns. there are 200 health teams on the ground and more than 2,000 children have been vaccinated.

and there are operations to address the potential for mosquitos-bo mosquitos-borne disease. there is a big push for fogging operations. as chairman royce noticed we used the full spectrum of the tools. the local purchase of rice was able to get food to them. and we were able to airlift bars and paste for no cooking facilities and families were able to get full-calories from these bars. we rerouted a ship and brought that to the philippians and that shipped arrived yesterday

afternoon. and although it wasn't there for the life-saving portion it is an important part of the on-going response. it is a full suite of tools. we know the women/children/elderly and those and special needs fair the worst during disasters. we have a program called safe from the start and remind we need to do protection from the early days of response. we are supporting programs that are working with identification and unification of children and one of most important protection is making sure aid is getting to people as quickly as possible. i want to say a note about the power of preparedness. the philippians is the

second-most disaster prone area. this helped make this not as bad as it could have been. we have been training on first responders on an incident command system that we brought from the united states forest service and enables the government to set up command centers and know what to do and how to bring forward the right trained people. they evacuated 800,000 people in v advance of the storm and saved countless lives. we grapple with the new normal of the increased storms that are battering the nation. we have learned from past response efforts that we have to move as quickly as possible into early recovery. this is vital for people so they

can stand on your two feet again. we are seeing market activity springing up in the hardest hit areas and we are looking at how to provide life'-saving assistance that is aware of local, coping mechanisms and markets. we are moving forward at our str strategy and continued water sanitation and efforts and protection of the most vulnerable population including the human traffic consideration that are important. looking ahead, the government of the philippians just released their first early draft of what is considered that they will need for the longer term reconstruction and they have

identified about $2.6 billion. they loos about 2% of their gdp each year. one of the areas we will look at is continuing the preparedness and risk reduction and how to build resilliance at the household and country level. this is going to be critical looking ahead. we are priortizing our efforts for the services that are n necessary to get back on their feet. we know the most vulnerable will continue to be important as we go forward. just to conclude, a number of you have noted the important relationship between the united

states and filipinos. we have seen outpouring and i have had the pleasure of par s participating in community e events and it underscores the humanity we share. the united states has a deep commitment we will stay with the people into the reconstruction era. we are seeing the cameras fading away and this is becoming yesterday's story. so the hearings like we are having, the continued commitment we will have the to the philippians is vital. i look forward to answering questions and i thank you for your support. >> with that objection, your full testimony is going to remain a port report is going to

retain as part of the testimony. i will ask them all. one of the takeaways we had was debris. there was debris everywhere. a story to two story high. it looked like a lack of capability to remove it. there are cash for work programs that catholic relief services are doing and i am wondering if that is one job they might undertake. the dogs and rodents which will share the diseases including lepto which could be a major health hazard. when we were hit by super storm sandy and we had debris everywhere. but we had functioning mayors

and town counsel and the sheriff management leader who did wonderful jobs in coordinating the debris removal. what are they going to do with all of the stuff? it is everywhere. and i wonder if you would speak to that. on the issue of trafficking, i work on combating human trafficking every day. we are all concerned about now that the recovery effort and roads are open, or most of them, that the traffics, including women who are in manila, may look to prey upon vulnerable people who may have lost hope or

are gullible to go to saudi arabia or somewhere else in the philippians for what looks like a real job but turns out to be a hell on earth situation which is trafficki trafficking. there is one person on the response team -- is that enough? has the tip office been brought in to apply every practice they know to mitigate the trafficking. third, we learned 90,000 pregnant women and i know that the availability of safe blood in a venue where a woman can give birth and if they need a c-section is a real compelling need and as i said in my opening, most of the health clinics have been destroyed or

damaged. i am wondering what the plans are as these women get close to birth will there be an effort to do a c-section. my only daughter-in-law just in july in a princeton hospital had an emergency c-section and lost two litters plus of fort lauderdale -- blood -- and they had to send out for it because they didn't have enough. in a ravaged area we visited, that could mean death to a woman

where availability of blood means safe lives. and finally the issue of best practices learned from the earthquake. i was on the lincoln with the group of members. >> what else is being -- >> you have raised a lot of critical issues. first on debris, it is amazing and remind me of the snow banks of growing up in minnesota where they tower over you. this is a critical issue. the government of the philippians has a salvage first policy. people are starting to pick

through what is reusable versus what needs to be put into the a landfill. we are taking this into account in designing transitional shelter program and incorpora incorporating what we call cash for work. they provided a days wage in return for clearing debris obaw. this is going to be a huge and important challenge, unfortunately, or luckily, the philippians have a fair amount of experience in dealing with debris. it is scale issue in this instance. it will be an area of immediate focus as we look ahead. you have raised some of the other associated concerns about disease with the debris and for that reason the fogging is a very important approach because

there is standing water. the other issue is there is still pooling bodies out from underneath the mountains of debris and that is remain on ongoing effort as they work through recovery. on trafficking, this has been an area of concern and the united states has put $11 million into cou counter-trafficking programs. ...

it is critical not just for pregnant women for the immunization so that's priority between w. h. o., the government of the philippines and unicef. we have provided support for that to get it back and run soggy you can able to bring forward critical medicines including blood. there are right now 184 medical teams on the ground. there's been a fairly robust international response to try to fill the devastating gap.

about 12 ?owrks ,000 people were evacuated and the hope is those who need that specialized assistance including soft the more complicated births are able to get out. finally, in term of best practices, you know, i think there were a lot of important best practices we took from past mega disasters. one it resulted in the close very effective collaboration we were able to because of the work that done together priestly very quickly stand up in effective air bridge that prioritize the most important life saving supplies set to go forward. one of the things that happened

in haiti, there was a clogging of supplies that went through the system and sometimes not the most important supplies went first. so that the seamless collaboration that was a hallmark of this this effort really grew out of the lessons from haiti. the effective born diseases that looming. the intended risk that fogging might bring, i think, the risk versus the benefit of stopping several epidemics from bursting out.

so happy to hear that. because i have never seen, and i think my colleague mr. green and franks agree with this have never seen more standing water. piewt fying than we saw as a result of this typhoon, which obviously is a breeding ground for diseases. >> well, someone who followed the fogging trucks in fact there is a great concern about not just trying to address the standing water, but also to revitalize the surveillance system, the health surveillance system because one of the concerns is in the wake of those storms that we need to very quickly have the ability to identify where you have an outbreak. so that you can dot fast treatments. it's really those two actions. the surveillance system and the preventive fogging that are underway. >> thawp. -- thank you very much.

mr. green. >> thank you very much. i thank you for your leadership. it's been stellar. in houston texas we have approximately 39,000 filipino, and tell so you a community has organized and the community has raised, i think, a fairly handsome sum of money that has been sent to the filipino my community is on board with the effort. i had the opportunity to go to pakistan after the earthquake, and i saw the communities.

it was leveled. i went to sri lanka after the tsunami, and i saw a train, a rail car that had been lifted away from the tracks. i went haiti after the earthquake, and saw the devastation that took place there and quite frankly there's great work to be done in haiti. i went to louisiana, i'm from louisiana, i was born there. i saw the devastates that took place. in my humble opinion, what i saw

. however, we have to know it doesn't do it on its own. it does it because of people that go in to harm's way to help others in their times of need. i trusted usaid will continue to be a great servant it has been. i want to talk about the business community for a moment. i had the preimminent privilege of meeting with some of the leading citizens who were the heads of major corporations, and we talked rather extensively about the -- [inaudible] i think they have stepped up to the plate. they are making plans to do more. one of the thicks we talked

about was schools. as you know, the infrastructure has been destroyed approximately 90% of the infrastructure for schools has been destroyed. and children are without what they would normally do in the course of a day. that is be in a classroom. these business leaders indicated a willingness of to be of assistance to help with the schools. my hope is there will be some coordinated effort between the business community and the ngo and the government all of the parties involved to help children. i'm concerned about my hope is we will do something to help with the education. the senior citizens, persons who are not able to take care of themselves to the extent that

you and i can take care of ourselves. i i would like it if you can comment on efforts being made to help them comment on the schools. the earths to help reestablish schools as quickly as possible. and finally, when we met with the mayor she indicated that the number one concern was shelter. the number one concern was shelter. this was the case, of course, in louisiana after katrina, shelter was great importance. it was a case in haiti, and pakistan as well as in sri lanka. and i know that we have at lough experience in dealing with shelter after these tragic events. but i also know what you said is true about them being in harm's way to this very day. because the hurricane season, the typhoon season reaches --

apex in the month of december. there may be something looming on the horizon. the number one need is shelter. if you could comment on the shelter issue. finally, one additional comment and compliment, if you will, reference to the ability to move 800,000 people. that's remarkable. >> with my apologies. sorry.

you -- that is an amazing set of places that you visited. you've seen in each instance the awesome power these natural events have to disrupt and to destroy. focus on cash as the most effective means -- so thank you for that. also, we have a list that will provide your offices that is kicking out regular --

those contribution set up specifically to look at how to bring forward those partnerships. and i know that a number of ngos are also quite experienced and committed to partnering with the fifth sector. i think we'll see a lot of those efforts going forward. schools are essential. it's part of getting a sense of normalcy back in to people's lives. and even temporary schools so you're able to help children focus on the future instead of on their loss. children are amazingly resilient. it's important they have the

opportunity not lose out on the critical schooling years. that's part of the largest priority. you quite rightly raise shelter both as priority and one of the areas that is always one of the most challenging after these storms. we've learned a lot, i think, in terms the importance of providing transitional shelter that gets people very quickly in to the kind of shelter that can withstand additional weather events. understanding that it may be awhile for the permanent shelter solutions to fully come on stream. we saw this even in katrina, as you noted. after katrina. the other challenge is there's also a desire to look at policies that help a citizen not

rebuild in the areas that are at greatest risk. these are the tough policy decisions that it often takes awhile for a government to responsibly work through through a solution. so our strategy was to, first of all, provide the urgent life saving shelter material that got people out of the element. we have the shelter expert on the ground to work on transitional shelter programs. and we will be very supportive of particularly the issue of ensuring there are people's rights very much respected as we look forward to the longer term shelter solutions that will take awhile to come forward.

for a program turk low sis or doing relief operations in a typhoon or other natural disaster that the advocacy is enhanced when faith-based operations are, again, robustly included. they have networks. they have people on the ground. the multiplier effect is -- i've seen it over and over again.

when i found is only 9% in other words 91% not in particularly the health care grid is primarily faith based getting monies, grants from the u.s. government. it was very disconcerning to me. i know, that catholic relief services is getting support, and we saw when we went to the transfiguration church. as a matter of fact, a week before that we received communion while there pfs it a church without a roof. it was completely destroyed. it had just been rehabbed, and unfortunately have to be so again. i would encourage you to realize every dollar spent there gets multiple because of the unbelievable commitment and nothing do with money. it has everything to do with service and service sake. but also because of the multiplier effect of the volunteers included in the

operation. if you can take that back if you wanted the response. second thing is that the recovery must be sustainable. and know that you have friends and advocates here. it's bipartisan. mr. green, mr. frank, mr. chairman, mr. royce, all of us, i believe, if we know the need, as your folks on the ground say the cash for the work needs an a additional push. let us know. and we will try i can't guarantee results but question try to increase the capabilities that you will then have on the ground to help the people who have been rave averaged by the story. yes? >> well, to your first point, amen. we have a lot of -- [laughter] we have a lot of really important wonderful faith-based partner. i think we're seeing especially how important it is in the philippines with the networking of charges they have.

i was on a call with face-based community members across the just last week talking about the philippine's response and also hearing about all the efforts that are happening in this country to support the relief and the recovery efforts. so absolutely agree with you that's an important part of the landscape and some of our most valued partners including the two who have coming up next. on the offer to help us keep sustained attention on this, i very much thank you for that. i would welcome the opportunity to take you up on that offer. we see all too often after the cameras go away these kinds of responses fall off the page. and people move on to other issues. we will be there with our teams, 0 our funding and programs and we would --

welcome the partnership and helping to keep the spotlight on the sustained effort. again, i cannot thank chairman smith, congressman green, and the rest of your subcommittee for the continued focus and support for these kinds of critical efforts. >> i would add that this to be shared mr. green? >> yes, sir. thank you, mr. chairman. what you said about the faith-based nichetive. i want to add an amen. they not only help after a disaster but also before.

i have seen evidence of it. because they know where the vulnerable are. they know where the help is needed. they are familiar with the people in the neighborhood. and they can do an awful lot with the evacuation process and when people have to shelter in place and that's usually what you finally hear and that's something i'm hearing. shelter in place there's no more we can do given that the hurricane in our case or the typhoon is near now that we have to stay where we are. when that happens, it's usually these institutions, these faith-based institutions that are still there. we leave, but they ride these things out. as soon as it's over, they know exactly where to go to render the most aid.

i add one other thing. the concern we have about the bias against them is well-founded. after hurricane sandy hurricane sandy, i offered a bill on the floor of the house of representatives that passed 354/352 to 74 bipartisan and it would have provided fema funding for houses of worship. those first and fore most in the relief side being told not getting fema relief. there's no separation church and state issue. they can apply for a loan and do all kinds of other things. they can't get the critical fema support.

that kind of bias which i know you needs to be guarded against because again that first line of defense is so important more you can help out in the regard the better. thank you. >> i would like -- former senator said tuesday that in order to get a buy in from republicans, president obama endorsed adopted health care model first proposed by the heritage foundation. the individual mandate. he spoke at the forum hosted by georgetown university. here is a little of what he said. i had many conversations with him and others over those early stages. i'll never forget as he was contemplating what model he would use, there was a lot of pressure in his party going back to this question about government to say you know what, what we ought to have is a

single-payer system. medicare for all. that's what we need. medicare for all. a single-payer system like a lot other industrialized countries especially europe. you know what his answer was? i'm going take the heritage foundation proposal they came up with in 1993 and we'll use that as the model and we'll use that as the basis for legislation. because i want to see if we can find it bipartisan. they said, okay, we'll accept that. when you offer the exchange there ought to be a public option. you ought to be able to go every state and pick medicare for all, if that's your choice. he said, no i want to keep it bipartisan. we'll never ever get republican support if we have a public option. so they said, well, we really

strongly disagree but at the very, very least, you thought let government negotiate drug prices and you thought allow importation whiching? they advocated for. have the ability to negotiate prices is what they do with the veteran's administration and the president once again said no, i want to try to keep this bipartisan. so he told that as well. well, unfortunately we weren't able to get very far in creating the bipartisan consensus he really attempted to produce. in a few moments a national press club speech by columbian president. in

on the next washington "washington journal." as you walk in, there are tables out in front with lots of pamphlets. not the prior to entering the gun show and they are all how the government is trying to take away your right to own gun and government is doing this and obamacare is terrible. and so those were the guys i wanted to talk to. they were guys with the leaflet. the idea i said to them, you know, is this your stuff. and they said who are you?

i said, actually i'm an academic. i'm a researcher and doing research on these organizations. these ideas. and trying to understand the guides about it. and studying men who believe this stuff. and a bunch of them looked at me suspiciously and said, you know, sort of asked me questions. and i said, look, here is what i am. i don't get it. so here is my job. i want to understand how you see the world. i want to understand your world view. it is -- look, you will not convince me. i will not convince you. that is off the table bhap is on the table is i want to understand why you think the way you do. michael on the fear, anxiety, and range of angry white men. sunday night at 9:00 on "after words." part of booktv this weekend on c-span2. the president of columbia met

with president obama at the white house tuesday to discuss relations between the two countries. later in the day, president santos spoke at the national press club for an hour. good afternoon welcome to the national press club. my name is angela. i'm a reporter for "bloomberg news" and the 106th president of the national press club. we are the world's leading professional organization for journalists committed to our profession's future. please visit our website. to donate to programs offer to the public through the national press club journalism institute please visit press.org/substitute. on behalf of our members worldwide i would like to welcome our speaker and those in the audience today. if you hear applause, i would

note that members of the general public are also attending. so it's not necessarily evidence of a lack of journalistic objective. i i would like to welcome our c-span and public radio audiences. you can follow the action on twitter using #npc lunch. after our guest speech concludes will have a question answer session. i would like to introduce our head table guests. from the right lewis carlos ambassador for the republican of colombia. vice president of the national press club, former associated

press correspondent currently professor at george washington university and the national press club member who organized today's event. thank you. >> our guest today could well have been a member of the national press club if he were not the president of colombia. as a journalist, president juan was a columnist and deputy director of a newspaper and was president of the freedom of expression commission for the inter-american press association. he has always published seferlt books including the third way cowritten with former british prime minister tony blair and "check on terror" he describes the most important actions against the rebel group during his tenure of the head of the ministry of defense. journalist santos entered politics. perhaps he'll tell us why.

and rose to become president of colombia in 2010. he was elected for a four-year term extended until august 2014 obtaining more than 9 million votes. the highest amount obtained by any candidate in the history of columbian democracy. two weeks ago ahead announced he will run for reelection in the election. saying he wants to finish the peace process he started. pts antos campaigned in 2010 on a platform to carry-on. he opened talk with the main rebel group the revolutionary armed forces of colombia or farc. they reached a draft agreement on november 6th on one aspect of the talk. and we expect and the chances for an ultimate peace agreement. the peace negotiations could be

a central issue in next year's presidential elections. with one leading opponent calling for an end to the peace talks. also opposing the peace negotiations is former president. employees give him a warm welcome. [applause] [applause] thank you very much. thank you for attending this session. it's a great prirvelg to be here among my fellow journalists. why did i switch from journalism

to to -- the one of the rooms first amendment launch, and i remember being thomas jefferson when he said he was strongly for the first amendment and he said there can be no good government without absolute freedom of expression of the press. and after he was president, he said there could not be a good government with complete freedom of expression of the press. let me tell you at the end of my government if that is true or not. but thank you very much for being here. i will try to summarize what i've been doing in washington in the u.s. give you some basic messages and then open it up for questions.

i was here today and yesterday in miami. and went to the university of miami and had a meeting with my columbian community in miami and this morning i went to a meeting with the inter-american dialogue breakfast there. i was a member of the inter-american dialogue for many years. i was covice chairman. had an interesting visit to the white house and president obama. i appeared as his guest on the official visit. i went out oai and sphoact general asemibelie there and the ambassadors in earlier guests that they had invited by then went to speak with the head of the democratic party of the

house nancy pelosi, and a few of the members of the house of the democratic party. then i went to speak with speaker boehner and a few of the republicans in the house. with whom i've been working for many years. not only as president but also as former minister. now i'm here. and last night i had a dinner with the center for american progress. members of that think tank. and i'm having dinner tonight with the counsel they invited me to address them. what has been the main messages trying to convey to the u.s. officials and the u.s. public first thank the u.s. government

in both parties for the help they have given us since we started collaborating with colombia. i was telling them yesterday that the president of university of miami see how things have changed in these 13 years. that was in the year 2000. before any president who came to miami, went to the -- this time i go miami and i got university. that in a way distribution how things have changed in my country and in our relations. we have been trying to make an earth to go beyond the security challenge. we have fortunely made tremendous progress there. colombia needs much more than

security. that's why i took the decision when i won the election. work in other fronts and welcome the agenda with other besides security. that does not mean that we have neglected security. we continue to advance in term of security and this three years we have given the most -- number one and number two 47 of their leaders. the number in arms of people in arms? these organizations are another in history since we take some kind of accounting of their members. but i also decided a peace

process then simply because everyone has lead through some kind of negotiation. and i thought the conditions were correct but the -- and i took the decision to open the negotiations i'm conscious of the fact that more complex and difficult would have enemies, but also very conscious it was a correct step and incorrect agenda. making more is more popular and easier than making peace. i can tell you i've been in both sides as minister of deafen and now as president. we have advanced the peace process in much more than any other moment in history in many

attempt attempts after 50 years of war. woe managed to negotiate first the agenda major step in any process. and we negotiated the agenda and we have agreed to almost five point. the first point has been an agreement to do the in the area of development. this is extremely important.

they grew there. for them this issue was very important. we already have an agreement on that point. the second very important point is political participation. how they are going to -- the vote from arms to arguments. we're going to open the space for them. this is point is someone that the columbian democracy needed anyway. progress in strictly in our democracy. struggling in the participation of people in our democratic process. at this very moment negotiating.

they profit from drug trafficking but it's not drug traffickers. that's so -- become allies of state against drug trafficking. if we succeed in in the objective which has already agreed between the two parts. colombia without cocoa. not only colombia or the whole region. they have been the major provider of cocaine and the world for u for 40 years. can you imagine it would mean if there is a change american city

or the renal. it would be a major breakthrough . there are enemies who continue don't want the process to have a good ending for various reasons. some people think that we are legitimizing the farc. if they think we can kill the last of the guerrilla we would

take another 50 years in order to do that. the way to end a sitting down and negotiating a final agreement. that's with we're trying to go. and some people are saying that we are giving in to the finishing arc or that we are giving in to the castro regime. this is nonsense. we're not negotiating the

economic model. it doesn't negotiating our political institutions. we're not negotiating our democratic presence. s. we are simply negotiating transition and the violence and pursuit of -- that's what we're negotiating. and today if you ask me how optimistic i i am, i continue to say i'm cautiously optimistic. it's a very complex process. 50 years of war. you don't resolve in 50 weeks in conversations. and but i am today more optimistic with the progress we

are making and we will find an agreement which will change the history of colombia but the whole region. simultaneously, when i took over the presidency, i said we need to build the conditions for peace. because peace is not made only by laying down the arms. the social investment. i decided to make a very progressive reform and i followed an example of former

american -- in the campaign to become part of the member of the government. we have here one of them. head of the liberal party

varying associate results. and the facts are there. the economy is growing. average of a %. we have been creating jobs for 40 months in a row. we have a performance of 40 months month after month the unemployment rate coming down. we is can say very proudly that colombia created more jobs than any country. formal jobs instead of informal jobs. not only that, we have put in place specific public policies and taken action to fight poverty and extreme poverty. and besideses peru, which has

been the country that has performed better the whole region in term of decreasing property. against the extreme poverty. we have been able to take on extreme poverty. and not only that, one of the big problems we had one of the bottle neck for our sustainability long run was how unequal the country was. the social injustic of the country. we were the second most unequal country in the whole latin america.

and we said we were going to break this trend we've had for so many years. where by the economy grew but also the inequality grew. the rich became richer. the poor became poorer. we put in place specific access and we can also proudly say in the last three years, colombia has lowered its inequality more than any other country except for -- the progress has been

tremendous. what i hope if we reach a peace agreement, then we can concentrate even more of our resources in achieving a better social indicators and more progress in that respect. in our international relations i also dpdzed -- decided to change the way we were doing things when i arrive

we must change this. we have to be relevant players in the world scenario if we want to have a good interperformance. and we decided to start changing the situation the first thing i did was to call my -- until then one of the worst enemies was i invited to come to colombia. we sat down. in front of each over and said this we've been at odds for a long time. as a journalist, it and also a minister i had written the worst things about him. and he had said the worst things about me.

we can agree to disagree and respect our differences and try to identify those areas where we can work together for the benefit of the venezuelan and the columbian. it's the correct mature way to handle a situation like we had that stopped assaulting each other through the media. that stopped threatening each other with war. let work together for the benefit of both people. and things change dramatically. we have a working relation with venezuela. venezuela is helping us in the peace process. something i appreciate. and i value very much. o'had a meeting with the president and he had no --

when i came in to power. we were also -- with my predecessor every day and i said let's fix things. and act maturely. we did so and we said that the relations between the two were at the best level probably in our history. and that has given us a room to play the parts in the region. we were elected as secretary general. we are helping them with the u.s. on the security issues. we are trying to transfer the technology and the no-how that we have acquired through more than 0 years of fighting the drug traffickers and fighting

terrorism. and trying to organize crime. we are using the know-how to help the caribbean, islands, central americas. and we are now also promoting the integration through niche tiffs like the pacific alliance, new mexico, peru, and colombia best performing economies come together to integrate more profoundly. and things are working quite well. we will continue with that initiative, and try to integrate the whole continent. therefore, we're doing well on the economic side. we're doing on the social front.

we're performing well at the international front. but would be the peace process. if we are able to finish the peace process, then i think the future for colombia and the region would be much better. achieved those in the middle of conflict, imagine what we can do without the conflict. what i say it's like a dead mule in the road. it has inhibited the columbians to realize our -- [inaudible] and we have a great potential. colombia is very rich in almost everything. not only are we the richest country in biodiversity in the world, we have the largest

species of frogs or birds in the world. but we also have the tremendous human capital and we now have a tremendous soccer team. [laughter] we are now one of the best four teams in the world. so there is a lot of good future for colombia. i've tried to read through that every day to my fellow colombia and the world. of course we have problems and challenges, of course there are stimmany problems we don't fix the country that has been at war for 50 years in three years. but we are making progress. we are making progress. and our relations with the u.s. also couldn't be better. i'm proud to say we have good relations with both parties and the obama administration.

we're now cooperating in things like education, technology, we are, for example, we are connecting every single municipality colombia with broad band and fiberoptics. it's going to be the first country that is completely connected in latin america. how can we use that infrastructure, technology, to better combat poverty. you have the know how and the software industries. and there we can really create a lot of synergies. so i come here full of optimism

and full of good intentions that are becoming realities. the social indicators i'm not saying it's a human development program of oxford university saying that colombia should have a replicated but i'm proud that this is happening in my country. and that's the success story i wanted to share with you. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. we have lots of questions on loss of topics. starting out the u.s. had to limit the military presence in south america due to sequestration and prioritizing

the pacific. how concerned are you about the this especially for drug interdiction. is it something you talked about with president obama today? we value extreme lit help the u.s. has give us. colombia has been extremely useful. i say not because of the quantity. when you add up what colombia has given us versus what we have had to invest ourselves. it's very small percentage. the quality of that help in terms of intelligence, practical ways to be more effective in, for example, the fight against drug trafficking has been very useful. it's knowledge we have already acquired. and as i mentioned, it's a

knowledge we are sharing with other countries. and in a way what we doing with the u.s. is lowering the cost and expanding and strengthening the results through what you would say a proxy procedure where by colombia is -- the help of the u.s. and in that case you can make the resources much more efficient. >> is the u.s. going in the right direction by evolving from security aid to economic development? health and what more should the u.s. be doing? >> well, i think they are going in the right direction. they should never ignore that

the security is the basis for progress in society. but the indication colombia, if we learn and we have been improving all of our security indicators if makes a lot of sense to invest in resources where they have a better return especially a better social return. so i think that it's a wise way to use the resources better. and that's what is happening in colombia. we have made tremendous progress in security. and now we have to make more progress on the social agenda. if the u.s. is willing to help, we are more than welcome it. >> you talked about income inequality decreasing in the colombia. in the u.s. it's increasing. did you offer president obama any advice on this? no, i didn't. i forgot to.

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