significant role in providing trade related assistance, and congress has appropriate funds for the purpose of specific targeting certain countries with which we have trade agreements. it a strong supporter of trade capacity building, so i would like to know more about what usaid is doing to enhance trade capacity abroad and what does he think congress can do to help. that's question number one. number two, as indicated i also applaud what the agency has done in progress in dispersing aid funding in haiti but however research congressional black caucus was at the u.n. and we were told that there could be a serious outbreak of malaria in haiti. and so i want to know, do you think is that so and what can we do there? third, of course, i am also concerned in regards to funding

in colombia, a great allies -- ally of ours. there seems to be a real situation in colombia's largest port and the scent of its population were over half a million inhabitants, over 90% of them are black. they are mired in crime and poverty, and over 80% live below the poverty line. 30% are unemployed and virtually none have access to supplies of electricity, water or basic wrote infrastructure. this violence that's going on, i know we want to make sure we are able to address underlying social problems so if there's anything that what we're doing there. and, finally, on the lines of what ranking member engel had asked, he talked a special about tuberculosis, but thanks in huge party was investment in global health, the world has cut by 50% the number of children who die before age five whether it's

pneumonia, malaria or tuberculosis. the leading killers of children worldwide. were on the verge of some exciting breakthroughs and life-saving potential. for example, another usaid youtube to prevent and treat malaria. but this budget control, constraints, et cetera. so i was wondering how you would prioritize these health, global health needs to assure we are fulfilling the gaps on current global health needs, especially as it relates to helping children? >> thank you, mr. congressman. i want to say thank you for your personal engagement and leadership on so many of these issues as they pertain to summon important parts of the world. and on behalf of really the world's most vulnerable. with respect to trade assistance and capacity building, the fy '15 requested with $170 million for precisely that activity.

in addition to that, we have our feed the future program which is operational in 19 countries, really focuses on improving the capacity of local businesses to engage in in particular regional agricultural trade. and i would just note that we done careful evaluation's of programs like the east africa trade hub that found that our efforts have helped to bring down customs blockages and shipments across borders have accelerated the time and efficiency of regional trade in particular, and has been come has generated economic value for every dollar we've invested in trade capacity building. what congress can do is support strongly the development assistance account, which is part of the budget and is under a lot of pressure. second term with respect to haiti, we have a strong health program that is focused on all child mortality and will include and those already include an

integrated effort with the u.n. to address cholera. i would point out right now the fatality rate is under 1% which means the standard and goals -- the goals the u.n. has set the we are working to make sure cholera is manage. as we make those investments, that the clinics that are in rural communities are well stocked to serve all children, whatever the cause of disease might be, and building that supply chain and that health systems approach has been critical to our efforts to bring a child mortality in haiti which has been successful over the last few years. third with respect to publish in colombia, a heavy chance to meet with our partners and were trying to work with about 100 businesses, trained thousands of youth and then get them placed in jobs. that effort has been very successful but we expect to place 80% of the 4500 trainees

in 2014 and reaching 10,000 by 2016 with a lot of support from business with it and it's part of our new approach to public-private partnerships. finally, which is that the global health, i just want to say thank you. you are raising the issue is a critical. america has a chance right now to lead the charge to end child death. and we'll take a two decade commitment from this committee. it will take resources and we've produced in fy '15 requested defenses will increase over the fy '14 request. and it requires a new concerted businesslike approach in the 20 for countries that account for just over 70% of the 6.6 mine kids who died. we will be unveiling an investment plan for the 24 countries with a group of other partners later in june. so we thank you for your support. and i think this is one area where americans can accomplish something in partnership with others it is truly extraordina extraordinary. >> we go now to mr. chris smith,

chairman of the subcommittee on global health. >> come on back dr. shah, welcome and thank you for leadership let me ask you a few questions and have some of it like this but for the record. to focus on child survival is extorted important to one of the first immense i offered in 1982 was 30 years ago, was to reauthorize and expand and doubled about the money for child survival. it became law and we've been doing as a country taking the lead through various administrations, world rehydration therapy, nutrition, vaccines and the like. body and concerned, i was part of a roundtable discussion with seven of can first ladies in 2010, and it focus on the first thousand days of life from conception. a very important initiative. as we all know, you know better than anyone i think i'm unicef estimates one in four children worldwide are stunted due to lack of nutrition the children were chronically un-nourished up

to the second birthday, incapable of protecting them against life-threatening ailments such as pneumonia and malaria. girls are 40% more likely to die during childbirth come expensed debilitating applications like i've stepped to give and deliver children who perished before reaching the age of by. we are still waiting for the nutrition initiative guidelines and i know they are in the works. sooner the better. how do we expand the first thousand days of life? i was in guatemala on the date that they signed a compact with the u.s. we need to do more of those, not just first -- so mother and child will be held but if you talk about that briefly. last year, neglected tropical diseases, tropical diseases caused the loss of 534,000 lives. in 2014, 100 million were focused on those horrible diseases. i held a hearing last year.

forgotten people, forgotten diseases. it is exploding all over. my emphasis is on care as you know as well as the other horrible diseases, worms, makes women more likely to contract aids. yet 2015 budget cuts it to 86.5 million. maybe there's of the money coming in from different spigots that is a 14% cut from something that is extorted important. on be boulder, you might want to speak to that very quickly -- ebola. for the record i know five cdc people arrived in guinea but this is different to doctors without borders is this is unprecedented because it's not small, it's not isolated. and finally something they think it's an easy lift. i've had two hearings on this emerging problem of infectious based hydrocephalic disease. a doctor from harvard set where

you sat, gave riveting testament on the need for searches in africa. they have cared over 5000 kids in uganda. i've introduced a bill that i don't know it'll pass or not, we've asked repeatedly, i've asked you if you'd look into it. we are talking about $3 million per year to get us involved with brain health in general but this one is, the situated kids who are dying, horrible deaths from water on the brain. i syndicate. i've met the children. i had one of the surgeons testify from africa. they need more than to grow the capacity in africa. one in 10 million in all of east africa. that's appalling. >> thank you. and i just want to thank you for your leadership on all of these global health issues, your chairmanship of the committee as well as your work from the early 1980s to set the tone for american leadership that i think

has borne tremendous results. so thank you very, very much. first, on nutrition. we will be announcing on may 22 our nutrition policy, which will visit -- is his report because it's one area where the signs and solutions habitats address dramatically in the last five years. working together with tony lake who pleaded unicef on for something called the scaling of nutrition, or some effort, which is designed to take the thousand days approach, targeting pregnant women and young children which supplemental foods that can improve their nutritional status so that they're not -- to the rest of their lives, forward and dozens of countries that were the countries themselves make the first commitment creates a plan can make their own investments and then we match that. i think you will see in the policy that we are setting a quantitative target for the number of kids we will achieve reduction of child stunting country by country. it will be integrated both with our feed the future program under larger global health

effort. and it will be the operational plan that makes real last year's commitment to a me on behalf of the obama administration at the g8 summit in london to commit nearly a billion dollars to nutrition specific investment over the next three years. with respect to him to become we provide maybe a more detailed answer for the record but i just want to note that under the obama administration we have scaled up significantly the private sector drug contributions from a number of key partners as well as the scale up their contributions to do the committee training of health workers and deployment of health workers. our approach is now integrated with our child survival efforts because there so much overlap in the countries of greatest needs. and i'm confident that while we had to make some tough trade-offs uncertain budget lines, investing in the systemic approach to child survival, bringing these drug donations into an integrated supply chain

will help us effectively achieve those goals and we did a more detailed discussion off-line. with respect to ebola, we have been supporting the world health organization and the cdc in this effort. we are supporting them in the regional office as well as in headquarters, providing personal protective equipment to front-line workers so they are protected from the disease themselves and providing emergency financial support as it's needed. i'm glad you raised because it does have really dire potential and will continue to work with. on hydrocephalus i will look forward to working with you a bit more on the. understand why it's been difficult and part of the difficulty is we've been so laserlike focus on community health and efforts to reduce these diseases, that we have had the resources ability given the extraordinary tight budget. but it is something we can do to be helpful, i would like to make that commitment to you and understand the data that you're

citing and the commitment unit shown. i want to thank you for the. >> we go to mr. sires of new jersey, the ranking member of the subcommittee on the western hemisphere. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i would first like to associate myself with the words by my colleague, ms. ros-lehtinen the i look forward with the my expenses -- i devoted a little bit about this issue with the twitter. i wonder if you know if u.s. aid is still the appropriate vehicle to carry out these programs? quite frankly, what are the potential negative effects on u.s. aids programs going forward in cuba and elsewhere which we have the situation in venezuela? >> maybe i could sort suggest three things. the first is it's clear that this program which is directed and mandated by congress and implement it within pretty tight

direction is a part of our portfolio of activities. i do want to have a conversation with congress about how we're managing this, about what the long-term approach ought to be. i do take note that the gao report that reviewed our management complement us for making management improvement and that the program is executed. and i note that in countries all around the world, standing up for democratic values, improve governance, anticorruption, open civil society, access to information is critical to achieving a broad range of goals. that said, we're open to dialogue you're suggesting and ththat like to have it. i'd also like to note right now that because alan gross was raised earlier and want to be clear about something. allen should be released by the government. he shouldn't have been arrested in the first place.

he should be freed and allowed to return to his family. he's a husband, a father. he's facing health issues. he's had a 50 year career of providing support for vulnerable populations, and we are going to come the entire u.s. government is working aggressively to secure his release. as you know, it's important for us as administration to speak with one voice on this. and i and usaid will continue to work with the state department and under its leadership as the lead the effort to secure his release on the diplomatic basis. >> my last question is regarding columbia. at a time when they negotiated with farc, we seem to be cutting our assistance to colombia. do you feel that's a good message that we are sending? >> welcome we're doing everything we can to maintain levels of support throughout the region and throughout the world. in an assignment where the budget is very, very tight. we had a topline reduction

overall. without a relocation of resources to make significant security investments and implement the findings of the review that was conducted on security for state and it personal. and given that, that's grating significant pressures, and we have less overseas contingency operations resources in the fy '15 request. so that's all trading downward pressure. in that context i think we're doing our best to prioritize colombia. would recognize him for that is. i visited personally met with the president come with leaders there in the private sector and civil society. and we are embracing new partnerships. we launched a big new effort with starbucks to reach 25,000 small-scale coffee farmers and to help connect them to a high-value market. and these are specifically farmers imposed a farc affected committees as an effort to kind of get the economy going and decisive those rural areas where

we know that jesus continues and we want to make sure it is sustained but we will do our best to test this is a different -- difficult your budgetwise overall and i always of congress can provide greater resources for america's foreign engagement because i believe these investments are the front line of our own security, prosperity and peace. >> i'm just concerned columbia has been such a staunch ally of ours and we've had success working together, that at a time when the negotiating we are cutting, and i don't know if that sends the right message but thank you, mr. chairman. >> we will go now to mr. dana rohrabacher, chairman of the subcommittee on emerging threats. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. administrator, could you tell us from your asking for what, $20 billion for your budget issue, is that right?

>> 20.1 billion. >> 20.1 billion. how much of that is that disaster assistance and how much of that is, let's say, long-term country building aid? >> well, sir, it depends a bit on how we count the accounts. one of the things we tried to do is use disaster assistance to support longer-term systemic developments on the philippines. we got the energy system and the water system back up and running within a few weeks, and we did it using a combination of disaster funds and development assistance. but in general, our two-minute to accounts are called it become international disaster assistance, food for peace, and a number of other accounts. they probably total maybe 4 billion from three to 4 billion in total come to be a which account you look at. >> 20% would be disaster assistance of what you're asking

for in the budget? >> i wouldn't stated that way, but we could come back and be precise about the edges, but yes, it's a portion of the $20 billion. >> let me just say that i believe that the american people do not -- we have a heart for people are suffering anywhere in the world, and certainly when people go through natural disasters, or even disasters that are caused by human action, lending a helping hand to get over that emergency is certainly something that none of us, and they think iraqi people, we would oppose, american people would support even though we are $500 billion in red every year, our overall budget we're spinning 500 billion more, so every cent we are spending we are in a way, much of that is borrowed money from someone else in order to give it to somebody else. but for disaster assistance, that's understandable.

long-term country building a do, however, at a time we are borrowing this money to have our own economy survived doesn't make as much sense to me or i believe to the american people. and often it's done in a way that is just absolutely atrocious it and i would like to challenge one aspect of that today, and that is the money that we plan -- i see that the administration is planning to provide, at least you're requesting an $882 million in aid for pakistan. and let me just note that pakistan arrested and is still holding and brutalizing dr. frieden, who helped us identify and locate osama bin

laden was responsible for slaughtering 3000 americans. i consider his arrest and his continued incarceration to be hostile act by pakistan against the united states. and see how anybody else can thing of it as anything else. but worse than that, we have apparently since 9/11 we have given pakistan over $25 billion, and of that, $17 billion have gone to pakistan's security services, which we know now have been in cahoots with terrorists who murder americans. and even worse, perhaps, we have been providing these billions of dollars that pakistan's security services, and they're using billions of dollars of military equipment that we've been giving them in order to conduct a

genocidal campaign against the people of baluchistan. how can we justify providing more aid for a country like pakistan but is using our aid, our military aid to murder in great numbers of people of baluchistan and the repression of the people of? >> let me just come back to our budget. we have about $3 billion for national disasters. the majority of the remainder is spent in child survival, hiv/aids and treatment for aids patients, food and hunger including the presidents feed the future program. our education effort which specifically focuses on girls and getting girls basic education in early years, and water, and getting water to people who otherwise suffer without. for each of those areas we have strategies, goals, metrics.

we measure outcomes. and i believe we can speak about the effectiveness both in terms of achieving those objectives and greeting the basis of stability and opportunity so that we live in a more peaceful world because of this effort. with respect to pakistan in particular -- >> we are borrowing the money from other people in order to achieve very fine objectives like that, and perhaps in the past we could afford to be benevolent towards other souls that are not in an emergent situation but at least hoping some people out. we could be benevolent and think borrowing the money is okay. perhaps we've reached a point now where it threatens our whole economy. pardon me for interrupting. >> and with respect to pakistan, the u.s. aid program focuses in five sectors come in health, education, agriculture, stabilization program that is

built schools and community, clinics and roads, infrastructure and energy and electricity. and each o of those areas, any e put 39 megawatts on the grid. we believe those efforts are building, are helping to move communities towards a better perspective about how to engage in the world, giving people who otherwise wouldn't have opportunity basic opportunity. and our goal as is our goal for all of our efforts, everywhere around the world is to succeed at having local capacity replaced external assistance. >> we are putting our money, we are putting our money into those wonderful goals. they put their money into murdering their own people and helping terrorists killed american troops. thank you very much. >> we go now to mr. ted deutch florida, ranking them on the subcommittee on -- >> thank you, mr. chairman. thanthank you, dr. shah for beig here today. let me share my colleagues in

commending the work you've done to make usaid more efficient, more transparent over the years. and the tremendous work that is done to promote american interest around were. the united states foreign aid, not because was like one crunch or another. we go to ensure stability, quality, rule of block, duty to do, global health, all the things of the drug impact on our own security. and i commend you for your effort. on the branding of usaid in syria, at the time we are seeing extreme press reports that the syrian people have no idea that the united states is the largest provider of aid. we heard reports that in refugee camp store flags of the countries on the tens, on the blankets, but hardly any u.s. flags at all. i understand the risk of

branding places on workers. and sensitive of that led to believe it's appropriate. we were given a number of -- plastic sheeting, nutritional biscuits and also discussed efforts to broadcast on arab media in to see. i wonder if you could give us an update on efforts to let the people know that we are there and we are helping? >> thank you, sir. i think we're trying to do our best to make sure that the work that we are doing and the partners were conducting this work are appreciated for the america's generosity, and for the results they are achieving. and we tried to balance that with some of the very specific risks that some of our partners in particular, syrian and american doctors face because we know that they've been targeted by the regime. so with that, you know, a few examples would be as we are moving to providing these

vouchers and debit cards to refugee families that are registered in jordan and lebanon, in turkey, those are branded. i noted earlier, so did the chairman, a group of women who said this represents our dignity in an environment where we've lost our homes, we lost our husbands come we've lost our assets. our kids are not in school, and thank you to the american peop people. >> how are they branded? >> they have the u.s. aided brand on them. and from the american people which is part of our branding effort which has been actually studied and is quite effective and sometimes represented in both local language and our own. there are other come anytime we provide sort of cash assistance or food items or nonfood items like the plastic sheeting, those things are branded and identified. we have expanded over the last few years efforts to use

broadcasting and other tools to help people see what we're doing, and also to kind of learn what needs are so that we are both projecting an emerging image that is more effective for me public diplomacy perspective and, frankly, gather information that helps us improve our response, communities in need or changes in that context. and in general, i think it's now recognize that america provides a lot of critically needed and life-saving humanitarhumanitar ian assistance in syria, and certainly the communities i've been with in amman, in lebanon, in turkey. >> i hope that the issues that we heard about last time that there are, there are tents that clarity displays flights of the other countries for helping to a lesser extent than the united states, that does not include american flags as well. lelet me move on to another isse in my remaining time. i want to commend the good work of american schools and hospitals abroad program which

has held american or positions start and maintain programs around were. the administration is usually commend and level of around $15 million in the budget to congress as appropriate on 23 windows to the fy '15 budget request for this program has been reduced again and it would be helpful if you could just walk us through the reasoning for this reduction in what is a successful program, at least it's mismy understanding. >> well, thank you. and again, you know, we really respect the american schools and hospitals abroad efforts. since 1961 provide almost a billion dollars in health and education assistance, more than 300 organizations, continue to be a critical vehicle for us. we hosted the international conference just a week or two ago in washington, d.c. we know we reach more than 10,000 students and health professionals every year with this effort. we have had to make tough budget determinations, especially

because of the dire humanitarian consequences of what's happening around the world right now, and the downward pressure on the overall account that comes from both the budget agreement, the control level, and the efforts to make the security investments the ultimate the reports. this is one of those tough trade-offs and to recognize how important this effort is, and you know, i think these are important efforts. we just had to make very, very difficult decisions. these are programs i respect and value and i think over time we will absolutely sustain. ..

not being wasted on ineffective assistance programs or end up in the hand of corrupt governments or any other organizations like that. so administrator shah, i i havea few questions. in february i had an opportunity to visit the philippines with chairman royce and other members of this committee in order to assess the devastation which was caused by typhoon haiyan. while there we learned usaid is

using go owe locators to track precisely where assistance was being delivered and by whom. it was indicated the locators were being used to help reduce the overlap of aid aid. how effective has it been in the typhoon hit areas and at the same time has this technology been used in other countries? if so where and what are the cost benefits of implementing this type of tracking method? >> thank you, sir. i don't have the data to speak to the cost benefit of that specific strategy at this point. >> could you provide that? >> absolutely. one of the things we've done over last few years to really work hard to improve coordination and our lead role with the u.n. and with a range of other partners. that is why i went out to co-chair with secretary hagel because the ministerial assistance and coordination is

coordinating with civilian and military actors we saw with typhoon haiyan. this is one technology. we used others as well to make sure we're coordinated and swift and aggressive how we respond to thing and we have data back so we know who is receiving aid and where there are pockets of need in the midst of a crisis where data is often difficult to come by. >> if you could provide the cost benefit information i would appreciate that. >> sure. >> the next question, asia-pacific committee which i had honor to chair and did quite a bit in cambodia in run-up to elections not surprisingly we believe were vote rigged and overall unfair elections. at the time i introduced legislation calling for more accountable foreign assistance for cambodia. that legislation stated that if the elections were in the deemed free or fair, cambodia should be ineligible for direct u.s.

assistance to support its military and police and the state department and usaid should jointly reassesses and reduce, if appropriate assistance for cambodia. the consolidated appropriations act of 2014 contained restrictions on aid to cambodia due to its human rights situation which has not improved. has usaid begun the process of reassessing assistance to cambodia? also, would you please describe what u.s. assistance in cambodia has actually achieved and which areas aid has been least effective and how have the actions of the regime impacted the effectiveness of u.s. aid and foreign assistance from other countries as well if you know? >> thank you, sir. on the asia-pacific in general this has been as part of the president's direction to pivot to the region. we have, despite all the difficult tradeoffs we have

made, we have had modest increases in budgets through that region and in aggregate for asia and pacific. with respect to cambodia in particular the strategic direction we've taken and we appreciate the guidance you provided to increase support for democracy programs, for civil society, for efforts to improve governance in the fy-15 request includes more than $12 million for democracy, governance and civil society and transparency efforts inside of cambodia. >> how much resistance from his regime do you get from that sort of assistance? >> well, we support civil society based on a set of principles we believe is part of partnering with america. we should be engaging with all parts of society and not exclusively in just the government. so, you know, we are, these are open programs. they're notified as we've discussed and we get from time

to time some degree of comment but nevertheless we have support for civil society as one of our core values in our programs around the world. i will say with respect to effectiveness these efforts have in the past directly engaged over 22,000 young cambodians and indirectly reached tens of thousands of more and though do provide support for them to document what happens during elections, to mobilize young people and stand up for a set of values about open society. and we will continue to provide that support should congress provide the resources. >> thank you, my time's expired. >> thank you. we go to mr. david cicilline of rhode island. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thankthank you, dr. shah for jog us today. i want to begin by complimenting you powerful and moving words at national prayer breakfast. you were not strucked not to up stage your boss but thank you

for that. and thank you for usaid work doing in challenging times in the face of diminishing resources. we were also very proud to welcome you to rhode island last year. thank you for coming to producer of the nutritional products and you would see first-hand how they are using innovation to prevent and treat malnutrition for the world's most vulnerable children and creating jobs in my home state to do it and they're drawing plans for a larger facility in rhode island that they hope can reach two million children worldwide and they would welcome you to cut the ribbon earlier next year. i want to acknowledge usaid's efforts to include exclusive development of especially human rights for lgbt individuals and recently coordinator started a few weeks ago and i look forward to hearing about the things he

will be doing and look forward to do with him this is especially important issue as uganda and nigeria passed severely discriminatory anti-lgbt laws which could hamper our public health efforts. last week there were press reports on police aid on u.s. funded hi v-pro project and reaching key communities is critical component obviously to reduce the transmission of hiv and creating an aids-free generation worldwide. i have a three questions i would like to go through quickly and give you the opportunity to answer them. would you talk quickly what usaid is ensuring ensuring thats access to pepfar life saving medication and other global programs? second, in 2010 usaid launched procurement program to increase contracts to businesses and

ngos and provide more funds directly to host countries and insure products being purchased are highest quality. could you talk about the progress made on these initiatives. finally, how does usaid work with intergovernmental organizations and ngos worldwide to combat the horrific, very serious problem of gender-based violence, particularly against very young children and girls? >> well, thank you, congressman, for your unhe wavering and incredible support. i love remembering what those employees at adisia told me which was upon learning their work and their product were reaching families throughout syria and helping women and children they were just so proud to be part of america's engagement in the world and those are great new jobs in that community so thank you for having me out there. with respect to the uganda i very much appreciate your comments. these retrogressive laws that have been passed have a chilling

effect on lgbt community access to care. quite simply put we'll not achieve our goals of aids-free generation if they are allowed to hamper the effort for our program beneficiaries to receive services in an environment that is safe, that is open, that respects their dignity and that understands that this is a critical point of access to critically-needed and life-saving health care. so we are currently undergoing a review of all of our uganda assistance programs and how to best engage. we made some adaptations already to programs based on particular organizations and their behavior with respect to all of this. i have talked to my counterparts in the u.k. and other european capitals so we have a coordinated response that carries more effort, force, as we talk through how we're going to deal with the consequences of this but our commitment is to make sure that we're able to reach the lgbt community in

uganda with basic services for health and hiv/aids and we are, you know, working to as secretary kerry has noted, you know, worked to highlight how regressive and repressive that this law is. with respect to small businesses and ngos, i'm proud to report that over four years we have nearly doubled our commitment to, to new partners and ngos in particular. the percentage of funds which used to be 9%, going to those partners is now 18%. with respect to small businesses, we get a score every year, a grade, and when i started it was an f. then it went to an "a." i think it came down to a b and we're hopeful for another a and i will knock on wood and not commit to that until the scoring comes out this year. the reason we pursue this effort because we believe we should have diversified base of partners and all partners should have access to take this mission

forward and small businesses ngos, civil society can often add a lot of value at a very efficient price point so we want to engage that community effectively. finally on ngos and gender-based violence i was in eastern congo a few months ago and the use of rape as a commonplace practice of conflict in war in that environment is just devastating to interact with and to meet young girls and young boys who have been a part of this is just, it is just extraordinarily difficult. i'm very proud of our teams that have not just had targeted gender-based violence programs to reach survivors and to protect them, to make sure they get fustula repair operations and critically needed operations and this is happening in difficult context and look at broad range what we do on

humanitarian efforts, on agriculture programs and health programs and insure we're focusing on reaching girls, protecting girls, giving girls an opportunity. we know in many parts of the world doing that will change the character and sufficiency and prosperity of society over time and every bit of effort we can make which while, by its definition is not enough, i think is an important manifestation of america's values. >> absolutely. thank you. i yield back, mr. chairman. >> we go now to judge ted poe, chairman of subcommittee on terrorism and trade. >> thank you, dr. shah, good to see you again. thank you for what you do. i want to talk about money, taxpayer money that is spent through the state department, specifically then through usaid. when americans think of foreign aid they think of all the money that the state department spends but there is a state department budget and there is foreign assistance money that goes to foreign countries.

but let's start with the state department and why so many, including me, people are frustrated about american money. the state department i understand has an arts division that buys art for its embassies. this is a million dollar stack of bricks in my opinion. i know nothing about art, that is at the london embassy that taxpayers spent, the state department paid for it and spent on ourselves, at the london embassy. that is million dollars. to me that is quite a bit of money. recently, the state department has decided to purchase this camel and send it to islamabad and put it in the american embassy in islamabad. this is about $400,000 and the embassy, state department, said, well it could have been more but we got a discount. so we got the camel, the stack of bricks, i understand that is not foreign assistance but that

is money that goes to the state department and, a little concerning that we would spend american money that way. if we want art in our embassies, why don't we get schoolkids to, paint pictures that we could put in all of our embassies throughout the world? i think our schoolkids could do that. it would be better. anyway. so, let's narrow it down to foreign assistance. recently the associated press has reported that the state department can not account for about $6 billion over a period of years. some of that money is foreign assistance. some of it's not foreign assistance. it would be security assistance. for the record i would like to put the associated press article into the record, mr. chairman. >> without objection. >> not sure where all the money came from. what accounts but it is about $6 billion that the state department says, well, we just can't find it. which is a little concerning as well. that is according to a report

that the office of inspector general did in the state department. and that frustrates me as a member of congress. it frustrates citizens, too. we're talking about real money, even for the federal government. which leads me to the comment i would like to get from you. accountability is, to me, very important. how we spend taxpayer money. representative connolly and myself have introduced legislation, the foreign aid transparency and accountability act which basically says, when we give foreign assistance we need to be able to measure if it is working or not working, programs that work, let's maybe keep them. programs not working let's get rid of them. and as you know many non-government organizations support the legislation. even organizations that would sort of be audited by the state department or by usaid, support

a review, an audit is what i call it, of foreign assistance. overseas. i personally think that would bring some credibility to how we spend our money. maybe we shouldn't be buying art. i know that is not foreign assistance but, and you've, you've commented in the past on this specific piece of legislation. so from your point of view, as the ad administrate tore of usaid, talking about specific foreign assistance, not talking about other state department money, do you think, if we eliminate the security portion of it, and just evaluate it at this time, foreign assistance, security, that is a different issue, weigh in on that for me if you would. then i have one other question. >> as we've skulked before, and i -- discussed before and i very much appreciate your comments on evaluation and monitoring we have taken the precepts that

underlie the legislation and asked implemented them. so over the last four years we have put out a new evaluation policy. we trained 46 -- 460 of our staff. we have increased the number of evaluations that we do and publish every year from about 73 to in this last year 234. and the quality of those evaluations, which we now track and measure has also gone up significantly to be consistent with our new policy. >> i'm running out of time, dr. shah. excuse me, that i have questions i will submit for the record. since you always respond i appreciate that. and one last question, if i may, mr. chairman, i understand that we give foreign assistance to armenia and belarus. those two countries specifically voted against the united states in the u.n. they agreed with basically the invasion, in my opinion of the russians into crimea. maybe we should reevaluate giving money to countries that support russian invasion.

just a thought. i will submit the questions, mr. chairman, for the record for dr. shah. >> we go now to dr. ami bera of california. >> thank you, dr. shah. thank you for your testimony. good to see you here again. thank you for your leadership in transitioning usaid from just being a donor organization to one that's actually a capacity-building organization. you know, indyaw is a good example of a country that we built capacity. now they can actually donate and help developed countries in africa and other places. as has been mentioned before, when we look at our overall budget we're spending less than 1% of the federal budget on foreign aid. so we should keep that in perspective. we should know these are remarkably important investments that not only extend the good will of the american people

globally, but also have dramatic impact on health and relief of human suffering and is a reflex of our values as americans -- reflection. i want to focus in on the 8.1 billion usaid and u.s. state department allocate for the global health programs. in particularly the 538 million in family planning and reproductive health. as you already mentioned usaid has a major focus on maternal and child health in 24 countries where more than 70% of the maternal child deaths occur. you know, quoting another senator, former senator, another physician, former senator bill frist, he talked about family planning key, often hidden engine for additional global health achievements. he also noted that the when women space their pregnancies out by more than three years

through the use voluntary family planning they're more likely to survive pregnancy and childbirth. their children are more than twice as likely to survive infancy. as doctors we know that pregnancy spacing is incredibly important. we also know that research has shown that addressing the current unmet need for modern contraception, if we were able to meet that need, we would prevent 79,000 maternal deaths and over 1.1 million infant deaths. from your perspective, how is usaid insuring that we better support effective family planning tools to advance our shared goal of ending preventative child and maternal deaths? >> well, thank you, congressman. thank you for your leadership on these issues and global health in particular. we do have a significant proposed investment in family planning and voluntary family planning. this has been a part of america's global health and

foreign assistance legacy now more than four decade. it has been extraordinarily successful in bringing down and taking up the contraception prevalence rate and bringing down total fertility rate in country after country. one of the biggest successes of program, program transition to country ownership, manning, funding and implementation after the capacity is built as you point out over years. president obama has been very committed to increasing this issue increasing budgets to the prior administration significantly. we have a process that everything we do follows the very strict letters of the law. i think there are three things that i highlight as you point out. one, this is one of the most effective ways to save women's lives during childbirth and most cost effective way to do that. the second, we don't save, we don't achieve the end of preventable child death unless we make these investments. and the third is the demographic shift that comes with bringing

down child death and bringing up voluntary family planning together. is what gives countries the capacity to be more stablized from a population perspective and to grow their economy. all these things have been proven which is why we've engaged and this administration in a partnership with the private sector, with australia, with the u.k., and bill and melinda gates foundation to get others to do more with us in genuine partnership. >> great. playing off of the hearing that we had last week about empowering young girls and women and particularly on the education front, we know, as we're prone to say, in our own country domestically succeed, society succeeds and i would like in the remaining few seconds just to comment on some of the strategies that usaid's engaging in. >> well, thank you. i think we put out a new women and gender policy a few years

ago. we now take a pretty aggressive approach. we have a new defender coordinator coming on board. we have new structure the way we do this bork. we support the national action plan on women, peace an security. critically important in all our major programs we try to measure the benefits of our efforts are benefiting women. feed the future which works to feed 7 million farmhouse holds we measure the income improvements from better agriculture production on farms going to women. the reason that is important because they do most of the work and you know dollar of additional income of women in that context is far more effective getting kids into school, reducing child death rates and improving commune development outcomes then if the same dollar gross to a male. by measuring and reporting on those trend, we've actually helped to lead this on this issue, knot just for our own foreign assistance but in the community of our partner country agencies. >> the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from illinois,

mr. kinzinger is renned for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman, mr. administrator, thank you for being here and thanks for serving your country in a difficult capacity and a difficult time in world history i believe. so i appreciate having you here. ii want to touch on two differet areas, iraq and afghanistan. when america with drew its forces from iraq after 2011, i think usaid and state department was kind of left scrambling. i will say i've been critical of the administration. i thought the withdrawal from iraq was probably one of the biggest blunders in decade in foreign policy. that said, you were left with kind of a presence which you had to figure out okay, with no u.s. troops here how are we going to go forward. seems like that since that opening day, opening salvo of no u.s. military presence usaid and state has been kind of scaling back its presence and figuring out the right size there. what lessons have we learned in iraq that can be applied to

afghanistan as we're going ahead to look to post-2014 and what is number one lesson you plan to apply to that? >> thank you. i think there are three. one is, we have to review our programs continuously to insure that they're sustainable given the political context and the security situation and underlying economics. second is we have to protect our people. so we have to make sure that we can get eyes on projects that we're using third party monitors, that we're using in some cases satellite data to look at crop yields and other ways to track outcomes but our people need to be able to evaluate programs and also be safe. and the third is that the cost of operations goes up. so i would just say with respect to iraq, one of the things we very much focused on as we take down our presence and our investment which we've done, we transitioned the responsibility of paying for programs to the iraqis and there's been an extraordinarily success phil set of transitions there where our

major programs have been picked up and continued with iraqi local resources. i think in afghanistan we are implementing those lessons and we recognize for the 2 or 3% of the cost of the overall war that was usaid's component investment, we have eight million kids in school, three million girls. we have the fastest reduction in child mortality, maternal deaths. the largest increase in human longevity anywhere over the world in the last decades. 2200 kilometers of road we built out and improvement in customs revenue collection at border post, sustaining those gains is critical to capturing the problem miss of peaceful and more secure afghanistan for the future. so that is what our focus is right now. >> i would like to say i recently visited south waziristan and pakistan and see usaid projects in completion of dams and road building. although there are huge problems

in pakistan and we all know this and significant problems with the pakistani government needs to confront we have seen some success. whereas when you bring economic prosperity to people, you give them opportunity to sell their fruits and goods they turn away from terrorism and turn away from extreme and turn towards peace and i think that sult matley the key here. what is the current usaid footprint in iraq? are your personnel presently able to go outside of the wire and visit projects in what do they do in terms of security and stuff like that? how would that apply to afghanistan as well? >> in iraq it is diminishing and that is by design. the goal is to transition the programs to local investment and ownership and we're on the path to do that successfully. in afghanistan it's different because in afghanistan we have large-scale programs and investments. the fy-15 budget calls for sustaining at a slightly reduced level over historic terms those investments and we really are working with the community of international partners according

to something called the tokyo mutual accountability framework so that if the afghan government makes the right choices, free and fair elections, efforts to fight corruption, efforts to replace foreign assistance with domestic revenues collected and transparently provided we will continue to work with the international community to make sure they have resources to sustain these important gains. that is important for women and girls in afghanistan. that's important for community, rural communities that have been part of the national solidarity program evaluated by harvard and mit and proven to be successful and it is important for continuing to build civil society and civilian capacity in the afghan government. so we're encouraged by these efforts. we know it will be very, very tough and our people in that context, as you know, sir, take tremendous risks every day to carry out that mission. >> again, in my travels i've seen a lot of what our organization does in terms of helping to rescue women and girls who are in situations none of us could ever ponder.

stuff you thought existed 100 years ago or 200 years ago exists still in the parts of world today. thank you for your hard work. i know we'll look at the budget. we always do that in a very big way. i think our organization as force multiplier an helps us prevent going to war in many cases. with that i yield back. >> the gentleman's time expired. the gentleman from the commonwealth of virginia, mr. connolly is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman and welcome, mr. shah. can you bring us up-to-date, we asked questions the last time you were here and proliferation of aid-like entities in the united states government, medical lynn yum challenge and african aids initiative and so forth which seemed to have the effect of diluting the centrality of aid our lead development agency. that is of concern to a number of us on this committee.

a concern shared with you the last time you were here. can you bring us up-to-date how that is being coordinated and perhaps reassure us that doesn't in fact delude aid's role as lead development agency in the united states government? >> thank you, sir, and thank you for your leadership on development and foreign assistance and how we project our values around the world. >> is that mean you're endorsing my aid reform bill? can i take that? >> we talked about this and i value the underlying concepts of that bill. i will say, over the past, president obama started in this administration issued a policy directive said we would commit ourselves to rebuilding usaid to the world's premier development institution. the time will test whether we've done that. but i believe we are strongly on that path. we have rebuilt our policy. reclaimed and designed our budget. we take accountability for our decisions. we have shut down 34% of all of our programs around the world to

create the space to invest in food security and child survival and education and water in a more results-oriented way. we did all of that during a period of relative budget neutrality. we measure and monitor our programs and we lead in many international forum, including next week's big global development conference in mexico, our ideas of a new model for development, brings private sector, civil society, public sector together to tackle really big challenges. we are leading the sector and space. so i feel confident that we've rebuilt usaid's capabilities including with your support, the hiring of nearly 1100 new staff that has given us all kind of new technical capacity that is deployed around the world. with respect to mcc and pepfar, yeah, we work in close partnership and i feel that partnership is a lot better now than it was when i started. and that's true, whether we're working in liberia, with mcc to

figure out who does what and get our timing and sequencing right. it is true whether we're assessing reach other's programs and sharing information and it is true with pepfar where we have a joint goal to create an aids-free generation and bring technology and science to the front lines of that fight. so usaid implements about 60% of pepfar. so we're doing our best within the institutional constraints that are already defined and exist to insure that we operate as one team. we deliver one set of extraordinary results. we are clear about our leadership around the world. and we project that this is an important way for america and the obama administration as it was for the bush administration before to project leadership, to protect the world's most vulnerable and extreme poverty. >> i appreciate that and it sound like everything is sunny in the neighborhood. but when you ask yourself what can go wrong, mr. shah, when you , when you don't have clear

organizational lines of responsibility in the org chart, maybe you and your colleagues get along fine but maybe the next team won't. frankly from the united states government point of view, it seems to me it ought not to be up to only the relational capacity of those who hold these jobs. there ought to be clear lines of responsibility and authority and who reports to whom. some case as dotted line responsibility we'll have to settle for. i asked you a year ago, whether you would meet with us and work with us on the reform bill that our former chairman, howard berman and i have worked on. i haven't heard anything from your agency. not a word, in a year. and the intent of the legislation is to be helpful and to try to streamline and to remove the the encrusted barnacles built up in 50 years. it seems not unreasonable

proposition that we actually need a new and streamlined legislative framework for moving forward that takes cognizance and what you're doing and the changes in the world in the last half century. i reinvite you to please come sit down with us and go over that legislation so that we can move forward together. >> gentleman's time has expired. >> would the chairman allow mr. shah to respond? >> yes. >> let me say i endorse the concept. we do need a new framework and i think enough has changed how we all operate, especially embracing science, technology, private partnership, innovation. the world out there changed dramatically. it used to be our agencies were the bulk of investment going into very poor countries. now we're the minority of investment. if we're not structured to partner well with the private sector, with other sources of local revenue and resources, we

woken succeed at the mission to end extreme poverty to keep our country safe and secure. to that end i will personally sit with you, i would be eager to do that i know my colleagues at mcc and pepfar would be eager to have that conversation. we're also realistic about, you know the timelines it takes to produce long-term outcomes on that basis but we value your leadership. and i and my colleagues will come speak with you about it. >> i have you etch appreciate that. thank you, mr. chairman. >> gentleman's time expired. the jent from north carolina, mr. holding, number two, is recognized for five minutes. >> dr. shah, the request, your request for office of transition initiatives, oti has around a 17% increase. i looked at oti's website and it states their mission is to quote, help local partners advance peace and democracy and priority in conflict-prone countries, seizing critical

windows of opportunity, oti works underground to provide, fast, flexible, short-term assistance targeted at key transition needs, end quote. if you go to the state department's relatively new bureau of conflict and stabilization operations, cso, it states, quote, that they offer rapid, locally-grounded conflict analysis in countries where massive violence or instability looms and quote, cso hopes, helps develop, prioritizes strategies to address high-risk periods such as election or political transitions. and cso also, quote, moves swiftly to mobilize resources and resource mechanisms for conflict prevention and response. the state department's inspector general just last month issued, from what i understand to be one of their most critical reports ever issued citing problems of

mission management, staffing, accountability and more and most importantly, in this report, it states, that usaid's office of transition initiative has a mission statement almost identical to that of cso. and from a comparison of the websites of oti and cso, it appears that both organizations are currently working in burma, syria, kenya and honduras. so it would seem that there's a lot of overlap between these two offices. and even when we consider the fact that they both work in very difficult and unstable situations. so i'm wondering if you could lay out the differences between oti and cso and help us determine whether there is duplication of effort going on here. if there is a duplication, what warrants that? >> well, thank you, senator. i would be happy to have my team

also follow up in more detail across the range of programs but if you just look at syria, for example, oti is helping to support the governance needs of some of the local coordinating councils under the soc, the syrian opposition counsel. they provide support on as-needed basis, that is, civilian support efforts to help them stand up local governance. i saw this first-hand in haiti where after the earthquake when the government was in really difficult situation years ago oti helped the office of the president set up -- >> i appreciate the good work they do. >> those types of efforts are not, are not very large and are time-bound and play a unique role. in syria, cso does things in a coordinated manner but a different set of things. and i think, you know they have worked hard to make sure they're not duplicating but are

coordinating. and in fact usaid guy leads the coordination. >> are you in the process of doing any study or inneragency review to look for overlaps between the two organizations? is that something that is going on an official basis? >> well we do have, we will be launching soon the qddr and that would be a vehicle for doing that. so i'll look, i know we did that last time during the qddr. so we -- >> that is something you would commit to do, look for overlaps? >> we could do that process, yes. >> the, one last question before i run out of time, is usaid, do they have any programs currently going on in russia? >> well, usaid was, we left russia and so, no, we don't currently run programs in russia. but our partners in the state department continue to partner

with and engage with a broad range of civil society in that context but i can't speak to the details of that, no usaid, does not currently present there. >> all right. thank you, mr. chairman. i have yield back. >> gentleman yields back. the gentleman from california, mr. sherman, who is the ranking member of subcommittee on terrorism, non-proliferation and trade is recognized for five minutes. >> i focus a lot on national security and there is no greater concern than pakistan and within pakistan i tend to focus on the province of sind. in sind, especially rural areas, you have historically marginalized area of pakistan. usaid has done a number of projects in the sind province including building schools. i want to thank you for that effort. i want to push for more. i hope that, well, please provide for the record a comprehensive list of your current projects in s think.

d. either on going or completed over the last year or two. and please include in that a discussion of whether we can find women teachers to teach girls, whether there are enough qualified women teachers and whether they're being hired. the far area of sind, especially if you could comment how we dealt with the recent famine and drought there and, if sind is marginalized by pakistan, the hindus who live in thar are even more marginalized. according to human rights activists the hindus there and elsewhere in sind live in fear of forced conversion or pushed, being pushed off their land if they don't convert. is usaid in pakistan cognizant

and sensitive to the ethnic and religious minorities of pakistan and the vulnerable populations and do we focus our effort on those vulnerable populations? >> well, thank you, congressman, and thank you for your support for our efforts in pakistan and all around the world. i think that si in. d, pakistan, program is good example what we get done take results oriented result and we restructured our work there to focus on health, education and power. in education as you noted we are rehabilitating and building out 120 schools. our target to insure 750,000 kids, mostly girls, are learning to read at grade level in early grades. we'll conduct performance testing of those kids to insure that is in fact the case. we have rehabilitated power plants. the power plant and others and my team can follow up with details but that has helped

produce 270 megawatts of energy at at time when that is the core constraint to growth and we supported more than 200 health care workers to provide basic health care services to 25,000 women across 14 districts in sin d. that is one of our most effective ways to reduce child death an maternal survival during childbirth. think programs when well-run are effective. i'm not as aware of our specific efforts in thar and minority communities. so i appreciate you raising that. i will look into that specifically and ask our team to come back to you. >> i want to thank you for your responsiveness. i've been focused on sind for several years. to have an administrator that up-to-date, first of all doing all the good things and to have an administrator that knowledgeable is, is a good result. as to aid to negorno, i hope you provide for the record the the

aid being spent in armenia but also negorno for fiscal year 2014 and particularly focus what has been done to reduce landmine explosions and provide clean water to villages. we've seen tragedies in syria. i know that elliot ingle, our member focused on you trying to reach those very vulnerable populations. obviously jordan and lebanon have absorbed the bulk of the international displaced persons but a lot have gone to armenia and i wonder whether you are providing aid through or the government of armenia to handle the refugees that have gone

there? and since my time's about to expire i ask you to respond to that for the record because i i want to focus on the heti region of georgia. overthe last 20 years we provided over half a billion dollars assistance to georgia, one of the poorest regions of georgia is javaheti. some 28 of us signed a letter urging that with u.s. assistance to georgia a, at least a good percentage of that go to the javaheti region. since my time expired i ask you to respond for the record unless the chairman wants to -- >> gentleman's time has expired but you can respond for the record. >> on javaheti we will continue funding with fy-15 fund for activities in those regions. we can provide detailed response

for 10 specific programs that will be supported in that context. on, negora, i note in the fy 15 budget the resources to support that effort are labeled in the your asia regional account. -- eurasia account. and the we'll deploy specific results. we already expected to achieve demining on potable water in particular which have been areas of focus for that implementation. and we'll just continue to work with your office. thank you for raising those and i think we've hopefully been responsive in the context of the prior dialogue. >> thank you. >> gentleman's time expired. the gentleman from florida, mr. yo low is recognized five minutes -- yolo. >> thank you, mr. shah, you have impressive credentials and look forward to starting with you. you started with usaid end of

2009, is that correct? you know a lot of different things you can do and i recommend you for streamlining the agency. when we go back home like you've heard a lot of members talk about giving foreign aid to other countries with when we're kind of suffering here a little bit, the beginning of 2013, there was the fiscal cliff, the world would end in america. then we had sequestration and we had furloughs and emwere laid off in my district. towards the end of september, beginning of october, our government shut down and it was over money. certainly wasn't from an excess of money. and we're in a tight budget constraint and what i see is, you know the way we're spending this money, and i understand the concept to create goodwill, bring economic development to some of these countries to hopefully they become our allies. but i see sometimes that we do that and it's like the movie "groundhog day," it is the same story over and over and over. and we're not getting results that we intended to.

and i'm just reading here an article that's in "the new york times" about the one billion dollars that was given to afghanistan in special inspector general said there are hundreds of millions of dollars that are unaccountable, unaccounted for. do you have, can you explain what happened to that? because we talked about transparency and accountability but this is a recent thing that just happened. we don't have that. how can we, i want to hear your thoughts on that, what happened to that and how we can prevent i had it. >> sure. i can't speak to that specifically because i'm not sure which pots of money that is referring to but let me say about afghanistan in general of the usaid component of the investment has been about 2 to 3% of the total cost of our global engagement in afghanistan and for that 2 to 3% we have helped to insure that more than 8 million kids go to school, including more than three

million girls compared to almost no girls before. we helped to make sure that 65 or so percent of the population has basic access to health services. not comprehensive high order health care, but vaccines, clean water, pills, things like that, and that led to the fastest and most sustained reduction in child deaths, maternal deaths, huge increase in longevity of women's lives based on those programs. we helped buildout 2200 kilometers of road, with our military partners and international partners. we have seen trade relationships blossom across the pakistan-afghan border. we also improved, and this is very important, the afghan, their own collection of customs revenue, transparently and so it goes back to the kabul government so the government can pay for more their country's own need themselves. i, you know, when i started we launched an effort called a-3,

accountable assistance for afghanistan. we tripled number of people reviewing programs. we conducted reviews at subgrant level. we implemented assistance to allow us who is doing what, where the resources are going. we insisted on tighter monitoring. we expected a sustainability do and stopped doing, took off the books, projects we didn't think could sustain into a future where american presence would be significantly diminished. and what we're left with i believe is a program that will hopefully be able to sustain some of the gains that have been experienced on behalf of the afghan people. frankly when i look at what happened this past weekend, 60% voter turnout, higher than expected percentage of women voting, afghan institutions that we've been working with and supporting for years in the lead in terms of electoral complaint and conduct of the elections and insuring and there is a lot to do before we label this a success. >> time well tell on that. >> 52% helps our country greatly

and i appreciate your efforts to advocate support it and hold us to account. >> well, time will tell how well that turns out but again, you know, in my own community we've got over 500 underperforming septic tanks and we can't get them fixed because of money. just met with somebody with disabilities. they can't get the service they need because of lack of money. and i just, i guess what i ask is that you let us know what we can do to help you be more effective, more efficient, to hold everything more accountable. when we give money out we get results so we're not here in a year talking about $100 million being lost we don't know where it went to. i would like to see people in charge we can come back to say, dr. shah, you had this money last year. why didn't go and spent where it was supposed to be? so we can bring an end to those kind of lost fund. i thank you being here. >> thank you. >> thank you. the gentleman's time is expired. the gentleman from

north carolina, mr. meadows is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, dr. shah. i think i'm your last hurrah here. i want to say thank you for your leadership and many of your staffers who have taken notes, patiently behind you supporting, thank you for all your work as well. there are a number of people across the world that will never be able to tell you thank you and, so on behalf of them, i want to say thank you. as we start to look at priorities, that is really the subject of this hearing, there are a couple areas troubling more me, so i don't want anything a taken not appreciative of your work. global fund, mark, executive director of global fund. i'm a huge fan to see some of the work he's done and impact it has done and truly some of the reforms that have been made to

make sure irv dollar goes forward, further. it appears that there's a little over $500 million requested for global climate change initiatives within your agency. are you, would you say that your agency is the best one to be implementing that? and because, it is not just your agency. it's a number of agencies through the federal government that has requested money for global climate change initiatives. and yet, when you look at the core principle of what you do, that doesn't seem to align with your core mission. can you address that? >> sure. well, thank you, and you know, what, first of i would ask that my team follow up on the specific number because -- >> i think it is 506.3 million. >> we'll follow up on that but i do want to note, in this

portfolio are some efforts that are actually quite critical for our ability to be successful in ending extreme poverty. one is a component to support illegal deforestation. we work with companies, big consumer goods companies like proctor & gamble, unilever to make sure the supply chains they're supporting are not causing down at farmer level in indonesia and colombia large-scale deforestation. >> how do you coordinate that with the other agencies? >> that is an effort called the tropical forest alliance we lead coordination. the white house is critical bringing other agencies together and we present one consistent interface to major companies part after group -- >> how much do you need for that particular program. >> i'm not -- >> i guess my question is, whenever you get a pot of money? >> yes. >> and there is more than one person managing that pot of money, it becomes very difficult to manage it. >> yeah. >> it is like giving your wife the same checkbook and never

reconciling, you spend out of the same checkbook and you never reconcile. so how are we reconciling that. >> so i think that there are different components of this, that different people have responsibility for. so usaid takes responsibility for the tropical forest alliance, for our resilience efforts. we measure and monitor the risk of disasters coming from droughts, for example. and, we can then track what climate impacts are on our humanitarian portfolio, respond quicker and more coherently. we have a clean energy program that supports, you know, we talked about some hydroprojects in pakistan and programs in africa and help to provide off grid renewable energy. so i, and other agencies do -- >> all of those work well. i don't want to go on record to say they're not but we've got people dying. people that quite frankly just, don't have food. and yet, we're doing something that is way out in the future, instead of meeting those

individual needs right now. and, is that a top priority, or should that be even in the top 10 of your priority, in terms of -- >> let me give you one example. we work to create improved seeds in sub-saharan africa and east africa and can perform better in environments -- >> that comes under global climate change initiative? i thought that was in different pot of money? >> we do a lot of attribution here. so i think we've counted some of that work in the context of this but we can go through a full portfolio -- >> i have a real concern that your core mission has creeped over into one that might be better suited for a different agency. the other i would ask you, and i'm running out of time, but i'm very troubled with the amount of money we give to the palestinian authority and yet what that fungible money, they're paying $46 million additional to

terrorists and applauding their efforts as heroes. the minister of prisons said that these terrorists are heroes. i have, you know, it is hard to justify when we go back home we're giving money and yet they're taking part of their money to support terrorists. i need, because of the omnibus said that the secretary of state needs to certify that incitement and those things are not happening. i need y'all to address that i'm out of time. i appreciate the patience of the chair. >> chair, can i -- >> gentleman's time expired but you can respond, yes. >> i want to point out that the mechanisms we use for our support in that area are very, very precise. we have a vetting system that insures we know who's receiving the resources at the end point of use and the cash transfer to the palestinian authority is actually done through, it enables the repayment of payments that are owed through an israeli bank. and it is structured very, very careful.

i will have our team follow up. but i can assure you on those they have been carefully scrutinized and they require the secretary's clearance as appropriate and we can show you exactly how the money moves that will offer you a lot of confidence. >> thank you. the gentleman's time has expired. we thank the admin temporary for his time this morning and we look to follow up on these critical issues. if there is no further business to come before the committee we're adjourned. >> thank you. >> the u.s. senate is about to

convene. coming up at 10:30 eastern after morning hours eastern the senate will hold procedural vote on limited debate on nomination of michelle friedland, united states court judge for the 9th circuit. if 60 members vote aye, barring any agreement there will be 30 hours of post-debate for the nomination. live to the senate here onil c-span2l . the guest chaplain:let us pray. god of love and justice, for this new day with its new possibilities, we are grateful. for the holy covenant we have with you and for the sacred covenant we have with one another as an american people, we are grateful. for the precious ideals of freedom, self-government, radical inclusion, and equal protection under the law, we are grateful. these are your gifts.

grant that when we, the american people, especially those who serve in this the people's house, are weighed by the moral balance of history, we will be found worthy. god, make us mindful that we might be found worthy. mindful that hubert humphrey was correct. the moral test of government is how it treats those at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy, the handicapped. o god, make us mindful of our inextricable connections to one another and of our sacred obligation as careful stewards of this global neighborhood we

are blessed to share. to the god who loves us into freedom and frees us into loving, we offer this prayer. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington d.c., april 10, 2014. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable jon walsh, a senator from the state of montana, to perform the duties of the

chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i move to proceed to calendar number 354, the minimum wage legislation. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 354, s. 2223, a bill to provide for an increase in the federal minimum wage, and so forth. mr. reid: mr. president, following my remarks and those of the republican leader the time until 10:30 will be equally divided and controlled. at 10:30 there will be a vote on the ninth circuit judge whose name is michelle friedland. if cloture is ininvoke cloture there will be up to 30 hours of debate prior to a vote on the confirmation of the nomination. we have two votes we need to have before we leave here this week. we can have the vote at 4:00 tomorrow afternoon, and the second vote would be around 7:00 or thereabouts tomorrow

afternoon, tomorrow evening. we have to finish these two matters before we leave here this week. the schedule is up to not republicans, but a few republicans. so i would suggest republicans deal with their own, and we can finish this morning if we needed to. we certainly could. mr. president, i would be happy to yield to my friend, the dignified and really superb senator from georgia. mr. isakson: mr. president? i thank the leader for the introduction and i'm pleased to introduce to the senate the reverend raphael warnock, the senior pastor at ebenezer baptist church in atlanta as our pastor of the day. he is a gifted author, a gifted and prolific preacher and a great citizen of the great city of atlanta and follows in the king family of the ebenezer baptist church. he has carried out the tradition of ebenezer with humility and love and is a great pastor of

our city. i'm pleased to welcome him to the united states senate and thank him for his presence today and know we'll all be blessed by his presence here today. i yield back. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: tomorrow marks the 46th anniversary of the signing into law the civil rights act of 1968, better known as the fair housing act. this landmark legislation took a stand against housing discrimination and gave american families a fair shot at finding housing that made suitable their needs. it is tpeugts we recognize -- it is fitting we recognize this anniversary now especially in light of the quality legislation we've been trying to pass here in the senate recently. mr. president, one of the first well-known billionaires we heard a lot of talk about on the planet was the outspoken oil tycoon, j. paul getty.

he once quipped that -- quote -- "money is like manure. you have to spread it around or it smells." close quote. well, charles and david koch certainly spread their money around but it still stinks. it stinks because of what they do with their money. they are single-handedly funding an attack on the nation's middle class. instead of concerning themselves with narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor. remember, mr. president, in america today the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer and the middle class is being squeezed. the kpwroers have a lot to -- the koch brothers have a lot to do with that. instead of giving american families a fighting chance for prosperity, the two richest brothers in the world are focused on getting republicans elected. these koch-funded organizations and politicians advocate only for what makes the koch brothers

richest. the two richest brothers in the world want to be richer and it comes at the expense of the average americans. the kochs are an example of two men at the top of the ladder who pull that ladder up to make sure no one else can join them. that is exactly what the koch brothers are trying to do to middle-class families. the only difference of course is that charles and david never scaled the ladder in the first place. they were born up there, born on the top rung. but somehow the kochs have fooled themselves into thinking they arrived at the top by their own merits. they didn't, mr. president. more importantly, the koch brothers have decided that they want their inherited wealth, this company now they have at the top, they want to make sure that this ladder that should be one that's reachable for everyone, allows people to reach high, they are determined to make that ladder totally unreachable for others.

these billionaires do this by rigging the system even more in their favor, making sure that the kochs' interests are being represented at all costs. as has been reported -- and not by me -- the koch brothers have what some journalists are calling secret banks, organizations that serving as a middleman by which they fund scare campaigns. through these secret banks, like freedom partners, the multibillionaire koch brothers pump money into radical institutions and all these right-wing organizations only come to the same conclusion. america's best bet for economic prosperity is to help the koch brothers get richer. so what do these groups do with the funds they receive from their billionaire benefactors? groups like americans for prosperity, try that one on for size. americans for prosperity. why do the american people,

about obamacare hoping families will not sign up for affordable care act. extreme organizations like the independent women's forum telling working women equal pay for equal work isn't necessary. they do it because they say wage disparity is a myth. the koch-backed manhattan institute is another one of their shell organizations that tries to convince the country that out-of-work american families don't need unemployment benefits. why? because they're out of work because they're lazy. and of course the heritage foundation uses its koch dollars to say raising the minimum wage is bad for business and will kill the economy. it is clear that the kochs are using these puppet organizations in their proxy war on the middle class. but charles and david aren't just using radical right-wing groups to keep average americans from scaling the rungs. they're using republicans. they're spreading their money around helping republicans get elected, and unfortunately the

republicans in congress have shown themselves to be in lock step with the koch brothers' radical agenda. republicans continue to push for repeal of the affordable care act. i watched the speech on the house floor yesterday where one house member indicated they had tried almost 60 times to repeal the bill. almost 60 times. what did albert einstein say? the definition of insanity if someone tries to do something over and over again and they get the same result. they're insane. that's albert einstein. not me. they're doing this regardless of the fact that even the koch brothers, that is their business, the koch industries, benefited from obamacare. remember, that ladder, mr. president, the kochs already got what they needed from health care reform but they want -- don't want other people to do the same. they have benefited from obamacare. i laid that out here on the

senate floor. senate republicans blocked equal pay for women three times over three separate congresses. won't even let us discuss it. all but a handful of republicans voted against extension benefits for the long term unemployed. as for minimum wage my republican colleagues have given no indication that they'll help struggling families get a livable wage. the koch' wealth is being used to squeeze the middle class very, very much. as long as charles and david koch are at the top looking down, who cares about the little people at the bottom, in their estimation? it's shameful that koch money has made its way into our nation's capital, our news and our homes. it's frustrating that as senate democrats look across the aisle, we don't see many willing partners in defending middle-class families in nevada and across the nation. but, mr. president, we're not going to be intimidated by these koch surrogates in the media or here in this chamber.

we'll continue to fight. we'll do it even harder to protect americans from the greedy grasp of these billionaire oil barons. senate democrats will continue to pull the ladder from the koch brothers' fingers so every american family has a fair shot at climbing to the top.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: for days now republicans have been coming to the floor to ask the democratic majority to work with us on jobs. this is the issue americans say they care the most about. so it's hard to see why senate democrats seem so allergic to various jobs ideas that we've been proposing, not to mention dozens of job-creating bills already passed by the house. look, our constituents want us

to work together to rebuild the middle class, to help create opportunities for the families struggling out there just to pay the bills. in recent days we've given our democratic colleagues ample opportunity to do just that. we've offered one innovative proposal after another. proposals that haven't had much of a problem attracting bipartisan support in the past. ideas like reducing the tax burden on small businesses, freeing them to grow, to hire, to innovate. ideas like approving the keystone pipeline which would create thousands of jobs right away. ideas like repealing the medical device tax, which even democrats acknowledge is killing jobs, although they haven't acted to fix it yet. and ideas like eliminating obamacare's 30-hour workweek mandate, a rule that cuts

people's hours against their will, that disproportionately affects women and it will force too many americans to look for extra work just to get by. but but we go even further than just tackling the causes of joblessness. our ideas go beyond just helping americans secure jobs -- this is something a lot of our constituents are asking for and we're responding to those keyneconcerns. one bill would allow moms and dads take more time off to strike a better work life balance. another bill would prohibit union bosses were denying pay increases to an imphee who works harder than her coworkers. these are the kinds of prarks commonsense proposals our constituents sent us here to

actually pass. these are the kinds of things that would make jobs more plentiful and life a lot easier for men and for women across our country. for some reason, senate democrats are blocking all of these ideas from getting a vote. maybe i.t. because they're so single-mindedly focused on an election that is still seven months away. i mean, they've already conceded that their agenda for the rest of the year was drafted by campaign staffers. it's a stunning admission. but it does explain their near-total lack of interest in practical solutions to the everyday concerns of our constituents. and it also explains why the only jobs senate democrats seem to be interested in these days are their own. well, this is a big problem. not only does it reinforce the widespread belief that democrats aren't serious about jobs, it also reinforces a growing

impression that democrats are simply out of their depth when it comes to our economy. think about it. washington democrats are well into their sixth year of trying to get the economy back on track. six years. yet for many in the middle class, things seem to only have gotten worse. ampleaverage household income hs fallen by nearly $3,600. the number of americans working in the labor force has dropped to its lowest level since the carter era. millions are looking for work and can't find it, and the new rules and regulations just keep on coming. they have real estate trie triel liberal regulations, all the standard stuff. it hasn't worked. doing more of it wont work eempleeither. so this may be difficult to hear, but it's time they switch from their failed ideological approach.

it is time they shelved the games and worked with us to pass practical, bipartisan legislation for a change, legislation that can finally rescue the middle class from so many years of economic failure. i've laid out a number of commonsense proposals already. there's even more we can do if senate democrats are willing to reach across the aisle and help us to deliver for the american people. my constituent constituents expo that. i'm sure theirs do, too. and honestly, there's no reason not to do that. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the time until 10:30 a.m. will be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. mr. mcconnell: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: