welcome, madame secretary, i'll be joining my colleagues in expresses my admiration of your service to the country. i've known a lot of secretaries of state over the last 30 years, so i thank you for your service. i wonder if you could comment a little bit -- and i thank my colleague from connecticut and his courtesy. on our diplomatic efforts to sort of try to change minds in russia and china with respect to the syrian situation. i mean, it gets worse by the day. they have provided a shield of protection that has at this point proved not only counterproductive but frankly lethal. and i welcome your thoughts about how we're engaging diplomatically and turning trends on our own. thank you, madame chairman for your courtesy, as well. >> thank you. we do have some very specific ideas and plans about what we could do to assist afghanistan

being more integrated into the regional economy, developing their own economic assets. i would like to take it for the record to give you a broader set of responses. because we see this as you just said as a critical part to really support the transition of our military troops out into 2014. they do go hand-in-hand, which is one of the reasons the transition period for military withdrawal was established. we will follow up with you. and congressman conley, we are doing everything we can think of to influence the russians and the chinese. particularly the russians. they're the ones with the very deep, long standing relationship with the assad family, with syria. they continue to sell arms to the syrian regime. so we know that if we can persuade them to work with us at

least on the humanitarian issue, they will have access to assad that hardly anybody else does have. certainly nobody in the west. so it is a very troubling and frustrating situation because the russians continue to say, oh, they're all for humanitarian aid, but then they don't produce any plan that assad will sign off on. and perhaps after their upcoming elections, they will be able to focus on the syrian humanitarian situation that's causing so much loss of life and suffering inside syria. so we're not waiting. we are trying to work out other ways of getting humanitarian assistance into syria and also support efforts on the borders because people are fleeing. they're coming out in lebanon, in jordan, in iraq and turkey. we will be there to try to help

the people coming out, as well. this is a terrible crisis that demands the entire world's attention. and i hope that russia will come and work with us to try to resolve it. >> thank you so much. madame secretary, if i could yield one minute to mr. johnson who is patiently waiting there. i don't want to end the meeting without him having an opportunity. >> thank you so much, mr. chairman. it's a real quick question, madame secretary, and thank you for being here today. with the growing economy and vast foreign reserves, it would seem that beijing has more than enough money to deal with many of the issues that u.s. foreign aid sports like it's own citizens' health issues. borrowing money from the chinese government to spend back in china on health programs seems a particularly bad use of u.s. government funds especially as americans struggle to cover their own rising health care costs. why are we proposing $2 million

in support of health programs in china when the chinese hold an estimated $1.2 trillion of u.s. debt? >> well, congressman, the remaining aid that we are asking for goes to what we consider to be transnational issues in which we have a stake. it was united states aid and leadership that finally helped china respond to their own hiv/aids crisis, which does have a positive effect on the epidemic far beyond their borders. when we look at communicable diseases, when we look at the need to try to help democracy, human rights, good governance groups. there are a lot of brave lawyers in cities in china that are standing up against coercive practices. so i think i will take it for the record and give you a break down of the kinds of things

we've been doing, but i share your general point that we're certainly not looking to support the development of china's economy. they're doing that well enough on their own. but there are certain key values that we believe we can further within a trade and within an aid relationship with china. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> thank you and thank you to mr. duncan, and mr. wilson. you're on my dance card and you'll come up first next time. madame secretary, before we adjourn, i'd like to know that since you've announced publicly you do not intend to serve beyond the end of this term, this is your final appearance to testify on the budget before our committee. i'd like to thank you again so deeply for making yourself available to answer our questions today. and during the past three years and i hope that we have the opportunity to host you again for other testimony prior to the conclusion of your exemplary

service. i thank you. meeting is adjourned.

>> secretary clinton wraps up her second day on capitol hill testifying on the state department budget for 2013. she was on the senate side yesterday before the senate

foreign relations committee. you can see that hearing as well as today's on our website c-span.org. earlier today, the house transportation committee held a hearing on cruise ship safety. two survivors of the costa concordia wreck testified. here's some of that testimony. >> thank you, mr. chairman. first of all, thank you for giving us the opportunity to come in here and present what we had to say. i was startled seeing this with our fifth year wedding anniversary trip. we were very excited and now as ms. brown has said affordable . we had cruised before, so that kind of like helped us to make up our time and our mind to take another cruise. we boarded the costa concordia friday, january 13th, 2012 between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.

the first impression was the ship was hug we had to surrender our passports to the crew members. after that, we went to our room that was on the ninth deck. at this point we had no communications regarding the emergency safety drill or any instructions from anyone from the crew telling us where to go in case of emergency. we were very happy to be onboard. soon after getting situated, we started to unpack our luggage and started to get ready for our dinner reservations at 9:00 p.m. on the third deck. at about 9:15 we were at our dinner table and deck three and we were in the process of ordering our food and ordered our appetizers. at that moment, there was a violent shaking of the ship followed by loud crash noises as the glasses broke due to the lifting of the ship toward the

star bird side. lights went out immediately, but there was no announcement as to what happened. it was pitch dark with no visibility. everyone nearby started to scream and the emergency lights came on and we observed that the ship is now lifting on the port side. this is when the first announcement came on telling us it was nothing but an electrical failure and everything is under control. crew members urged the passengers to remain calm and seated. the staff started to bring out people's food as if nothing bad had happened. while the ship is still tilted, we saw a few crew members in our dining room break down, crying, and extremely panicked. when we glance outside, we saw around five to seven crew members wearing jackets, but still the announcement telling us to remain calm and seated and the electrical issue is being worked on and everything is under control. around 10:00 p.m., about 30 minutes into the situation, we

are still in our dining room when my husband decided it's time for us to go and at least get our life jackets in the room because at this point we have no idea if we don't have to go back to our room, where else can we get our life jackets from? we had no knowledge from where we could get the life jackets otherwise. i had spotted them in the closet of the room when i was unpacking and putting our luggage away. as we went out of the dining room, we were highly imbalanced and there were water, and wine and broken glass on the dining room floor. it was extremely hard for us to walk and maintain our balance. once outside, we were immediately unable to locate the stairs. there were dim emergency lights indicating the stairs and we climbed six floors to our room on deck nine to get to our room. somehow we did manage to get to our room holding the guardrails very much exhausted and now panicked. as we were getting to our rooms,

there was constant announcement of the same message. ladies and gentlemen, everything is under control at this point and seems to be a generator failure. please stay calm and wait for further instructions and be cooperative. what caught our attention was all the announcements were made on behalf of the captain and never once did we hear the captain speak. however, there was a sense of panic in the announcer's voice that kept making the announcement. finally we did manage to get our door unlocked using our card key after several failed attempts. the room had no light and it was extremely dark. i stumbled upon a few things that had fallen o the floor. at that time, my husband decided to stay in the middle of the door to keep it open and pushing the furniture back to make some room to get our life jackets. the ship felt a little more tilted and the room furniture had shifted significantly. i knew where the life jackets were because i had just unpacked the luggage. once we got the life jackets, we

immediately got out of the room and spotted our state room attendant nearby. i asked the room attendant where are we supposed to go? and she replied in a very irritated tone saying, madame, a the this point, there's no emergency. you do not need to go anywhere. please stay here and wait for further instructions. and for the emergency alarm to sound. and we had no idea what it would sound like. as she started walking away and we ask her again in emergency where are we supposed to meet. she replied at that point the stations are on deck four. at this point we were still unaware of what was the root cause of this ordeal. there were no emergency alarms going off and the same announcement kept on repeating telling the passengers to remain calm and the electrical issue was under control. while we are going to the deck four, we saw the crew members amongst us running around panicked, frustrated, and clueless. no one seemed to have any clear idea as to why they had -- what they had to do in the situation

or where they were supposed to send us. people seemed to direct themselves on to any available lifeboat. as we were making our way to the deck four where the stations were relocated and saw a lot of people sitting outside their rooms waiting. people were also sitting on the stairs closer to deck four, but we stood closer to a lifeboat. at this point, there were three or four crew members per lifeboat and they were trying to keep the crowd away from the boats. still, there's no communication from their side as to when they would allow us to get on the lifeboat or what we are supposed to do. the time by now is around 10:30 p.m. and one of the crew members came and practically gave us the same instructions this time urging all of us to go back to our rooms and wait for further instructions and everything is under control. a few people did what was being asked for, but we decided to stand near the exit door near the lifeboat. by now it was really difficult to stand straight as the ship

was shifting violently. at this point we located a rock where we could swim to in case they kept us waiting for any longer to get into the lifeboat. we tried asking a couple of crew members to tell us what had happened and they simply shrugged their shoulders and went on. the crew was equally clueless and waited for further instructions from the captain that never came. people started to panic and getting frustrated as the ship is tilting more by the minute. we were getting frustrated, aggravated, and the crowd was pushing and shoving against each other. still no sign of any emergency alarms or any evacuation instructions from the captain. finally, the lifeboat crew let us on as they saw the crowd getting enraged and out of control. there were no order of boarding the lifeboats and everyone was shoving, pushing, and kicking to get on to the lifeboat. at this point i would like to close it and pass the mike off to my husband, mr. chairman.

>> so once on the lifeboat, people stand, stood, whatever they could do. within one minute, the boat was full with all the people. and now the lifeboat was overcrowded and while the crew members were trying to disengage the boat from the ship, it wouldn't happen. and at this point, the crew member that are asking people to get off the lifeboat because it is overcrowded. however, we didn't see anybody who was going to -- at this point -- go to another lifeboat and risk when they got into the lifeboat. once we are in there in the lifeboat, that was the most scary part of all the tragedy for us when the lifeboat was still stuck and swallowed by the

banging noise of the hammers or the hammer-like equipment they were trying to use to break off the ropes. and once the ropes broke off, ripping noise came like something had ripped from the boat and now we landed right into the water from the fourth floor. we are tossed on to the water at this point we'll be able to at least get out if we have to because now we can see the rock nearby. once we're on the water, it wasn't immediate the boats started to move. because of the weight of if boat, we started seeing the blue smoke coming out of the boat, and it was not moving at all, it was making an almost like a circle as there was a current nearby that was caused by the

shift. the boat is not moving at all. and now we are seeing a tall, gigantic building of this ship leaning on top of our boat. at this point i ask my wife who does not know how to swim. i said we have a life jacket, i'm going to try to take this tarp off and we're going to jump now. because we are about ten minutes into the boat that has not moved an inch and ship is moving on top of us every single second. so from this point, as i am trying to lift the tarp in order to jump out of the lifeboat, i am unable to do that as instruction by the crew member was to keep the tarp on while we were on the water. and a lot of people were working against andic wk up the tarp, but unable to

do. and soon after inch by inch, the boat started to move and finally we were able to get away from the cruise ship. and that's when we spotted nearby there was a lighthouse and we were able to get out. and one of the things i noticed while we were on the boat, the coast guard from italy were also nearby. and that's what was giving us assurance in case we had to jump out and stay on to that rock nearby. somebody would come and get us. so we do -- the coast guard were there, which we learned it was by the people, the passenger who had called the coast guard and not any member from the crew who had gone to the police or to the coast guard for help. and once on the shore, confusion and chaos continued.

it would not end. and how we were -- while we were on the ground we were thinking we were being assured by the crew member the whole time how an under the control electric issue can cause this ship to sink. while on the ship, there was not one instance where crew member or anybody had mentioned that there was anything wrong other than the electrical issue. so we felt very betrayed, very much lied to at that point, which we -- my wife who were celebrating our fifth-ye y wedding anniversary trusted these people with our life and they took that for granted and were not honest with us at any given point. >> well, pretty compelling account of your experience.

i had a number of questions, but the thoroughness of your statement, you've covered the questions i had. mr. larson? >> thank you for your statement and testimony and sorry about your experience. i am having nothing to do with it, i'm embarrassed by what happened. it's shocking. were you at any time informed by anyone that the vessel had struck a rock? and was severely damaged at any time? >> no. never. never. we actually -- the first time that we got to know that a rock had struck when we were in the u.s. embassy the next day when we saw the picture of the ship completely submerged in water with the rock sticking out. >> so 24 hours later about? >> at any time were you given

any concise guidance about how to evacuate the ship any time? >> no, there was no time at all as long as we were on the ship or on to the lifeboat that what to do, whatever. it was all waste of time, the crucial time they had on their hands. not one person from the crew or anybody had mentioned that what had happened and what to do in an emergency. >> not even when things were calm and you're about to sit down to dinner or even before then? >> no, nothing at all. >> mr. chairmyou noted you spot jackets, you leave me with the impression you weren't told where they were, you happened to see them in your closet. >> no, it was only because i was

hanginne ohis suits and it was the only closet without any shelf and that's when i spotted the life jackets. they didn't tell us where they were, but that's where. i opened the closet and saw the orange jacket there. >> and i had no idea where the life jackets were, only she knew where the life jackets were. >> on the upside, the italian coast guard, sounds like from your perspective good response from the italian coast guard? once they knew about it? >> yes. >> well, again, i'm -- i'm glad you're here to give us this firsthand experience. i'm sorry for your experience. but thank you very much for coming. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. and thank you for being here to account to what occurred and, again, i'm sorry that both of you had to go through this as well as every member on that

ship. a couple of quick questions i have. was this your first cruise ship? or did you have experiences in other cruises? >> this was our second cruise, but this was our first transatlantic cruise. >> were there any differences between the one you took before and this one in terms of safety procedures? >> absolutely. the one we took before, we were explained -- we went through the security drill, they told us that in case of emergency, do not go back to your room. they showed us where the life jackets were on the station. they also made us go through the entire drill how we are supposed to get on to the lifeboat, what is the protocol? so we felt very safe in our first cruise. >> did that happen in this cruise? >> no, at no given point were we told what to do, who we are supposed to contact. i mean, luckily we don't have any kids. i'm grateful we don't because a lot of times the kids are

separate from the parents. we had no information what to do. >> is it fair to say that you feel that you weren't properly communicated to regarding safety requirements and standards on the ship while you were on the ship? >> correct. and then can you just talk a little bit about once -- i'm trying to understand what was communicated to you while you were on the ship versus what was communicated to you after you vacated and once you were on safe ground. were there two different -- in terms of what was occurring. >> so at any point while we were on that ship, the crew member were kept waiting for some anounsment nearby the speaker which never came from the captain. and only time they let us on to the boat because now people were very enraged and very angry as

the ship had tilted enough. and every point it was -- we were told that it is an electrical issue and everything is under control and we do not have to get off this boat at this point. >> so this is coming from either the crew or the staff on the ship? >> yes, it was somebody on behalf of the captain. >> on behalf of the captain. >> on behalf of the captain. >> and at what point -- how long was that type of message communicated to you and other -- other customers on the ship? for what length of time? >> so from 9:30 to 10:54 while we were on that lifeboat, that the same message was being presented to us. the only reason i know the times is because i had taken a few

photos and i'll go back. they recorded the timing on those pictures. >> and a final question i have is can you convey to this panel when you were first notified or aware of actual damage that occurred? were you on the ship? or was it when you were off the ship? >> when we were off the ship and i said that before, it was the first time i guess we got to see the length of damage and what actually had happened or even that the captain was not on the u.s. embassy getting our emergency passports when we came to know the reason that the announcements were made on behalf of the captain was because the captain wasn't there. >> and then one final question, can you convey -- since the completion of this tragedy, how has the company handled communicating with you in terms

of either offering -- what have they offered you? have they compensated you? have they rep fufunded your tri? what kind of experience have you had since? >> we had made a lot of independent plans beyond this cruiseship for our vacation. so immediately the cruise line had refunded us for what was charged by them. and they had requested us to send us other chargesha had occurred and they will be refunding that, as well. so the communication -- all the communication happened via mail. >> okay. >> well, thank you again for coming and testifying and sharing with us your experience. and again, my apologies to you. >> thank you. >> ms. brown? >> first of all, thank you so very much for coming. and this is too a teachable moment. everything you're saying is what

it is that went wrong and how we can improve because from step one throughout the entire process, you know, everything absolutely was not handled properly. was this -- did you embark there or some other place because the ship -- this was not the first sailing. did you -- had you just -- >> yes, this was our first day. and that was another thing that we noticed when we were onboard. we got outside our room and different -- all the other people had some paperwork in their mailbox and my husband happened to ask our state room attendant, what is going on? why do they have the paper why do we don't? and she said because it's a nonstop cruise and so for the people other room, it's their last day and they're disembarking in savannah, but since you