peaceful use of nuclear power and i'll be happy to get a copy of that. because you ask an important set of questions. >> thank you madam secretary. thank you. >> welcome madam secretary, always great to have you here. it's exceptional to me that sometimes you cannot win for winning and even with the unprecedented victories this you and the administration have had in the foreign policy area. some people continue to look at it i guess i would call it the goldy locks game, the food is always too hot or it's always too cold. i think you got it just right. i think you are more like the guy on the ed sullivan show who was up there with the 12 bowling pins i couldn't pi pins juggling them at the same

time and nothing falls to the ground, it's more difficult because you are twirling somebody else's dirty dishes. nonetheless, you seem to have everything pretty much together. i don't want to jinx it with all the problem s in the world that we are facing at the same time. three areas, north korea, egypt and iran, hot spots. congratulations on egypt. the announcement we received that the flight restrictions on the americans has been lifted. i think that is a miracle. i know the great effort of work that you have put into this, both behind the scenes as well as publically and does this indicate to us some sense of where the power shifting is

going in egygo ing in government or do we not want to speculate on that? >> congressman, we do not have confirmation that the ban has been lifted. we hope it will be and we will continue to work toward it. the reporting is encouraging but we have no confirmation. >> yeah, we get stuff from the ap first also before we -- before we hear that. north korea congratulations on that as well. i know there's never any nexus between aide and policy. congratulations on the aide and it's happening at the same time that the north koreans have at least apparently agreed to more

transparency than they have before on their nuclear program. were other countries parties or observers at the by lateral discussion that we had, or the russians or chinese play any role or was that just us? >> the meeting was held in beijing, the south koreans were involved in the back and forth of the negotiations, we also kept all of them informed but -- no one else was a direct participant, besides the united states and north cokorea. >> in reading all the reports of that, it says that they will allow inspection. do we have access to other sites or just a main site or isn't that clear yet ? >> that is not clear yet, that was our objective and we have to

continue obviously building on what was achieved. >> like others you deal with, you know more than others that they are masters at the shell game. and lastly iran. congratulations on the biting effect that the sanction s are finally grabbing this ep and taking effect to a tremendous extent. there seems to be a lot of indication that some of our allies, one in particular, is interested in us laying down markers instead of saying a all option s are on the table. what are the red lines that the iranian s cannot cross? are we going to make that public or continue to do quiet negotiations on that? >> i think it's probably smarter

for us to be pressing to sanctions and the negotiations while we keep our objective of no nuclear capability absolutely clear instead of setting other bench marks at this time publically. >> i want to thank you for not concentrating on strutting your stuff and delivering on the stake and not worrying about the sizzle. thank you. >> hm-mm, my colleague from california, staying around, wise man. >> thank you mad am chair, i learn from the best from you. madam secretary, thank you so much for being here today, as you know, recently we marked the 14th anniversary of the shoot down of the brothers to the rescue airplanes. in which as you know, four americans were murdered over international air space by the

castro dictatorship. subsequent to the murders, the u.s. congress and then president clinton signed into law the helms-burt helms-burton bill. a waiver or suspension has been put in place for that law. and that takes place every january or february and at mid year as well. so we probably have just recently seen the obama administration suspend the helms-burton law as it has been done twice a year every year since 1996. the reason for suspension of the law is two fold. it serves u.s. interest and it speeds up a democracy in cuba.

given what we have seen over the last few years at what that has been occurring in cuba, given the deaths of several hunger striker s, given the recent persecution against the ladies in white, peaceful activists in cuba that have been calling for democratic reform, given the stern rebuff that former secretary richardson received in cuba to his recent overtures or negotiations, can you at the us just in the last few years of the obama administration that the law has been suspended, how has that sped up a transition to democracy in cuba? >> we take a back seat to known in our condemning the denial of human rights that is a continuing feature of the castro

regime and the particular instances that you mentioned are ones of great concern to us. we do think that increasing people to people contact, supporting civil is society in cuba and enhancing the free throw of information, promoting the capacity for more independence, economically and politic politically from the cuban authorities is in the interest of the cuban people and the united states. >> and we may agree to disagree on that, but i'm wondering is there any evidence of results as a result of the policy that the obama administration is pursuing, do we have a sign of movement take your time the democratic reform, do we have evidence? >> in the last three years there have been considerable exchanges

in cuba's economic policies which we see as a very positive development. we think that having the cuban people given more economic rights to be able to open businesses, to have more opportunities to pursue their own economic futures, goes hand in hand with the promotion of democracy. i would not, you know, claim that our movements were a direct cause, but there were with. in regimes like cuba, economic freedom preseeds political freedom. >> then you would agree if there was economic freedom and i do not think there were, if you agree that there have been and we can disagree on that, there have been no political reforms or movement toward democracy notwithstanding the economic movements. >> despite our very strong

objection to the treatment of allen gross, the unjustified charge and detention a great number of political prisoners have been released. again, that in and of itself is not final evidence of anything. but the fact that so many political prisoners were released in the last three years is in our view -- >> are you aware that those releases were followed by expulsions of the country. they were not released into the country. they were expelled from the country. are you aware of that? >> i am aware of that and you i see that political prisoners are released and expelled where they continue to work on their work from outside the country. the fact is, letting political prisoners go is a positive development. i wish they were inside cuba

continuing to support freedom and democracy, but their voice s are still being heard, especially in the new communications environment. thank you mr. -- >> thank you. >> thank you madam secretary. >> thank you madam secretary, i have a couple of written questions i want to submit for your consideration. madam secretary this may be one of the last times together, and so i want to publically thank you for reestablishing america's influence abroad. be especially towards the asia pacific region, as you stated, the future of politics will be decided in asia not in afghanistan or iraq. and the united states will be right at the center of the action. thanks to your effort madam secretary, i believe the united

states will be front and center. so i thank you for bucking tradition for your first trip overseas, on your firsts trip, you visited asia to convey a strong message america's relationship is important and in your many trips since then, from china to south korea to japan and beyond, you've been about making the approximacommitment will be important many times over, i applaud you in recognizing the importance of the asian countries in the undertaking and in the foreign relations budget hearing i quote what you say, those that say we can no longer to engage in the world have it backward. we cannot afford not to. from opening new market s for american businesses, to curbing nuclear proliferation to keep

the sea lanes free for commerce and navigation, our work abroad holds the key to our prosperity and security at home. i want to know for the record, that when americans saw more in the independent state of -- the earthquake that set off 30 foot waves of tsunami, and the city thats not fully recovered, you made sure that we were supported. and i thank dave adam s for his help as well. you personally made it a point to visit my little district. and on behalf of the thousand s of men and women who proudly serve in the armed forces of our country, we are grateful for your recognition of their

services. my people thank you for remembering us amid the many things you have done for our nation. madam secretary, it has been an honor to serve with you, and i commend you for the initiatives that you have taken outlined in this the budget submission for the east asia region. i am glad that i have a couple seconds left to ask a couple of questions. can you reiterate our policy of engagement with the people of china? >> thank you for those very kinds comments, but it's a great honor to represent the people your district and to reach out to the south pacific region on behalf of our government. we are working to further a positive cooperative and

comprehensive relationship with china. we feel it's in the interest of the american people, both economically and strategically, we have welcomed the peaceful rise of china and we expect as china continues to develop, that it will assume more responsibility globally. with respect to the south china sea, it's our position that although we do not take any stand on the right s attached to any territory claim, we strongly support the peaceful resolution of such claim s in line with enter nabl law. th -- with international law. it's not only about the south china sea as you know so well is an important part of the world's oceans through which more than 40% of the world's trade passes, but it's also about how we

resolve disputes concerning territories, in or near bodies of water of course whether it's the arctic or the south china sea of course it's important we stand for the rule of law and the peaceful resolution of any dispute s and we have made it known to our friends in the region as well as to china. >> thank you madam secretary. thank you madam chair. thank you and madam secretary, lacking other members berman and i will share our time with you. i'll ask about the keystone pipeline so start the clock. >> i withdraw my -- >> as gas prices continue to soar, burdening the american people in this time of economic hardship, we must continue to examine avenue s to depend less on foreign oil from rogue regimes, in october of 20 ten, you mentioned that you were

quote, in clined to sign off on the keystone because the united states will be depending on dirty oil from canada or -- what led you to change your previous assertion can you explain why a stable source of oil from a ally such as canada does not deserve a consideration from the department of state and mr. berman? if you would like to ask your question. >> a very specific question about syria. the security of the chemical and possibly biological weapons in syria should the assad regime fall? how dangerous is it that these weapons leave syria and fall

into the wrong hands and what about dismantling biological weapons from syria? >> what i said in 2010 was that energy concerns and securities needed to exist and taken into account, but it had to be part of what is the legal and regulatory requirements for evaluating any pipeline application that cross s an international boundary. the state department was in the process of making such a determination and when it became necessary to make a decision, we the did not recommend that the president say no, but rather that the presidential permit for the project at the time be denied. and with respect to the national interest, what we were, working on was a resolution of the very strong concerns expressed by one of the states through which the

pipeline would with move, a state that at that time did not have itself own process, that needed to pass legislation and figure out the alternative route and then of course, it fell on the state department to determine the alternative route. that had not yet been established when we were required to make our decision, therefore it was impossible to assess the impact of that new route that had been requested. >> thank you. >> now just in the last two days, transcanada has made a move through a letter indicating their intent for a new application to cross the border. they are moving ahead on crossing the border in places that do not need state department evaluation, we have handled this, madam chairman, in a way that was in line with the

law and the regulations. i believe we have to increase our energy security and i strongly support the creation of on our new energy bureau just last week we signed an important agreement with mexico to encourage transboundary energy exploration, something that was in limbo. we are committed to doing what connect to help america get the energy supply that we need. >> on to syria for ken? >> it is an issue that deserves the attention of the international community. lugar was in a environment where the new russian federation was coming into being. they welcomed our work with them as did other countries at this time, there's no permissive

environment, but we are going to stay focused on any dangers posed by a store house or depot of such weapons. >> thank you very much, madam secretary for your time. mr. smith from new jersey, the chairman on south africa is recognized. >> let me associate myself with remarks that were made about -- he suppose via telephone right here and the man is brave. he is calling for freedom, human rights and we have got to be hard lined, i believe, but prudent. so i hope the gentle lady made an important point about not attending and i hope that will be the case. let me ask you with regards to the pastor, we will have a

resolution later on today, if you can ireyiranians, there's a racheting up of persecution of christians, christian girls are forced to islam as minor s and given to a man in egypt who happens to be muslim is an act of trafficking and it's on a serious human right s hearing. i hold my first hearing on february 19th, and it's getting worse then and it's now awful in china, north korea, we know that people are tortured to death simply for being christian. i would with like to the ask you and a yes or no answer may be sufficient. i am appreciating your work of you trying to bring in bosnia

into nato. are there instances where the obama administration has withheld or threatened to withhold or on plans to withhold or used its voice or vote at ent -- to deny loans or aid or in any or way provide a retaltory means based on that nation's support or opposition to resolutions at the u.n. regarding abortion? >> well, as to that second question, congressman, i would like to take it for record, because it had so many part s to it. i do not want to give you an answer that is not as accurate as i can make it. i'll get back to you on that as to the very troubling case of the pastor, you are 100% right, his case is particularly

terrible, but it's unfortunately part of what we see as increasing discrimination and persecution on the basis of religion, in some part s it's islam and other -- other part s of the world it's christian. the united states has condemned the sentence against the pastor we have pushed very hard reached out to like-mindsed country s and international organization o get him released from prison, he has done nothing more than maintain his faith and contrary to every element of the universal basis for human rights that someone like that would be condemned to death for being who he is. worshipping as he chooses and

exercise s his freedom of conscious, we call on iran to honor its own congressionstitut commitment and its obligation s under international law and they can begin by commutie sentence. >> we have countries that are fath -- it would be helpful. you probably saw the articles that china is changing itsz policies on the couple children but not the law itself. there's a lot of article s on that, i hope to redouble our effort s to combat the one-child per couple policy the fact that there's so many missing girls. we know the estimates are in excess of 100 million girls that

were exterminated simply because they happen to be girls. i had 38 congressional hearing s on human rights abuses in china, by 2020, 40 to 50 men will not be able to finds wives because they have been eliminated. china is becoming and will increase as a trafficking magnet. if you can speak out against forced abortion and for those baby girls in china who are suffering as well as their mothers. >> thank you, very much. >> mr. sherman the ranking member on nonproliferation and trade is recognized. >> madam secretary, glad to have you back here, i want to join my colleague s who have praised your work for our country and how much you have been able to accomplish with less than 1% of our budget. i have got a lot of topics to cover and would expect that you just want to respond for the

record, but interrupt me at any point if the spirit moves you. the first is to focus on the region of georgia, we have been generous to the republic of georgia, jacak has a large armenian population and the embassy of georgia is now in support of the idea of the united states focusing a good chunk of its aid for georgia on that region. this would help bind javak to the republic of georgia. and would help achieve our goals in the caucuses. last time you were here, i mentioned the idea of voice of america broadcasting in the sindi language. this committee adopted my

amendment unanimously to adopt to broadcast in that language. i'm not sure that bill will be law, but it shows the wisdom of the committee. there are elements in the government in islamabad who would prefer to try to impose their language on the entire country. in fact the idea of imposing the language on what was then east bengal created as much as anything, the independent republic of bangladesh. i hope in deciding whether to broadcast in the sindi language, we not try to accommodate the most extreme elements in islamabad, we are broadcasting

in urdu and sindi is spoken in pakistan far more. we have a complicated relationship with the pakistani government. we need to research out to the pakistani people. especially those people soth of pakistan where the version of islam is so compatible with american you will varies. i know i'll not be the only person up here to talk about camp liberty and how important it is that we assure the humanitarian safety of everyone who is there, there are elements to how that was set up that makes it look almost like a prison camp. there are reports that the residents have no access to lawyers, no family, no freedom of movement and obviously the iranian government is going to be pressing the iraqis