good faith to support egyptian aspirations. the transition to democracy. they are respected organizations. they have been working in egypt with the goal of trying to assist in all the work that needs to be done such as holding elections. they don't favor a group. they don't favor individuals. they are providing nonpartisan education and information. we are working very hard to revolve this ngo problem. we have had a lot of tough conversations with various egyptian leaders and we hope we'll see a resolution soon. >> thank you. my time is expired, but i do want to let you know i will be submit i submitting for the record some specific questions about the nato summit coming up in chicago in may. i think it offers a tremendous opportunity for us to highlight

the still critical economic and security ties of our transatlantic partnership, so i look forward to your responses. >> thank you. >> thank you, senator sheehan. senator lee? >> thank you, secretary clinton, for joining us. i want to join the chorus praising you for your hard work for our country. every time i watch the news, i wonder whether they ever allow you to sleep. i hope they do, but rest assured, the american taxpayer is getting his money's worth out of your service. i appreciate your hard work. i want to follow up on some of senator sheehan's questions about egypt. in your fiscal year 2013 request, there's a request for a additional sum going up from $1.5 billion to $1.56 billion

for egypt. i'm wondering what level of cooperation do you feel like we're getting out of egypt in exchange for that? and specifically, do you feel like egypt has shown a commitment to honoring its treaty obligations with israel? >> yes, i do. to that last question, we have no evidence or any intention expressed by different centers of power within egypt that any decision has been made not to. and we have no evidence that there is any concern there yet. we obviously consult closely with the egyptians and the israelis about the challenges they face. so at this time, senator, that

is not yet a concern that we have to address. we also believe that they have carried out credible elections and that was no easy task given where they started. but we have to judge them on what they both say and what they do. and they don't yet have their government in place. so we're really unable to draw conclusions until we see the new parliament acting, until they it hold elections for their president, and then we'll have more data on which to make decisions. >> okay. okay. and you feel like the aid that we give to egypt is a component of that? that's part of what's keeping them maintaining the buy in with respect to those hard-fought treaty obligations? the treaty obligations that we and israel have long hoped for?

you feel like that's strengthening that position? >> it certainly has historically. and again sitting here today, i have no evidence on which to draw any other conclusion. but i also know that we're going to learn a lot more about the new government in the months ahead and we will be very vigilant. but at the end of the day, i think e egyptians understand that peace is in their interest. and they have a lot of work to do to build their economy, to get their democracy up and going. if i were certainly in their shoes, i would not be wanting to ab ra gait agreements and cause problems when my plate was already more than full. >> good. and if they call you for advice on that, i hope you will counsel them on that. >> and i have said that.

>> i want to turn to a study conducted by the british government. it was the multilateral aid review. in that study, the british government undertook an examination of the performance of various u.n. organizations including cost control, transparency, and other related factors. the review found that performance was severely deficient among several of these u.n. entities including the u.n. habitat and the food and agriculture organization. they found the performance in fact so poor on those criteria that the british government chose to withdraw at least its core funding to those same programs. and the british government also concluded that various other u.n. entitieentities, while notg

quite as bad as those, were jeopardized enough that they recommended that "as a matter of absolute urgency" the u.n. implement special measures to try to improve those programs. so my question for you is, with the united states continuing to provide support to the u.n. including the same programs, do you feel like the u.s. funding toward those programs is being utilized responsibly? is it money well spent? senator supporter of u.n. reform. and we have made it very clear that we expect ref level of the u.n. and at every constituent group. we led efforts to cut the size of e 2012-2013 budget.

we are pushing them to be more efficient. so we do think that the u.n. does an enormous amount of good work. work that helps to share the burden of everything from peace keeping to keeping, you know, airplanes safe in the sky. they do a lot of very important work. but they have got to reform and they have got to adapt to the expectations of more accountability and transparency in their operation. so we are adamant about that and we're going to continue to press it. we made some progress in the last year or two, but i'm not satisfied. we have to expect more. >> what reviews, if any, has the state department conducted or will the state department beng to this review? >> we have participated in a number of such reviews.

i will take that for the record and give you a full accounting of that. the british government conducted their own review, but we have been involved in supporting independent, high-level reviews and i would be glad to give that to you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator lee. senator? >> thank you, madame secretary. you have demonstrated vision in a difficult time. and i want to applaud you and the administration and you not leading a strong foreign policy, but also diplomacy. i was grate fful for the chanceo witness your leadership on a joint delegation trip to liberia.

i'm also a grateful you continue to elevate as you did today economic state craft and development among the five principle priorities you put forward this year. a number of the senators have touched on areas of real concern for me. in cuba, iran sanctions, the path forward with egypt. there's been lots of good ground covered. and i want to associate myself with senator rubio. but i just wanted to move to the twin concerns of trade and governance and how an american values around rule of law also helps promote economic opportunity, economic state craft, as you put. . you recently commented at the first business conference how america's foreign policy can champion business abroad and drive recovery here at home. describe a little detail, the

tools pursuing these objectives in africa in particular in this budget request and what we're doing around trade and investment for the united states. then go on to a question about governess nance. speaking about africa specifically, our approach combined several different tools. first trade missions to africa. assistant secretary johnny carson just took a large delegation of american energy firms to africa to meet with government officials, to meet with utility companies and businesses to talk about how the products and expertise of

american energy companies could really enhance development of the energy secretary in africa. secondly, we're doing a lot of other energy work through our newly-constituted energy bureau because africa is so blessed with energy resources that are either not developed or underdeveloped and underutilized or being developed in ways that are not good for sustainable development. so you know, we are interacting at the highest levels of government to try to work on that. thirdly, the growth and opportunities act is a tremendous tool. we have actively worked the last three years to, you know, help countries take better advantage of it. a lot of countries that are members don't really utilize it to the fullest. and also to work with countries that could benefit from it.

we have the partnership for growth. we have the feed the future. we have the global health initiative. these are development objectives, but they are development objectives that are really focused on enhancing the capacity in african nations. the challenge grants operating in africa do some of the same work. we also have encouraged greater regional integration, like the development in east africa of a common market among some of the countries. we'd like to see that all over the continent. if african nations would open up their borders to one another, if they would trade with one another, knock down barriers, if they would develop transportation networks, that would add dramatically to the ability of africans to reap economic benefits. and the final thing i would say is probably no part of the world has benefitted more from the

advance in information technology, particularly wireless technology, so we have a lot of interesting initiatives underway to help people do mobile banking, to help them get linked into the futures markets on their mobile phone. just all kinds of really innovative ways that we have promoted both from outside, but also from within by running contests for young african entrepreneurs. i could go on for a long time, but it's a very important part of our agenda for africa. >> thank you, madame secretary. e let me transition to our other part which is promoting america's core commitment to transparency, to rule of law, to democracy, to internet freedom, to human rights. many of us were relieved that the elections proceeded without violence, but it raises the ongoing question whether in

uganda, zimbabwe, of leaders who voided free and fair elections on a continent where there has been steady progress towards democracy in the last decade. what can we do to sustain good governance? what priorities are reflected in this '13 budget? and what can we be doing together to bring together the twin strands? one of the most striking things we saw in nigeria was how the mobile phone revolution you're talking about made possible transparent elections in nigeria in the same way they are making possible access to the marketplace and information for small farmers. >> we have invested in helping countries modernize their voting systems, making elections more transparent. we did a lot of work in kenya,

and the referendum there really demonstrated the impact that technology can have because we were able to get technology widely distributed. get votes counted without going through a lot of hands. so we are emphasizing the use of technology to empower citizens to hold their governments more accountable to have elections that are free, fair, and credible. we're also pushing hard on how we interact with leaders by supporting those who are elected. there was a case where there was a credible election. he was elected. and the former president wouldn't leave. we weighed in very heavily. so we're trying to demonstrate that our commitment to technology, our commitment to good governance go hand in hand

to what we think africans want, which is more effective functioning societies that give them a chance at a better future. >> thank you very much. i have additional questions i'll submit to the record about nigeria, somalia, and others. thank you so much for your appearance before this committee today. >> thank you, senator. let me take a moment to thank you for your tremendous energy and diligence and enthusiasm in your leadership of the african affairs subcommittee. it's been really terrific and much appreciated by the committ committee. we're down to hard core here. i'm happy to recognize him. >> thank you, chairman kerry. and thank you, secretary clinton, for being here. thank you for your stamina. i think you have been here for more than two hours. and i really appreciate that you taking some final questions here. it seems to me in listening to your travels that you may be one

of our most traveling secretaries of state and you may have set some records there. so i know all of us very much appreciate that. i've been a proponent of an accelerated transition in afghanistan. and i believe it's important that afghans begin to take a lead role in protecting their country so they can begin to gain the experience and the capability before the draw down of u.s. forces is completed. i believe this will help stabilize afghanistan and lead to a faster drawdown of u.s. combat forces. and i don't believe this means abandoning afghanistan. i believe a strong diplomatic training and counterterror mission will likely be necessary to support the developing afghan government. what i'm wondering about is whether the state department has

begun considering what secretary panetta posed about accelerating the transition of combat responsibilities by mid-or early 2013 as the state department considering this option and what are its implications? do you look forward to what's going to happen with the nato summit in may in chicago? is that going to be a part of the discussion that occurs there? >> it certainly will. we agreed with all of our nato partners to have a transition that would transfer lead responsibility to afghan security. we are doing that. we are transferring districts throughout afghanistan on a regular basis. we also know that there has to

be continuing training in order to equip the security forces to do what they are expected to do. so this is an agreed upon transition sequence that was adopted at the lisbon conference, is being worked through on the military and civilian side, will be further refined in chicago, and we're certainly, you know, geared up to follow through on that. >> thank you. the issue in your opening statement came up where you talked about pivoting to asia. and we know that the president has talked about marines in australia. i know you recently gave a speech talking about the south china sea and activities there. could you just talk in a broad, general way about what this

actually means for the united states to put more of an emphasis in the pacific? are we talking about containment of china? of china? i mean, how does china relate to this whole thing? and what roles are we trying to fulfill? >> well, i think, senator, we have always considered ourselves so blessed by geography we were an atlantic and pacific power. and that unique position has granted the united states significant strategic advantages that have been accompanied by economic benefits and so much else. but because of our heavy emphasis starting on 9/11 in going after those who attacked us also, you know, the war in iraq, the broader emphasis on the middle east, there were many in asia who thought that we were either by intention or by

default abandoning our leadership role in the pacific. and it was our intent to reestablish that leadership role, which we have done. we have initiated new strategic dialogues in the region, we alliances ll and active partner and asean and apec. we began the lower mekong initiative to work with countries that are dependent upon the mekong. we've got great deal of work going on with indonesia and the philippines. we have the major trade agreement with korea. we came to the aid of our good ally japan after their disast s disasters. we're having this opening to berma. we are actively involved in what's going on in the asia-pacific because we think it's very much in america's interest to be so. and that includes being able to

project both civilian and military power. and as we looked at where we had forces operating, we saw some, you know, gaps. and that's what the president addressed on his recent trip to australia. we think that there is a great deal for america to gain by, you know, being very much involved in and supporting the incredible growth of the region. so that's what we're positioned to do. >> thank you. i just returned to several weeks ago from india, and we had an excellent trip and one of the things that was remarkable was seeing the activity out in the villages and seeing the cooking and seeing the pollution by the way they cook, and i know that you've been a real advocate

of -- these kind of modern stoves that if they're utilized do a lot of things from pollution to using less fuel to make it in a healthier home and all that. could you just in the last couple of seconds we have left here describe how you're doing that and what you're doing? >> well, first let me thank you for caring about that, senator, and asking a question about it because it's one of those, you know, long-term projects that i think has tremendous payoff. but it's not in the headlines, so, thank you, sir. we are actively driving an initiative we help to put together called the global cook stove alliance. the alliance for global cook stoves. we are working with dozens of other countries, with the united nations and organizations to help create a market for cleaner

burning cook stoves in developing countries because you're right, this has tremendous benefits. it cuts down on respiratory illnesses for women and child n children. it also helps keep the environment clean by cutting down the soot, the black carbon that goes into the atmosphere. it is a security issue to the extent that many women and girls are put at risk when they go out to gather fuel in many of these countries. so we have looked at the data, the national institutes of health has been one of our partners that in terms of cleaning up the atmosphere, reducing health costs, this is one of the most effective approaches we could take. for anybody who is really interested, maybe you or some of the staff would be interested. we have a display of clean cook

stoves in the state department that we just opened last -- few days ago because we want people to know what we're talking about. and when i was in india, we had an exhibit set up and we were working with indian universities that are actually taking measurements of the pollution that goes into women and children's lungs and also the atmosphere. that is related to an announcement we made last week that in our effort to try to help the environment, the united states has joined with five other countries and setting up a new coalition to fight, you know, the climate forcers, the short-term climate forcers, the methane, soot, black carbon, et cetera, and cook stoves, obviously, are part of that. so, again, this is the kind of initiative that i think is worth investing in. it'll pay dividends down the road. it's not a quick fix, but it's something that we're able to do with public/private partnerships. >> thank you for your efforts.

thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, thanks, senator udall, and thanks for your patience. >> i apologize, but thank you for being patient and staying with us. we're going to keep the record open for a week. there's one additional issue i want to raise very quickly. i know you're very familiar with the case of collin bauer, my constituent from massachusetts whose two children were taken illegally from massachusetts against court order and taken to egypt. and he has had, as you know, an extraordinarily difficult time getting resolution to this. i raise this at the end of the hearing not because it's of last importance, but i want the embassy and the egyptian government to take note that this is increasingly a concern among colleagues about respectful law and respect for family and individual parents'

rights as well as sort of international legal system. so i hope we can continue to have that issue raised in the context of your diplomacy and we will continue to raise it obviously. the final comment i'd just say to all of you who are wearing the yellow jackets here, i want to express my respect for and appreciation for the way in which you have been present today. yours is an issue that is of note to all of us and we're pursuing thoughtful approaches to it. but i am particularly appreciative for the respectful way in which you have taken part in this hearing and we thank you for that. madame secretary, thank you so much for being with us today. we stand adjourned. >> thank you. >> thank you, sir.

coming up here on c-span 3, a special presentation of american history tv focusing on our nation's 34th president, dwight david eisenhower. we look at the eisenhower memorial designed by frank gary. after that, president eisenhower's granddaughter susan eisenhower talks about her opposition to the memorial design. that's followed later by an archival film produced by the

u.s. army. >> c-span's 2012 local content vehicle cities tour takes our book tv and american history tv programming on the road the first weekend of each month. this past weekend featured little rock, arkansas, with book tv at the collection at the university of arkansas. >> the high school collected photographs and he was particularly, again, interested in the 19th century, the civil war in particular, these are two friends, union and confederate who knew each other prior to the civil war, who fought against each other at the battle of p. ridge. survived the war, came out alive and remained friends after the war and here they are at age 100 sitting on the porch talking about the old days. >> american history tv looked at the life in a world war ii japanese internment camp. >> a lady here wrote a wonderful book called the art of