response team is on the ground we appreciate that very much. the department of defense is mobilized in the region, and ths state department has been on, engaged, so there has been a u.s. response with the n international community to assist the philippine nal co government. the immediate needs have been in the area of food, water, and medicine, and logistics, long-term needs are going to be the rebuilding of the affected l areas, and clearly that will become a challenge for the ge philippine islands, and for the help of the international community.help o it's personal to many people in america. we have 4 million americans of f filipino descent that live in america. and in the state of maryland, we have 26,000. we and yesterday, with the ambassador's assistance, and jeremy, with your help, we met with representatives of the hel filipino community in maryland,e and they are, obviously, very anxious because they have relatives and friends that werea

directly impacted and they are worried about their well being.h they also are frustrated becaush they want to help, and how can they help? que and that's a question we're try going to try to focus on during this hearing, is how can individuals help in the responss effort, what is the best way to deal with it?deal w i thought the meeting with billy was particularly helpful, but it was clear to me that we have to keep a focus on what is happening, and that brings me ts this hearing, the purpose, of course, to get an update where the circumstances exist today ie the philippines, what is the government doing, what is the w international response, and wha role america is playing on thise latest humanitarian need. with that, let me turn it over to senator rubio for his comments. >> mr. chairman, thank you for a holding this timely hearing. over the past week, our hearts t have been broken by the news ans the images that have been comina out of the philippines, entire towns and villages, and, of course, the lives of real people have been ruined, thousands of

human beings are dead.peop the toll continues to rise every day. it's times like these, by the way, we're reminded how important and engaged america ig for the world, especially for d, allies like the philippines, we, as a nation, pledge to provide the filipino people with humanitarian assistance and ilio deployed some of our brave men and women in uniform to assist with these efforts, and as yesterday's front page of "florida today," which is a ont newspaper in florida, in my "fli state, "space coast," ran a story that sums up what impact " we're having and the goodwill that it engenders. in addition to being the right thing to do morally, this has a foreign policy implication for our country. the article briefly says, u.s. military, a god send for typhoon victims. they are saving us, says one grateful victim. as americans, this is what we o have always done as a people, this is who we still are. a contrast that, by the way, with beijing, whose initial pledge was $100,000.se initi $100,000. just a fraction of what was committed by other countries, a fraction of their size. they've, of course, increased

that pledge now to $1.6 million in u.s. dollars, again, still dwarfed by what china can and cannot do. it's a separate conversation to be had, but a point that's so important the u.s. remain engaged. by the way, our assistance is rh not just limited to what our no governments can do. our american civil society, not for profits like the american red cross and faith-based organizations like samaritan purse and the tim tebow foundation have stepped up to help americans turn their desire to help into action.e this includes, by the way, manyy floridians of filipino descent who have expressed a number of a concerns i will address in my questions later on, and as the chairman's already pointed out, americans of filipino descent are a significant part of our af country, involved in my own sigc office, my chief of staff who'sd here today, has family in the philippines, so this is an issue that reaches all of us. as a nation, we all know too sue well the tragedies natural disasters can cause, how to savw lives and help ensure many needed food, water, and supplies

reach people who need it worse.f we know about the resilience of the human spirit and how to wo. rebuild our communities better and stronger than ever. our example, our assistance, and our prayers are needed today more than ever.ur by our allies in the han ev philippines, because this is who we are as a people, who we have been and continue to be as le, o americans, but in return, the american people as taxpayers, charitable donors, expect to ye, assure this assistance does what it's intended to do and reaches whom it is intended to reach. we recognize that nothing does more to undermine americans' willingness to help other ines nations in time of need than seeing unscrupulous actors filling the void left in the wake of natural disasters and exploiting the moment. wa it's important to ensure that doesn't happen, as well.hat i look forward to learning more. about the administration's plank to ensure that the response to the calamity in the philippines is swift, transparent and is swi effective and i thank you, mr. chairman, for making this a priority. senator

>> also recognize senator flake who is on the subcommittee. nice to have you here. thank you for being here. i'm going to turn to our two urn witnesses, first, honorable scot marciel, department of state bureau of east asia and pacifict affairs. and scot marciel began his term as p principal deputy distant is secretary in august 2013 after serving three years as a u.s. ambassador to the republic of indonesia.indo he has previously served as the assistant secretary east asia pacific bureau, responsible for, relationships with southeast asia and the ambassador for the asean affairs, career member of the senior foreign service and n joined the state department in 1985.nior f we thank you very much for your long, distinguished career in we public service. tng, second witness will be jeremy konyndyk, the director of u.s. aid's foreign disaster assistance, who has delayed his

trip to the philippines to be here today. ph we thank you very much and i y. very much appreciate the fact i that you traveled all the way to bowie, maryland, yesterday to be with me and the filipino community in maryland.nd yes i thought that was very helpfule and i was very impressed by the, coordinated efforts that you have undertaken on behalf of usaid. we'll start with mr. marciel. >> thank you, mr. chairman, senator rubio, senator flake, senator schatz, for giving me this opportunity to testify on i the u.s. government's response y to super typhoon yolanda which o struck the philippines on november 8th. the typhoon, which was, as you know, one of the largest and inf strongest in history, struck the central philippines from the east and carved a swath of destruction across the middle ot the country.the hardest hit were leyte, site of general macarthur's return to the philippines in 1944, sam ars and a series of other islands.ph the typhoon's winds, major storm

surge, killed an estimated 4,00e people, left hundreds of thousands of others homeless, pe and devastated cities, towns, e, and villages. even before the storm hit, the u.s. government agencies began n preparing to respond. usaid prepositioned a team in manila. our embassy in manila issued a a message warning american sued a citizens of the storm and urging that they seek shelter. and many of us in washington began to communicateo and coordinate to prepare for n the storm. then once the storm hit, the state department, usaid's office of u.s. disaster, foreign fice o disaster fassistance, the pentagon, pacific command, all working closely with the u.s. embassy in manila began b intensive communication and coordination to ensure a swift,r effective, and transparent response. so u.s.aid and paycom disaster assistment teams went almost we immediately to tacloban, which you've all seen in the press, to

coordinate our response, workine closely with philippine authorities, who as you said, mr. chairman, have the lead on this.is. there was an immediate agreement throughout the administration at all levels on the need for a at rapid, effective response, both, because of the scale of the disaster and because, as you nd said, mr. chairman, because the filipinos are long-time friends and allies of the united statesn so jeremy's going to describe in detail the efforts on the ground. what i'd like to do is highlighi that the u.s. government's ht response has been, i think, nt' extremely well coordinated and substantial. within a few days of the ays disaster, usaid had announced $20 million in humanitarian assistance, and just a few dayse ago, announced an additional $10 million in assistance, so as of yesterday, combined u.s. government assistance in to th response to the disaster totalled $37 million. that includes $7 million from defense department funds.

our military, as you know, has i deployed substantial assets to assist, and with the help of usaid colleagues and u.s. mi military on the ground, our as assistance is reaching people ii the affected areas and is making a difference. and, of course, u.s. companies, foundations, and private citizens are also contributing. president obama and secretary of state kerry have called the philippine counterparts to offer condolences and assistance and p stress our commitment to helping the philippines respond to and recover from this disaster. at the state department, we sets up a crisis response task forcec to monitor developments and try to identify obstacles to effecto relief supply and make sure we were well coordinated, as well as deal with calls, a lot of yue calls from concerned american citizens. am our embassy in manila continues to play a very crucial role.y it's kind of serving as a platform for coordination, where all the agencies are working ale through that to coordinate withw philippine authorities and private organizations, as well.t

the state department and the t embassy have a special sponsibi responsibility for helping american citizens caught up in h the disaster.there there are now five confirmed american deaths caused by the c typhoon.rtment a the state department and the ng embassy have been working prett much around the clock to assisti the families of those victims, but also have received nearly 1,000 requests for information n from u.s. citizens or on u.s. fr citizens in the disaster area, h and we've located almost 500, about 475 american citizens through our efforts. c our counselor officers are visiting tacloban and the area s around it pretty regularly to try to help out with those american citizens services, and we continue, of course, to work very closely with philippine authoritiesic making sure to address any security concerns.ad again, identify any obstacles t relief, and asking them constantly, what more they needm so that our response is effective and targeted. president obama told president p

aquino during a november 12th phone call that the united ke states was fully committed to a swift and coordinated response y to help the people of the philippines recover, and that we stand shoulder to shoulder with the philippines, our treaty ally. mr. chairman, senator rubio, ta other members, thank you again for allowing me to appear. a i would be delighted to answer any questions. thank you.estion >> thank you very much. mr. konyndyk? >> thank you, chairman cardin, thank you, ranking member rubio, and thank you also for joining us, senator flake and senator schatz, and thank you for the invitation to testify on the ongoing u.s. government response to typhoon haiyan, known locally in the philippines as typhoon l yolanda. and thank you also very much for your continued support of u.s. humanitarian programs around tht world, which every day, as ams r they're doing currently inou th philippines, are saving many, many lives. chairman cardin, i want to thank you, as well, for the invitation rm participate in the event in bowie.an it was enjoyable.

and it was good to see the energy that exists in the filipino-american community and their deep, deep committee to helping with the response to this. s super typhoon haiyan was one of the most powerful storms ever tl make landfall.to and the government of the philippines estimates that around 10 million people have 0 been affected, of whom 4 million have been displaced from their homes and roughly 4,000 deaths have so far been confirmed. the devastation and the loss oft life is absolutely staggering.io and i want to express my deepess condolences, and of course on behalf of usaid our deep es condolences to the people of the file peens. and for these horrific losses. in the face of this disaster, in the u.s. government has mobilized the full range of our humanitarian response capabilities. the office of foreign disaster r assistance at usaid is mandated to direct and coordinate that ht overall humanitarian effort in close partnership with our pa

military, state department and a range of our interagency colleagues. and i have to say that the ot collaboration and cooperation we've seenhe across the u.s. assistance has been exemplary and we've seen tremendous exempl collaboration and coordination both here in washington and in the philippines. before the storm hit, the u.s. . response was already beginning. our hydro meteorological efforts identified the severity of the storm and we the office of ts foreign disaster assistance st predeployed a disaster assistance advance team in manila.ance t that team was on the ground d in leyte province almost immediately after the storm sto passed through and was beginning to assess damage and send back a reports on assistance priorities. we rapidly stood up a response management team in d.c. and a started sending people out. to the philippines to lead that response. we have been working hand in glove with the department of defense's pacific command which has proved absolutely critical. there were enormous logistical a constraints that we faced inl. e

first days after the storm and the dod involvement has been vital to getting those -- to vi getting someta of those obstacl cleared and enailing the initial aid effort to gain momentum. as scot said, we have mobilized now across the u.s. government b more than $37 million in assistance to help typhoon-affected populations. uo and while much still remains to be done, we are beginning to see some notable progress. several days ago usaid partnership with unicef and the government of the philippines go with support from dod got the p water turned back on in the city of tacloban, restoring clean water to roughly 200,000 people in that town. that was a major accomplishment. dod transported more than 1,000 metric tons of relief commodities to communities throughout the affected areas.s and yousaid's food for peace eae program in partnership with thei governmentp and the world food program has provided really the backbone of support to a joint food response that so far has fed 1.9 million people.

going forward, we are seeing a range of different needs.pl i'll go through those quickly and turn it over for questions.y on logistics, that will remain t challenge. that's been a majoric challenges i think everyone's aware. be we've seen real progress clearing blocked roads, we restoration of airport services and notably in the past few n days, restoration of ferry stort services to enable much greater scale of aid to reach affected h areas. we are seeing improvements here. but it still will remain a majoo focus. food will remain a major focus. we anticipate 2.5 million people will require emergency food aid over the next six months.over te usaid has so far provided $10 million in food support that is0 working with the world food program. in particular, i want to emphasize the importance of rtao flexible cash programming for food aid in this instance., we were able, using some of the flexibility that congress anted granted us, to procure 2,500 , metric tons of rice on local markets in the philippines for

immediate distribution.. this is much faster than would n have been possible using possibe traditional food aid tools. that flexibility has really enc helped enhanced the response. we are also focusing a lot on water.on as i mentioned earlier, we helped get the water turned baca on in tacloban city. looking ahead, we are continuing to source generators for water pumping stations to provide ter chlorine tablets for household level treatment of water and or bulk chlorine for large-scale ta treatment as well astm providin family water containers for transport of clean water.ent an shelter remains an urgent priority as well. i know senator cardin you've seen the emergency shelter kitse we are currently distributing. that is, we will have . distributed enough for 30,000 e families in need. i want to just conclude quickly and i see i'm over time.r we are looking ahead to the early recovery process. we are starting to plan on that. i want to call specific attention to the important t

contributions of the filipino o american community in the unitec states.no we are looking for ways to partner with them.ed we are setting up some se mechanisms for that and they tt will be ame critical piece of tt response going forward. thank you. >> thank both of you for your testimony.th thank you for updating the dollar amount from the original $20 million.nt now we are close to double that as far as the direct support t given.ar i very much appreciate your testimony. i think senator rubio pointed out pretty clearly, u.s. ip a leadership, and what that's all about, and the fact that, but an for u.s. leadership, the internationalr partnership coul not be as strong with the government of the philippine islands. we are proud of what we've been able to do. b our technology in dealing with these crisis we know. i was impressed by the temporary shelters.e they're pretty simple but they do protect people from the elements and allow for international assistance, or thh local assistance to provide a

more permanent type of housing for individuals who are left homeless. these high energy bars are home interesting. i don't know whether i would -- they are not on my diet, i see t that, the number of calories e n that are included in these higha energy bars, but they are efficient. they keep people alive.are people were desperate immediately after the typhoon.a they didn't have food. there was no place to get food. to be able to distribute these type of high-energy bars so that they can get through the day with enough calories to survivet was critical, and we have the expertise here, who -- this, by the way, nine bars included in this. so that's -- we know how to get this type of sustenance out. and i applaud the u.s. this leadership. and then on the logistics, i one really do thank our department of defense. i they understand how to get to people who have been isolated e

and to get a better assessment. let me point out one obvious ano point here. p most of the damage was done on s the coast. and that's what we saw.tha we could reach the coast.t' we could not reach communities isolated from the coast. therefore, initially, there wasn't a good understanding as to the severity of the damage inland. do we now have some indication as to whether there is going to be additional significant losses as a result of reaching people that we weren't able to reach originally?cant los >> thank you, senator. we did initially focus on the coast. we also did initial over-land and overflight assessments in some of the inland areas, as as well, working with our dod rkini colleagues. our initial assessment was that. l areas were the worst affected so that was the first priority for focus.at as that situation has started to

stabilize, maybe too strong a word but let's say head in the e direction of stabilizing, we iln have also began looking further afield in partnership with government of the philippines fe colleagues to try to reach someo of those inlandll areas. i would emphasize as well that our initial prioritization of the coast also reflected what we were begin by the philippine government. so from the early days we were talking to mayors and governors from the affected provinces to get their input on where they ef would advise we focused at first.ocwed we followed that guidance fairly closely. we are getting better visibilitg now on what is the situation inland. and while the loss of life is es obviously less because they dids not face the storm surge, theres is fairly significant damage.sur to structures and to crops. and so that is going to be a focus going forward, and we're gathering more and more information on that every day. in fact we had teams out today going to some of those areas. >> thank you.more the question that is frequently asked is how well is the help being coordinated?e h the catholic relief services located in my state of marylandf

we are proud of the role they t played. they have a natural alliance and are well represented in the ree philippines. we know that they mobilized right away to help in regards to their international humanitarian mission.an mis can you share with us how the coordination is taking place pe between the philippine government, international governmental responses and the ngo responses? and how that is coming together? >> absolutely. well i think it's first important to emphasize that the government of the philippines is in the lead. we have worked with them for sort of a good news/bad news story.so we have a great relationship with them responding to a disasters. bad news is we are there five or six times a year. because of that we have a long-standing relationship with the philippine authorities and e natural disaster management authorities there, and we work i very closely and very well togetheran. they are in the lead. they have been providing invaluable information on

priorities and needsad. the u.n. activated what it calls the cluster system which is them globally-recognized system for coordinating response across the united nations, ngos and humanitarian actors. that is co-led with the government of the philippines. they are directly integrated into that.in we are working very closely with that. and within the u.s. government doing nightly interagency calls and a variety of other mechanisms to make sure that wen have our own house in order.g it's been going fairly well so far as more and more ngos come in it will become a greater fa challenge. the >> does the government of the pp philippines coordinate the capacities of the ngos and the need, the capacities of participating international partners as well as their own cash requirements? is that balanced together? >> yeah.lanced their involvement in those cluster coordination meetings so

you have a meeting on health every day, water every day. on government of philippines is day involved in those and able to d hear what ngos capacities are available, what their plans are, provide feedback on that and provide feedback on priorities, in addition to its own activities.. >> as i mentioned there are 4 million americans plus that have filipino heritage. mi there is strong compassion among the american people to be engaged. people want to help. i think that's true help internationally, but .at's particularly true here in ationa america.ll is there any advice you can givu americans who may want to participate in the relief efforo as to how they can best interact to the coordinated efforts? >> absolutely. our general advice has always, t the best way to support in the early response is to give cash.r it is the most efficient way to give cash to a reputable organization that they know andi trust is the best way to get

assistance in.orga in-kind assistance from the u.st can be valuable but it often costs more to ship it from the u.s. than the value of the assistance itself. so it's generally more efficient and certainly a lot quicker to e provide cash assistance to, you know, groups like we met ps lik yesterday at the round table meeting. for more information there is ee cidi.org, center for international disaster inte information, that's a usaid partner and they have a lot of n information there on how to givt effectively in this kind of situation. >> if i could add, mr. chairman, both usaid and state have been in touch with major with philippine/american associations, briefing them on what we are doing and talking about ways they can help. there will be a lot of work to do, recovery, reconstruction.

it's still early days, but talking to philippine american associations, u.s. foundations, u.s. businesses about how going further down the road they can o contribute.contri this is going to be a long-term effort with a lot of loordina coordination. >> thank you. if americans want to check on the status of relatives and thea friends, how do they do that if they cannot make direct connections? >> mr. chairman, the embassy anb state department have been focused on american citizens, first as a priority for us. so we have a system set up syst through our own task force wher people who have been able to ae call in or e-mail in, talk to people and working with our embassy, we've been able to track down about almost 475 americans in response. for people looking to try to

track down non-american citizens, filipino nationals, ,s it's a little bit harder just given the numbers.we we encouraged them to talk to ct contact philippine authorities, the red cross in the philippinei can also help.n philippine red cross has a website for families that ed cro families can reach out to a directly. or friends to try to help locate filipino citizens.s. >> we know this is going to be g long-term project, of course, dealing with the immediate the m individuals that are still in i' harm's way and then looking at how the united states properly w can assist in dealing with the long-term needs.it we appreciate you keeping this committee informed as to the status and how you see the needs and the role that the united states should consider playing. senator rubio?bio? >> thank you. i heard from a lot of people inr

florida who are desperate to ha hear from loved ones as well aso provide a helping hand during the relief and recovery operations. for example, a resident of jacksonville last spoke to her o parents five minutes before ther were evacuating and she hasn't a heard since.acuati she hasn't slept for five days.e what advice do we have for ays. people in this circumstance tryg trying to reach loved ones in the philippines?ines? i imagine it's still l logistically difficult. have do we have any advice would you say i should be giving people in regard to that? >> senator, i wish there was an easy answer. if they are philippine citizens missing or who haven't been ben heard from in the philippines, going to the philippine red cross website where you can make inquiries, as well as contacting philippine authorities who are l in a long effort to try to make sure everybody is found, i think jeremy could speak a little bit

to the communications because i think one of the problems is cell phone connections were lost. and that will be key to getting that going again. >> absolutely. thank you, senator.lutely the communications infrastructure, especially in the coastal areas was ravaged by the storm.m. it is slowly returning and there is 3g coverage. it's spotty, but it's there.it in tacloban city.the so we're seeing that slowly restored. i know the philippines embassy here has set up some mechanisms for citizens to check up on their relatives in the philippines and can be a hub for information on that. they can be directed there, as a well.they >> we heard from several organizations, the filipino american association of southwest florida and cape coral, council for filipino american organizations, they ary looking for ways to help in thep relief and recovery efforts. what advice do we give them . in terms of streamlining their efforts to make sure it reacheso the intended beneficiaries as s quickly and as efficiently as possible?

>> if they are filipino americao groups, i imagine they have very good connections with communities there in the philippines. connect that's often one of the best mmt protections. you want to make sure any group you're supporting actually has g footprint that is relevant to the nature of the crisis. i would imagine that many will h filipino american organizationsp will have links to community woa groups in the philippines that would have that kind of a footprint. i would underscore it's always best in this kind of a situatioa to support them with cash. not only is that more efficient, but also helps support the recovery of local markets. if we bring in, groups bring in, a lot of in kind supplies, those supplies are not being bought if the philippines and not ending p up in the philippines economy. those would be a couple. there's a lot more on the cidi.org website.a lot >> i think you answered this ar before, i may have missed it asr i wasal taking notes, but what' the federal agency in our government that has the lead and convening power in terms of our relief efforts?

>> that's my office. we have under the foreign assistance act authority delegated to the president whici is delegated to usaid as the ed lead federal coordinator on international disaster response. we have been coordinating, we work with the military to validate requests, and work witw them to help steer their efforto towards wherert it is -- where is the most value add and working closely with the state t department and other interagency colleagues on that koord nationn >> one of the things we've seenr in the past from humanitarian crisis in places like the cris earthquake in haiti, children displaced become potential victims of trafficking and ti, things of this nature. is that part of our response coe efforts? are we thinking about how we f could -- some estimates are 2 million children have been affected. what are the steps we are thinking about or who is we thinking about things we can doo to reduce the risk of abuse in trafficking and things like that?in of we've seen that in the past.that >> abut