i was distressed to read several months ago that the special envoy, richard holbrooke, announced that we build almost no capacity in the afghan authorities. we sent our troops to war in afghanistan in october, 2001, and -- mr. kucinich: i yield the gentleman another half minute. mr. farr: thank you very much for yielding. but after more than eight years of war we are now trying to actively support peace. for years i tried to develop a civilian response corps that can bring the whole government approach to weighing the -- winning the peace. we proved time and time again we can kick down doors, but we have not yet proven that we can build peace. finally standing up the civilian response corps and we are building up the capacity so that war without end is not our only option. i'd like to submit the rest of my remarks for the record as time permits. thank you for yielding and yield back whatever remainder time i have. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from california, mr. berman, is recognized. mr. berman: madam chair, i'm very pleased to re

troop levels, holbrooke told "newsweek." we drilled down deep into this. worst of it is that the police are central to washington's plans for getting out of afghanistan. mr. speaker, i will again tomorrow night read another portion of this article, what it is saying and what we in congress need to keep in mind. we can't even fix the streets in my home town in east and north carolina yet we're spending billions and billions and billions of dollars in a country that at best is living in the 16th century. and i don't know, we debated the health care this weekend, that we have other issues we'll be debating and even though those issues are very important to the american people, how in the world can we keep wearing out our troops overseas, spending billions and billions of dollars that we can't even spend here in america? so, mr. speaker, as do i every night, because my heart aches for the military and those who have lost their lives, i ask god to please bless our men and women in uniform, i'd ask god to please bless the families of our men and women in uniform

we provided on short order for ambassador holbrooke a team to monitor the afghan elections.and we provided a similar team on strategic communications. we also deployed civilian response corps members to africom, centcom to work on planning and further expand coordination with the military. we deployed 13 members fair to say civilian corps to the democratic republic of congo to follow up on the secretary's visit. we responded to the earthquake in haiti by deploying civilian response corps member to assist the embassy and the humanitarian relief effort and we activated the crc from across the agencies, from across the government to staff task forces here. we were asked one day to help provide support for a specific task force in the state department. the next morning we provided 40 people including all eight agencies that make up the civilian response. that is true interagency work. true interagency coordination. this is not to say there have not been challenges. the pace of hiring for the civilian response corps has been slower than anticipated. although we picked up the pace

we'll show you as much as we can until ambassador holbrook begins his news week.e overall department. when you break that down, $11 billion for the customs and port -- customs and border, and so on. when you look at that, what does that say about the priorities for the omen security department? guest: the big increase in the fiscal 2011 budget proposal is for the transportation security and administration, and this is not a big surprise given the attempt on christmas day in detroit abdulmutallab -- by our abdulmutallab. host: compare that was about 3% for the overall department in 2010. guest: indeed, the big increase will be at the tsa. we will see a lot of new technology going to try to capture explosives detection a bit better, perhaps, than traditional screen technologies might be able to. host: foreign technology, most of the money going toward what type of technology? there are guest: as been a lot of money in these whole body imaging devices. -- guest: there has been a lot of money invested in these whole body imaging devices. the obama administration plans

we provided on short order for ambassador holbrooke a team to monitor the afghan elections. and we provided a similar team on strategic communications. we also deployed civilian response corps members to africom, centcom to work on planning and further expand coordination with the military. we deployed 13 members fair to say civilian corps to the democratic republic of congo to follow up on the secretary's visit. we responded to the earthquake in haiti by deploying civilian response corps member to assist the embassy and the humanitarian relief effort and we activated the crc from across the agencies, from across the government to staff task forces here. we were asked one day to help provide support for a specific task force in the state department. the next morning we provided 40 people including all eight agencies that make up the civilian response. that is true interagency work. true interagency coordination. this is not to say there have not been challenges. the pace of hiring for the civilian response corps has been slower than anticipated. although we picked up the pac

i urge secretary of state clinton and special envoy richard holbrook to raise this issue at the highest level. at a time when americans are sacrificing so very much and asking their sons and durs to risk themselves, we owe nothing less than about the unvarnished truth this war. we need more information, not less, the bad news as well as the good news. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: mr. jones of north carolina. mr. jones: last week during the debate about afghanistan, i spoke on the floor. i was in support of the resolution introduced by sue kucinich, house resolution 248 and i used an article from "marine times," november 2, 2009, and it says, "caution killed my son" sadly, the first sergeant, retired marine john barn ard lost his son joshua, lance corporal who was killed in afghanistan. and from that, his concern was the rules of engagement had changed to such a point where our military's restricted in certain areas of what they can use in ways of defending themselves. well, after i read the article on the floor, part of the article, it got on my mind about what are we doing to

. >> afghanistan and pakistan richard holbrooke briefed reporters today about his recent trip to the region. from the state department, this is 45 minutes. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> sorry for the delay. good afternoon. welcome to the department of state and our daily press briefing. we always like a lecture on to guest lecture to come and give us the latest on a significant regional issues, none more important than our ongoing efforts in afghanistan, pakistan, and the central asian republics. richard was just on an extensive trip around the world that included stops in many countries, including afghanistan, pakistan come in fishing up in georgia in germany. he thought it was a good time to come down and give you a current sense of the state of play in afghanistan. i think you'll be happy to a ten questions on the situation in marja and also how other governments in the issues unfolding and how are working together very closely with them. and we'll follow up on other subjects. richard, thank you. >> thank you very much for coming. this is the pattern that

vice president biden, deputy secretary steinberg, special representative holbrooke -- we've had a very clear message that we are supporting the government of georgia. for the fy11 budget we're requesting $90.1 million in aid which is an overall increase of 8% from the fy10 level of $73.77 million. the bulk of that will be, you know, trying to help the georgians sustain their work in democracy, to enhance public confidence within their own country and in the region, in their direction. we also are continuing to provide funding for nonproliferation, antiterrorism demining and related programs. and we are heavily supporting their military deployment to afghanistan with new equipment, new training. so i think what we're doing is a very positive story. and we stand up for georgia in many international settings against the very, you know, strong attitudes expressed by their russian neighbors. >> thank you very much. thank you, mr. chairman. >> senator boxer? >> thank you, mr. chairman. and secretary clinton, i just want to say that i think all of america is very proud of the job you're doing

richard holbrooke made some comments yesterday to clarify comments he had made on tuesday regarding the attacks, and the department of state hasn't yet carried a transcript or offered any further comments. >> he made these comments in boston? >> right. so -- >> i mean, you're saying that richard clarified what he said i mean, he was here on tuesday and you're saying he made some comments. i happen to know he was in boston yesterday at tufts university and at the kennedy school. if he did issue any clarifications up there, i have not seen a transcript yet. >> is it likely that we'll get one later if he did do that? >> i don't know what public activities i happen to know he was at the kennedy school because my daughter works there, so but beyond that, i don't know what he said publicly yesterday. but if we have any details on if we have a transcript, we'll be happy to put it out. >> okay. i mean, what he his comments have are available in the media. but it's just that there isn't an official version yet, so i was wondering if you would be issuing one. >> okay. as i said, i will check to s

i suggested to her a new format of our engagement when she was in islamabad, and ambassador holbrooke was there -- a three- tiered structure of engagement, ministerial level, policy steering group to meet biannually to follow through, and then to expand the sectoral track. the original -- i will not call it strategic -- but the original dialogue that we had in 2006, 2007, it and 2008 had only four tracks. and madam secretary, on my request, has agreed to expand the track from four to 10. and why have we expanded those tracks? we have expanded those tracks to make this relationship people to people. i wanted to bring in areas that affect the lives of the ordinary people of pakistan. and when i say i am happy today, i am happy because i feel i have contributed and raid directing this relationship -- in redirecting this relationship in line with the aspirations of the people of pakistan. the people of pakistan expected a different kind of approach. the people of pakistan expected a democracy to treat a democracy differently, and you have done so. and that is why i am satisfied and that i

asking because i heard something quite different and finally, ambassador herbst, how has ambassador holbrooke used the cicilline response core? >> we provided names of civilian response court to his office which is responsible for the staffing our people in afghanistan. islamic you provided the names. how many has he used? >> i have to come back but he asked us to do specific things and we provided the election team. i mentioned strategic communications team and the election team was eight people strategic communication was six people. >> out of 86 folks the person in charge of the most critical operations and most critical part of the world has used 10%. and how often? >> its eight plus six? okay. and this is year round or just short term? >> the election team was there for about six or seven months. they are, obviously the strategic communications team has been on the ground since i don't know october, november. and the embassy now asked to put together another team for the upcoming elections. >> basically eight or nine years. so 10%. thank you. >> thank you, commissioner. commissioner schi

. >> just a couple minutes we'll take you live here to the state department, richard holbrooke will be speaking with reporters about his trip to afghanistan and pakistan. he's a special representative to the region. understand the briefing should get underway in under five minutes. from washington, president obama said today he was opened to four new republican proposals on health legislation. he detailed those ideas in a letter to congressional leaders. by the way you can read that letter in its entirety on our website in featured length at c-span.org. jobs legislation also under consideration on capitol hill. we get an update from a capitol hill reporter. joining us is richard ruben of congressional quarterly, what's been happening with the jobs related legislation in the u.s. senate? >> just had some action this morning right when the senate opened. senate is stalled over several jobs bills, but most has been over the smallest bill, which is a short-term extension of programs that expired on sunday, including expanded unemployment benefits and cobra health insurance subsidies for jo

i met with ambassador holbrooke in october. and i talked about securing the environment there. [inaudible] the question i have, is how much is that costing us? and how long are read going to have to be there [inaudible] -- in terms of how long it is going to be? next, is how much help are we getting from our nato and other allies in terms of this nation building. that is on your side of the coin. secretary gates, on your side, i would love to have the information, how much how are you getting out from our nato allies with boots on the ground? we have people there, but they have unpaid debts. i have gone to countries, and they say, i am sorry, we cannot have our people involved in military activity, but we can train these individuals. how much help are we getting from them? you are asking for $2.60 billion it to build up the afghanistan army. the question i have a, is anybody else pitching in to help pay for the afghan army? we know we will probably have to spend it twice that in the future for a long period of time in order to maintain the security that you talked about in term