i thank you and i'll yield the rest of my time to mr. boyle. >> mr. ou very much. and i have to say, being on the foreign affairs committee, and this subcommittee for the last six weeks, i keep waiting until we get to have hearings about good news. i suspect that we'll be waiting a very long time. the scale of the human tragedy that has taken place in syria is unbelievable. now, over 12 million human beings, 12 million people who have been dislocated, this is creating enormous instability not just in syria, but northern iraq, and other nearby areas. i would just ask -- and i -- a lot of my comments were echoed earlier, so rather than being representative, i would just ask that when you are giving your statements, while this subject might be specifically about syria, this is part of a regional fight. part of a fight that has been going on for approximately 1,400 years, i would like you to talk about -- to the extent you're knowledgeable about it, the stability of the regime in jordan. because with being bordered by israel and what was going on last summ

mr. boyle: thank you. i very much appreciate the leadership that the gentleman from california has shown in forming our caucus. and also especially when it comes to this issue, which is near and dear to my heart. i talked many times during my campaign about the fact that i thought it would change the dynamic, to now have a member of congress who himself has tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt because i wanted to do exactly what we're doing tonight. be able to speak on the house floor and say, yes, this is an incredibly serious issue that needs to be dealt with as the national problem that it is. we now, depending on how you budget mortgages, student loans are considered either the largest source of debt or the second largest source of debt in america today. a 10-fold increase in the last 20 years. 10-fold increase. that is unsustainable. i believe that it is unfair and a tremendous burden to those who are young and frankly not so young and raising families of their own. but not on

mr. boyle: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank mr. scott. one of the things that made the toth -- 20th century known as the american century was that the united states had the largest middle class in the history of the world. the idea that if you work hard, play by the rules you would get a fair wage and good benefits, and that your children would be even able to do a little bit better than you have been able to do. it wasn't always that way, though in the united states. we can thank to a great extent some of the great advances that we had in the 20th century as far as workers' rights to that of organized labor. without labor unions, we would not have the strength of the middle class today. it is no accident that in the post-world war ii period when you saw average incomes rise in the 1950's, 1960's 1970's, you saw average incomes rise for workers, sure enough you saw the percentage of the american work force unionized also increase. it is also no accident that as the percentage of the american work force unionized declined, so too, did aver

i thank you and i'll yield the rest of my time to mr. boyle. >> mr. boyle is recognized. >> thank you very much. and i have to say being on the foreign affairs committee, and this subcommittee for the last six weeks i keep waiting until we get to have hearings about good news. i suspect that we'll be waiting a very long time. the scale of the human tragedy that has taken place in syria is unbelievable. now, over 12 million human beings, 12 million people who have been dislocated, this is creating enormous instability not just in syria, but northern iraq, and other nearby areas. i would just ask -- and i -- a lot of my comments were echoed earlier, so rather than being representative, i would just ask that when you are giving your statements, while this subject might be specifically about syria, this is part of a regional fight. part of a fight that has been going on for approximately 1,400 years, i would like you to talk about -- to the extent you're knowledgeable about it, the stability of the regime in jordan. being boarded in israel and what was goi

mr. brendan boyle of pennsylvania. >> thank you. i waited three hours here to ask this one question, because i was concerned that this issue might be overlooked with the plethora of issues that we have and that you have, secretary kerry, around the world. one of the great achievements of the last 20 years of american foreign policy was forging a peace agreement in northern ireland. we're now 15, 16 years on from the good friday agreement and tensions still remain. the house, the senate on a bipartisan basis appropriated $2.5 million for the international fund for ireland. but the state department is hesitating in releasing it. secretary kerry, would you please commit to me and to congress that these funds will be released by the state department and that the united states will continue to play a strong and active role in the northern ireland peace situation. >> mr. lee zell of new york followed by mr. tom emert of minnesota and that's it. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. secretary, there was a letter that was sent from the other pres