i'm going to go to mr. englenew york the ranking member of this committee, for his questions. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and madam secretary, let me also put my weight behind what our chairman has said. i agree with every word he said. i want to read you the first part of a report put out by radio free europe and radio liberty yesterday, and i'd like you to comment on it. u.s. commander says 12,000 russian soldiers in eastern ukraine, the u.s. military estimates 12,000 russian soldiers are supporting pro moscow separatists in eastern ukraine, u.s. army europe commander ben hodges say the russian forces are made up of military advisors, weapons operators and combat troops. he also said 29,000 russian crooms are in crimea. and march 3, helping ukraine with weapons would increase the stakes for russian president vladimir putin at home. and added when mothers start seeing sons come home dead, when that price goes up and that domestic support for putin fins to shrink, hodges said that with a ukraine wants is intellig

indeed a letter from many members of congress, including myself, mr. engle speaker wilson go to the president on the subject -- will soon go to the president on this subject. where are we on this decision? president portugal continues his appeal to us, obviously. ambassador nuland: thank you mr. chairman. as i mentioned in my testimony as you know, we have provided $118 million in security and border assistance. to date, this is all in the defensive, nonlethal area, but some of it is on the high end of defensive, including the very important counter fire radar batteries we were able to provide over the last few months, with ukrainians report to us have saved lives particularly in the most intensive conflicts around donetsk airports and debaltseve. with regards to the question of providing more legal assistance as my secretary, and secretary kerry testified last week, that question is still under discussion, and the president has not made a decision. chair royce: i want to get back to this issue of russian tanks that are firing on cities and on ukrainian posi

chairman and i look forward to the secretary's testimony. >> thank you mr. engle. is morning we are pleased to be joined by mr. john kerry the 68th secretary of state and mr. secretary, welcome again here to the committee. without objection the witness's full prepared statement will be made part of the record and the members here each of you will have five calendar days to submit any statements or questions or extraneous material for the record you may wish to submit. so mr. secretary, if you open for five minutes and then we'll go to the members for their questions. >> well, thank you very much, mr. chairman. congressman engel, ranking member and all of the members of this committee. for respect of your time i will try to summarize my comments and mr. chairman, i hope i can do it in five minutes. there is a lot to talk about and your questions will, needless to say, elicit an enormous amount of dialogue which i really welcome welcome. i can't think of a moment where more is happening and more challenges exist and there's more transformation taking place some of it

. >> chair now recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. engle. nutes for questions. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. and welcome, secretary burwell. let me piggyback on back-up plan. i was part of this committee. i participated in months and months. deliberations for the affordable health care act. we had weeks of mark-ups. this committee did. and not once was there mention of subsidies not being able to individuals in states that did not set up their own exchanges. i've heard a lot of complaints on the other side of the aisle about the law but never was this issue discussed inuntil they lost at the supreme court in 2012. some of my friends sign on to amicus briefs and wasting incredible time forcing votes on the floor, for repeal of the law, yet they are upset the administration doesn't have a back-up plan for 8.6 million americans. i think it is somewhat ironic that my republican friends are demanding that this administration fix problems that they themselves created and have shown zero interest in fixing. should republicans get what they w

will go to mr. engle for his questiones. thank you. >> thank you mr. chairman. let me first also emphasize that the trepidation that all of us have about the negotiations involves at least for me, what the chairman said that any deal that would sunset in ten years, or however much, we're very obviously concerned about and i know yous are well, and we obviously want to push that back as much as we possibly can because we really just don't trust iran. i think the chairman's right on the mark in terms of our concern with the sunsets in ten years or so. another thing that has bothered us -- again, as the chairman mentioned, he and i had legislation which passed the house two years ago by 400 to 20 and unanimously, out of this committee, which involved strong sanctions and halt the senate followed suit and been signed into how i think we would have been in a much stronger position now. one of the things that's really annoying to all of us is that we are sitting and negotiating with iran over its nuclear program at a time when iran continues to be a bad actor all arou

mrs. hamilton. please come up. [applause] >> she is a tireless woman at the engle side community center and church on ocean avenue. for 16 years, not one year, 2 years, but 16 years, she has worked tirelessly every day to help the center through the programs the city provides. and things like the food pantry. by the way, the food pantry is, i think, the biggest in our district serving several hundred people every week. >> it was 72 percent and while the numbers have dwenled the african community is still numerous in lake view and those who serve the community very well and serving young and serving seniors at the it book man center and so this year, the lake view hall of fame will be taking place on june 16th and it is a friday night, and usually at the espanol, and it is always a really great lively event and we have had over the years, great mc, like tyler and renela from the giants and we hope to have a strong event this year as well but i just want to say thank you for helping to make the history relevant, today, and for a really show casing the tremendous contributions of the african american community and in