mrs. lowey: and with that i turn to mrs. torres. mrs. torres: thank you. we're back to central america. i'm concerned about the reliability of some of our security partners in the region. specifically in the northern triangle. i want to make sure we are not sending good money after bad. i'm not confident that honduras ' government is a reliable partner in the fight against narcotics, narcotrafficking. they recover less than 1% of what is trafficked through the country. that is not even the cost of doing business for a narco trafficker. so on that note, are you aware on november 26, 2018, the u.s. attorney's office for the southern district of new york indicted juan antonio hernandez alvaro, president hernandez's brother on drug trafficking charges? secretary pompeo: yes. mrs. torres: so -- secretary pompeo: i didn't know of the date but the indictment. mrs. torres: mr. hernandez had access to cocaine labs in honduras and colombia. there cocaine was tagged or marked t.h. for his initials, tony hernandez. are you confident president hernandez was unaware his

mrs. lowey. mrs. lowey: i, too, want to thank chairwoman delauro, ranking member cole for holding this hearing and i want to join them in welcoming you, secretary devos, before the subcommittee. we are not far into appropriations hearings season but, frankly, i am tired of hearing about the administration's so-called tough choices. secretary devos, your budget request does not reflect the reality in classrooms across the country. and if enacted, would cause structural damage to communities across the nation. since you've taken over as education secretary, children gun nue to be at risk from violence, sexual assault continues to climb on college campuses, student debt dictates almost every college graduate's professional choices. you n your testimony criticize a republican-controlled congress for increasing your agency's resources. you're criticizing your agency's resources. is budget relies on an dotal evidence and false con-- an i can dotal evidence and false concepts that -- that you call choice and

lowey: madam secretary i will not get into that. because the hour is late. i wondered if you had any input knowing your commitment to education and your secretary of education and as mr. mulvaney said this is yours and this is yours? sec. devos: this is a process but let me say that it is only at the federal government and washington that we judge the quality and effectiveness of something by the amount of money we spend on it. i think we have to get past that notion. quality and effectiveness does not equate directly to dollars spent. rep. lowey: we could have a long discussion but in many of my schools, whether they get a pell grant or not, it does depend not just on the specific criteria but whether there's enough money in the bank to pay for their pell grant and pay for the scholarship to help them get through a job in education at the same time. i'm not going to get into that again, i hope we can continue the discussion. what i want to ask you in the past week alone, to parkland -- two parkland school shooting survivors, the father of the sandy hook victim died by suicide. this came from the gun violence to schools and highlights the critical importance of menta