successful with unesco. but i think that, you know, the position i think that many of us are looking at is that the immediate halt in the u.s. funding sent a powerful message to all other u.n. bodies as well as the palestinians that the u.s. is serious about its intent for negotiated peace. i agree with you unesco does good work. the concern is that resuming that funding at this time would send the wrong message to the palestinians at this particular time. and i appreciate your willingness to work with this committee in trying to come up with how to deal with a waiver -- thank you. i'm sorry. >> i could hear you. >> okay. as long as you were able to hear me. a waiver in which the president has put in his budget and which you've described because i think it's important, again, sending that message right now is a concern we have with the unesco. let me also -- and this is kind of jumping over to israel. while we greatly appreciate, and i personally appreciate your ongoing efforts to defend israel at the united

i do have a question about unesco. and i understand the point that you were making that there will be consequences to the palestinians for going against the u.s.'s advice and directive not to pursue independence through the united nations. and then avoiding direct negotiations with the state of israel. the most important strategic ally and friend the united states has in that region. but what are the consequences, or what would the consequences be to -- under a waiver to unesco, the body that actually voted in favor of the palestinians' request? i've got a couple of these, dr. rice.

some members questioned the $79 million for unesco, the u.n. scientific and education organization because the body has allowed palestinian as a member. ambassador rice's testimony is about an hour and a half. >> we will come to order. i want to welcome everyone to today's hearing. ambassador rice thank you for being with us today to give testimony and answer our questions on the administration's budget request for the united nations and international organizations. i know it's been a very challenging year since you last testified before this committee. we commend you for your efforts to get the international community to pressure iran to stop pursuing nuclear weapons. you've also pushed the u.n. to assist countries in the middle east and north africa that are facing difficult transitions. and i know there are many issues you're always working on that never make the front page. unfortunately in spite of your hard workers there's been many disappointments at the u.n. over the last year. the conflict rages on in syria with are you shall be and ch

. >> again, so the attitude would not be the same as unesco, it would be to continue our position on north korea. >> we do not agree on how you characterize our position on unesco, so i'm not going to buy into that. >> i understand that, but i think it's pretty clear. now, again, another area that i think we may be able to agree is the following. some nations, such as china and russia, have been pushing to reverse this consensus -- the internet, which basically has not been regulated internationally. now china and russia are trying to give the international telecommunications union regulatory jurisdiction over internet governance. the itu is a treaty-based organization under the auspices of the united nations. putin, prime minister putin said last june is that the goal of this effort is to establish international control over the internet using the monitoring and supervisory capabilities of the itu. has the administration taken a position on that or will the administration come out in opposition to protect the internet from, you know, global control? >> i'm happy to take that questio

with exactly the right partner, unesco.g and how did it come about, briefly? >> i was 22 years old when i wrote watermelon man. and i wrote it in about 15 minutes. i wanted to capture the sound of the watermelon man in chicago going dish in the wagon going over the cobblestonallies in chicago with the rhythm and sound of women yelling, hey, watermelon man. that sparked the melody. >> herbie, keep playing, man. keep playing. you're the best. >> thank you so much. thank you. >> that does it for us. >> thank you for having us here. >> yes. thank you. >> for you and for the music. that does it for us. your local news next. we'll see you tomorrow right here on "cbs this morning."

with exactly the right partner, unesco.how did it come about, briefly? >> i was 22 years old when i wrote watermelon man. and i wrote it in about 15 minutes. i wanted to capture the sound of the watermelon man in chicago going dish in the wagon going over the cobblestonallies in chicago with the rhythm and sound of women yelling, hey, watermelon man. that sparked the melody. >> herbie, keep playing, man. keep playing. you're the best. >> thank you so much. thank you. >> that does it for us. >> thank you for having us re >> that does it for us. >> for you and for the music. >> that does it for us. up next your local news. we'll see you tomorrow right here on cbs this morning. >> i'm surprised he could hear us. ♪ >> good morning, it is 855. let's get too caught up with some very headlines. he big rig crashed overnight required about seven hours of clean up on 680 in pleasanton. the big rig jackknife and hazardous materials workers handle cargo including lithium and other flammable chemicals. the truck driver suffered minor in

unesco is placing the wreck of the titanic under its protection later this month. the cultural agency says the ship will fall under a convention safeguarding underwater cultural heritage. it prohibits unscientific or unethical exploration or recovery of artifacts. this come into effect on april 15th, the 100th anniversary of the sinking. it went down off the east coast of an da and is lying in waters 4,000 meters deep. >>> another rupert murdoch outlet said it twice authorized journalists to access illegally obtained e-mails of the suspects. "sky news" said in 2008, it hacked the e-mails of people involved of insurance fraud, suspected of insurance fraud involving a husband and wife in britain who fakes a man's death. last year, "news of the world" a popular british tabloids with was forced to close after a phone message hacking scandal came to light. >>> a grammy award-winning singer and iconic figure in africa has been named minister for culture and tourism in senegal. he contributed last month to the election of the president by opposing the bid of the incumbent

with exactly the right partner, unesco.out, briefly? >> i was 22 years old when i wrote watermelon man. and i wrote it in about 15 minutes. i wanted to capture the sound of the watermelon man in chicago going dish in the wagon going over the cobblestonallies in chicago with the rhythm and sound of women yelling, hey, watermelon man. that sparked the melody. >> herbie, keep playing, man. keep playing. you're the best. >> thank you so much. thank you. >> that does it for us. >> thank you for having us here. >> yes. thank you. >> for you and for the music. that does it for us. your local news next. we'll see you tomorrow right here on "cbs this morning." ,,,,,,,,,, >>> few clouds moved in since last half hour. >>> starting to move our way from the south. warm front coming our way. 66 degrees the high temperature. we are in the low, mid-50s now. shower or thunderstorm tonight. 55, mild overnight. normal around 50. 74 tomorrow. normal is close to 70. maybe a couple of thunderstorms around. close to 80 on wednesday. thursday rs f

before the senate foreign ops subcommittee of the appropriations committee, israel remains a member of unesco. but there are a number of areas where their action is helpful to the clr instructions from our legislation, but we still think it's in america's interest to do things like education programs, stand up for the freedom of press and expression. so the waiver would give us the opportunity to evaluate specific circumstances, and it would also give us the chance to react if by some unforseen circumstance some of the major u.n. organizations like the world healthinternational atomic ener agency headed to extend membership. those are organizations that we really have a big stake in. so the policy is one we agree with. we obviously follow the legislation, but as we have done in many situations over the years, providing some national security waiver would allow us to make case by case decisions. >> aren't you afraid that this is going to send a signal to the united nations to the whole world that our threats don't mean anything? we warn them not to take this action. you warned them personally.

just about anyone else, because prior to being the director of the information services division at unesco in paris she was at the archives, where she was the right-hand person to several archivists over the years. she was the american counsel for the american library association. and back early in life, nearly 30 years ago, miriam was the best darn deputy director that the office of information privacy ever had by far, a position she held for about a dozen years from 1982 to 1994. so with that, i'm going to just let miriam go on for the rest of the panel, and we're going to be able to talk about very interesting developments i would think not only about ogis in general but perhaps during sunshine week in particular. >> thank you very much, dan. good morning, everybody. >> good morning. >> i know this is a little late in sunshine week to be mentioning this, but you do have a little bit of time left. downtown, the national archives building for the first time ever this week has been on display, the original freedom of information act. and if you -- i know some people in the room have made i

not only were they punished but unesco was. a program that deals with millions of needy people all over the world was cut off financially by the united states i think that the palestinians have a very key role in the international system and they're the ones that are the test case of whether or not international law really has any relevance if it can really address the needs of oppressed people whether or not the big powers that really have the military power like the united states can be made to do to protect the interests of the weak. and in a sense if the palestinians lose this if the op your patient wins and the international community is powerless to defend him or the implemented national law i think it sends a chilling message to oppressed peoples everywhere in the world not only to the palestinians the palestinians are the epitome of this problem but i think it's a problem that's facing the international community and not only the palestinian right of how far co-founder and executive director of the israeli committee aga

system, largely unesco, which of course we're out of for all the stupid reasons, but we're the keeper of those rules, the u.n. is. and how those rules get change and how we work on them is going to be very important. it's a wonderfully interesting challenge i think for those of us concerned about going back to the first question, what do we mean by sustainability. well, what is sustainability? how are we overusing resources? how do we really dramatically change our way? we have to change definitions, as you point out. gross domestic product by itself does not help. so we've been talking than for 20 years. but there are now i think institutionally i think that's beginning to change. i'll stop with that. the other questions are great. but that was a good opening. >> and that addressed also the -- >> the first question. >> the planning under pressure question. >> okay. >> not fully. >> let me try. they're really great questions. and of course we are all trying collectively to find answers to some of these very difficult questions. just to go back on your point, nancy, on the gas. actuall

one is unesco. but that's what we need do as a nation periodically and frequently to make sure we're spending u.s. tax dollars effectively and efficiently. >> mr. gowan, do you agree? >> i do tend to agree. i think we focus a great deal on the failings of peacekeepers and what's going on in the security council. but there is as brett said an amazing number of agencies and many do overlap. it's astonishing the agency has three operate food issues all based in rome. and actually they spend a good deal of time fighting each other in rather pointless turf wars. there are unquestionably efficiency savings to to be made in the u.n. system and most will involve organizations with acronyms that i haven't heard of, let alone most taxpayers in most countries. >> monte on twitter writes in his thoughts on these changes. he said, the five perm intercept members have a vested interest in queeping the status quo. -- keeping the status quo. let's go to the bridge line. duncan is on the phone. caller: good morning.