statements and for the very strong support of the united states congress in the relief efforts from the united ne states and really from around the world for the people of nepal at this time. i'm particularly proud to be appearing at this hearing with i my colleagues from usaid and the department of defense which is aooperati really true indication of the spirit of civil and military cooperation in the united states when it comes to issues of humanitarian response. in the interest of time and because we have such detailed expertise, i want to ask that my full statement be entered into k the record and i will summarize a few key points here. mr. chairman, the outpouring of concern from the u.s. congress c in the days and weeks following the earthquake and the surge in contributions to relief f organizations is a real testament to the generosity of the american people and a true th indicator of the common values that unite us during difficult nepa times. as you noted, the 7.8 magnitude d over earthquake in nepal took over 8,600 lives and injured over 17,000 people. last week, i traveled to nepal an

schoumacher: the euro is the currency of the euro ne -- the dollar is the currency of the united stateso economies of roughly equal size means that the international involvement of those economies with each other and with the rt of the world are roughly on the same scale. so the international importance of the euro for private business is likely to be of roughly the same order of magnitude as the international importance of the dollar for private businesses. the creation of the euro was really a political event more than an economic event. of course it has economic consequences, but the reason the europeans did this was to accelerate their move to a european federation to a united states of europe. schoumacher: having a common currency in which to do business, having increased the integration of european business enterprises and other activities across borders is more likely to create a single european market rather than a fragmented market. what the euro means is that member countries will no longer be able to have their own monetary policies. what that means is that the interest rate