so i want to complement usaid for naming fellowship for his name. i think it is a fitting tribute to the work that he's done throughout his career, and again we offer our deepest condolences to his family. today's hearing we have the u.s. aid administrator dr. shaw with us to provide testimony on usaid fiscal year 2013 budget request. as you know, i believe that our international development assistance is a critical investment in america's national security. i recognize dr. shaw and his team has made tough choices in this year's request, and i look forward to hearing more about those in our discussions today. it is a budget to protect america's security interests and the leadership on those encouraging more efficient use of taxpayers' dollars to the limit with defense and diplomacy as one of the critical prongs' the help ensure america's national security the foreign relations subcommittee with international develop and foreign assistance i know firsthand how smart investments and or the development projects not only the right thing to do with even

i'm not a scientific guy nor a doctor of medicine but it seems to me that's sort of a cdc role not a usaid role. how much collaboration do y'all do to make sure you're not working at either cross-purposes or duplicating good purposes? >> we do quite a lot of collaboration. you know, back perfectly honest, joining the u.s. government from a different entity, i was struck by the coordination that we do do and i think it was necessary because there are areas of overlap and partnership, but at the end of the day, especially on the research and development and technology efforts of which that is a part. we work with cdc and also, the nih. they are the sort of hub within the federal government for supporting those types of activities. when we do work against that goal we do it with complete joint review of programs and against and aligned strategy and i think that's why you're seeing some of the efficiencies in the programs and our health efforts create new opportunities for the level of patient coverage and the level of impact we believe we can chooef with constant budgets. >> i commend you and

i want to compliment usaid for naming a fellowship under his name. i think it is a fitting tribute to work he has done throughout his career. we offer our deepest condolences to his family. today's hearing we have the usaid administrator to provide with us to provide testimony on the fiscal year 2013 budget request. i believe our international developmen

usaid is asking for nearly $52 billion, an increase of a little more than 1.5%. the hearing begins at 2:30 eastern. >>> at his monthly news conference in brussels yesterday, nato secretary-general anders fogh rasmussen called the crackdown in syria, quote, absolutely outrageous. the secretary-general also answered questions about nato's future relationship with russia after this weekend's presidential election. the briefing is a little less than a half hour. >> good afternoon. thank you for coming. and the secretary-general will start with a short opening statement and then, of course, as usual, we'll be happy to take your questions. >> thank you, and good afternoon. it's a month since i saw you, and the last few weeks have been particularly tough in afghanistan. and i would like to express my deepest sympathy to the families and loved ones of our troops who were killed or wounded in the recent violence. these brave men were in afghanistan to build a safer future. and any attack on our troops is an attack on the future of afghanistan. we condemn these crimes in t

agency for international development or usaid. the agency administrator rajiv shah will testify at this hearing. it will be chaired by senator ben cardon. the usaid budget for 2013 is anticipated to be 1.6% over 2012 levels. it falls under the state department's $51.6 billion budget request. and again, the hearing should get under way shortly. the reason for the delay, a couple of votes under way in the senate on judicial nominations. and then the hearing should get under way. earlier today, the senate fell short in their vote in advancing the transportation bill. the vote 52-44. they needed 62 yes votes to advance. and two republicans in that vote, senators brown and senator collins of maine joining democrats -- 48 democrats and two independents voting in favor of advancing the bill, but they have not advanced that transportation bill in the senate. meanwhile in the house, on the house side, transportation secretary ray lahood commented about the house's efforts on transportation. he said, the house bill that was presented is ver

and as leaders within our country's foreign policy here at the state department and usaid, our goal must be to bolster america's position, not just for the rest of this year but for decades to come. last year i spoke about our institutional efforts to do so with the first ever quadrenial diplomacy and development review you will hear more about. now we have implemented many of those recommendations, to transform diplomacy and development efforts to better position us to deal with the world we face today and tomorrow. this includes adapting to new foreign policy imperatives such as cybersecurity and the full range of cyber issues, standing up the first ever bureau dedicated solely to energy issues and all that it entails, creating a new family of civilian security bureaus so we can better address the full range of interrelated issues that fuel conflict and instability. and, of course, we have a lot of work still ahead of us to try to consolidate the progress we've already made and to build on it. i want to highlight some of the priority policy areas that we are working on to sustain and d

help things along the you help things by assisting democracy movements i mean i was told by a former usaid chief that we help people who wanted our help the movement for changed. people who were in tahrir square these people have now been pushed aside and this is the old guard this is mubarak ism without mubarak this is the army this is the brotherhood this is the bureaucracy this is the oligarchies the rich families and they don't want things to change and the. movement people are they're not organized they have they don't have the money and also it's a society in which if you challenge the authority it's not like people will say yeah that's a great thing to do composer who do you think you are so even now with mark has been overthrown egypt is still a far cry away from achieving democracy you know it's. some say that we should just go with the flow that the brotherhood and the newer party which now have majority in parliament. that they'll become more democratic is they find that they have to serve they have to take care of everybody in the country they can't just be for their own group.

a little bit more familiar ground, and that is this concept of mind body medicine, which as i've -úsaid, and you have said, too, is sort of at the core of your belief system. can you articulate it as you would define it, so people understand exactly what youu3 mean? >> chopra: yeah, well, mm training was in neuro-endocrinology, which is the study of brain chemicals, in the 1970s, and neuropeptides, which are the molecules of emotion. what we iscovered in the '70's, when i say we, the people who were looking at this, scientists, amongst them, me.that these were molecules of emotion, that there were receptors to these molecules in thh body, including in the immune system. so these molecules are modulators of the immune system, they fine tune the immunn ystem. when you are in anninternal state of joy or equanimity or contentment or peace, the -- this oppimizes what is called self-regulation or homeostasis in the body..3 -úvery preliminary, but now we know that you cannot have a mental event without a brain representation. i can ask you to reflect, for example, on certain questions, and i c

would you explain to me the role of usaid and the role of cdc? >> from the beginning, petfar was for expanding service access and to affected populations and to have a very disease-specific, disease-control motel. initially, the cdc what it does best which is epidemiology development and development with the host country of the strategy to address hiv aids and usa does what it has done best which is support service delivery, the development of the long-term sustainable health system, inclusive of financial models that will help it sustain over time. over time, the reality is that those lines have blurred and now, both partners do a lot and when i started, certainly, the degree of overlap and duplication was pretty extraordinary. i want to compliment both tom

defense money that is going to help economic development in afghanistan in close partnership with usaid but looking at long term prospects for minerals that can help improve their posture long term but looking at agricultural enterprises and how to encourage them to move forward and how to bring in capital to help them be sustainable over time. >> talking about sustainability that brings me to my next question. i noticed in the reporting that the ansf is going to be at 152,000 people at some point. general in your expert analysis the growth and the development of noncommissioned officers within the nsf and the growth and expertise that is growing within the junior officer corps is the numbers strong enough to support a foors. first i want to know about what you see within the military itself, the expertise and capabilities and then from an economic standpoint. >> it's an important question. the answer is at this juncture we are still building the ncos and general officers. the good news is that the schools are in place now, the curricula are coming online and we are building a noncommis

ending a decade of armed conflict, but when all the troops come home, thousands of state department and usaid employees, american and local staff, will still be there on the frontlines in iraq, afghanistan, and pakistan. they will be working under very difficult conditions to advance our vital interests through civilian power. tom nide's our extraordinary deputy for resources and management is leading our american efforts to help iraq become a stable, sovereign, democratic partner, and he could not have had a better partner than jim jeffrey. ho have been on the team regarding iraq because it has been a very big challenge for us to get our arms around. a critical en forward in afghanistan will be the success of the afghans in securing and leading their country for themselves. ryan crocker has brought his enen to this really difficult job at this moment. they will need help. and i've asked many of you as a key element of president obama's governments to which you are accredited to pledge substantial financial support to the afghan security forces for the period beyond 2014. i'm also counting on

these are all parts of the multitudous role that the diplomacy and development experts that state and usaid perform y and, obviously, we think it's important work because we do it, you know, with great pride. >> well, i thank you for that. i know they do it with great pride. and to great effect. i think one of the things i was struck by, this is not under the 150 account, it's under the commerce account, which i also serve on chl. but when i was in hong kong, i remember there were about three foreign commercial service folks who were complaining bitterly that they didn't have either the place which other countries had to convene meetings in, or the staff capacity. and that we were literally missing, they said "billions of dollars of business" because we weren't as aggressive as other people in seeking it. so i think this connection is something that we really need to try to underscore to people. >> well, i appreciate your mentioning the commerce department because they've been our partners over the past many decades. their budget has been severely affected with the result that they are remo

we also welcome nancy lindborg from usaid. i also want to welcome our first u.s. ambassador to south sudan, susan page, who is in the audience today, as well as the senior adviser for darfur, ambassador smith. on our second panel, george clooney and john prendergast will join us. i want to thank both of them. i was there with them last year. i saw the focus and attention that their efforts have brought to this issue. they represent the satellite sentinel project, which has given us a window in to events in blue nile and elsewhere. they are just back today. i am pleased they were able to get here. i know they will be talking with secretary clinton and president obama and others. i think today we will have a good opportunity to really get some insights. we welcome it. on a note of sadness, as many of you know, congressman john payne passed away last week. he was a tireless advocate for the people of sudan and south sudan. his funeral service is taking place today. this morning, our committee remember sam for his dedication to the cause of peace. senator lugar. >> th

for more than two years, the state department has been calling on cuba to release alan gross, the usaid subcontractor who was arrested and convicted of violating cuban laws. gross's family and friends had hoped, hoped that the cuban government might release the ailing gross on humanitarian grounds during the pope's visit. that has not happened and the pope to our knowledge has not raise the issue. senator patrick leahy joins us now. last month you were here and visited the military prison and you met with alan gross. first of all, what is his condition and what can you tell us about the conversations you had with raul castro about his release? >> first off, i was surprised, i'd seen pictures of him before he went down. he's lost a considerable amount of weight. certainly the facility he's staying in is not something that you or i or anybody else would want to. a very small cell he shares with two other inmates. he's finally getting to get some exercise but very little. i talked to raul castro about this, and i did to the foreign minister and other cuban officials. they all acknowledged

but when all the troops come home, thousands of state department and usaid employees -- american and local staff -- will still be there on the frontlines, in iraq, afghanistan, and pakistan. they will be working under very difficult conditions to advance our vital interests through civilian power. tom nides is leading our american efforts to help iraq become a stable sovereign democratic partner and you he could not have had a better partner than jim jeffrey. i've grateful to all on the team regarding iraq, because it has been a very big challenge for us to get our arms around. a critical element of our path forward in afghanistan will be the success of the afghans in securing and leading their country for themselves. ryan crocker has brought his tremendous lifetime experience to this really difficult job at this moment. they will need help. and i've asked many of you, as a key element of president obama's policy, to press the governments to which you are accredited, to pledge substantial financial support the afghan security forces for the period beyond 2014. i'm also counting on yo

working with usaid to help to support those opportunities.o as we looked to the future, that is what i see as we look at the projects with a lot of different programs, how can the private industry support government activities and not just the u.s. but opposed government activities as well. it's an area where i think there's a lot of growth opportunity. >> if i could just do authority second advertisement, the school is involved in just that kind of project to engage the private sector in the citizen security issues and there will be a conference on april 19 that the world bank and the state department and the wilson center is also playing a role so across the board is what people see this as a vital part of the solution coming from countries themselves. i think we have time and for two more questions. >> can i just add a and one? it is with the society's decide is their problem to fix that we will find the solution, if that's the real crux of the sand from my standpoint i think it's important to enlist and help them understand how they can c

working with usaid, to help support those opportunities.as we look to the future that's what i see as we look with the projects and a lot of different programs have and private industry support government activities. it's an area where i think there is a lot of growth opportunities >> i could adjust to authority second advertisement involved in just that kind of project to engage the private sector in of a citizens' security issues and there will be a conference april 19 that the world bank and the state department also playing a role so i think across-the-board people see this as a vital part of the solution coming from countries themselves i think we have time for two more questions. >> can i just had an one -- >> sure, please. >> it is when the society's decided is their problem to fix that we will find the solution, and that's the real crux and from my standpoint it's important to enlist and helped them understand how they can connect with various government activities to provide part of the solution and that is why we are looking out w

for hardly any but the one i am going to use is one that daniel halperin, one of his supervisors at usaid, i do want to hear another acting thing about abc. we do condoms, so if you want to tell me who that was. >> guest: i probably shouldn't. clearly that is an attitude and that is a smart person that said that, who should know that there is a difference between generalized and traded epidemics. so tell the folks watching what the differences and why the responses need to be dramatically different with the epidemic. >> guest: first i should note that some of this stuff is easier to understand in 2012 than it was in 1992, right? daniel and i are both sort of latecomers to this. we started the study in the mid-90s and i started around 2000 or 2004 and by then a lot of water was under the bridge. during the first couple of decades in the a response to the epidemic, people were so terrified and trying so hard to help and people sort of made bats in their hearts are of things that they thought would work. so you get this secretion of this sort of faith-based devotion to certain response to th

we also welcome nancy lindborg from usaid. i also want to welcome our first u.s. ambassador to south sudan, susan page, who is in the audience today, as well as the senior adviser for darfur, ambassador smith. on our second panel, george clooney and john prendergast will join us. i want to thank both of them. i was there with them last year. i saw the focus and attention that their efforts have brought to this issue. they represent the satellite sentinel project, which has given us a window in to events in blue nile and elsewhere. they are just back today. i am pleased they were able to get here. i know they will be talking with secretary clinton and president obama and others. i think today we will have a good opportunity to really get some insights. we welcome it. on a note of sadness, as many of you know, congressman don payne passed away last week. he was a tireless advocate for the people of sudan and south sudan. his funeral service is taking place today. this morning, our committee remember sam for his dedication to the cause of peace. senator lugar. >> tha

we have close partnership with usaid come but, in fact, looking at both long-term prospects, for example, for minerals that help turn the corner or help but least improve their posture long-term, but also looking at some of these agricultural enterprises and how to encourage them to move forward and how to bring in capital that will help them be sustainable over time. >> okay. well, talking about sustainability brings me to my next question but as i noticed in the reporting that the ansf is going to be about 352000 people at some point. general, in your estimation or in your expert analysis, the growth and the department of noncommissioned officers within the nsf and the growth and expertise that is growing within the junior officer corps, are the numbers there to support the force this large, and then going forward, is the economy afghanistan strong enough to support forces? of for someone to know about what you see within the military itself, the expertise and capabilities, and then from an economic standpoint as well. >> is an important question, and the answer is at this juncture we'

for me to use hardly any but the one i am going to use is one that daniel -- of the supervisors at usaid said to him which is i don't want to hear another effing about adc. we do condoms. do you want to tell me who that was? >> i probably shouldn't. >> clearly that is an attitude i suspect that that is a smart person that said that who should know there is a difference between generalizing and treat epidemics, so tell the folks watching with the difference is and why the responses need to be dramatically different dependent upon the epidemic. >> first, i should note that some of the stuff is easier to understand in 2012 than it was in 1992. daniel and i had the benefit of time and we were the latecomers around 2002, 2004, and by then a lot of water has been under the bridge and in response to the epidemic people are terrified and made bets on things they thought would work so you get the secretion of the faith based devotion to certain responses in the epidemic and so coming in of late to the story has put a huge benefit from me in particular just because you can sort of see where others

how do we coordinate and continue to support usaid efforts and other government efforts to build thoseapacities where they need to be built because that's where the biggest problem is in here. so it really is working with each part of the u.s. government coordinating our efforts so that we're making the most of what we have. and then finally, pillar five is enhanced cooperation. and we do that on a routine basis through military-to-military exchanges, through international military education and training programs which help train militaries, help educate militaries on their roles in society and help build the relationships between one another. and then the exercises that we routinely conduct throughout the region also. that are, again, very traditional, defense-related exercises that help build those relationships. as well. we find that interaction and that engagement is critical to our role in sustaining our partnerships within the region and building and growing capacity throughout the region. so let me conclude by saying, um, i think as vice president biden demonstrated as he visite

as leaders within our country's foreign policy here at the state department and usaid, our goal must be to bolster america's position. not just for the rest of this year but for decades to come. last year i spoke about our institutional efforts to do so with the first ever quadrennial diplomacy and a development review that you will hear more about. now we have implemented many of those recommendations to transform diplomacy and development efforts to better position us to deal with the world we face today and tomorrow. this includes adapting to new foreign policy imperatives, such as cybersecurity and the full range of cyber issues, standing up the first-ever bureau dedicated solely to energy issues and all that it entails, creating a new family of civilian security bureaus so we can better address the full range of interrelated issues that fuel conflict and instability, and of course we have a lot of work still ahead of us to try to consolidate the progress we have already made and to build on it. i want to highlight some of the priority policy areas that we are working on it to su

we also welcome nancy lindborg from usaid. i also want to welcome our first u.s.r to south sudan, susan page, who is in the audience today, as well as the senior adviser for darfur, ambassador smith. on our second panel, george clooney and john prendergast will join us. i want to thank both of them. i was there with them last year. i saw the focus and attention that their efforts have brought to this issue. they represent the satellite sentinel project, which has given us a window in to events in blue nile and elsewhere. they are just back today. i am pleased they were able to get here. i know they will be talking with secretary clinton and president obama and others. i think today we will have a good opportunity to really get some insights. we welcome it. on a note of sadness, as many of you know, congressman don payne passed away last week. he was a tireless advocate for the people of sudan and south sudan. his funeral service is taking place today. this morning, our committee remember sam for his dedication to the cause of peace. senator lugar. >> thank you, mr

so on the first instance, and ambassador lyman and usaid and others have worked for hard and trying toet an access agreement so that working behind the african union and arab league and u.n. proposal, and so that's really where the attention needs to be on, and it's to stop the use of starvation as a nuclear weapon of war, that's a war crime and it just must be ended. >> thanks to all of you for your advocacy and i will turn it over to senator udall. >> thank you very much. thank you, senator isakson. i can't tell you how important it is, i think, for george, for you and john, took on over there and brought these images back. and i think chairman kerry was right in saying we should play them and have them up on the screen, because i think as painful as they are to see them, the thing that this does is allow all of the american people and people around the world to really get engaged with us and say, we don't want this to happen again. one of the things that you have mentioned is, and that's what i wanted to question a little bit on, and i think john mentioned this and we're willing to

it is in the usaid programs, a judiciary programs, all of us working together with those governments to solve this problem. >> general jacobi? >> i concur with general fraser. we understand this is a whole requirement, but the participation of the militar ies in guatemala and mexico is very good and is improving, and there is efforts and a consciousness on the mechanism but on the mexican side of the importance of the southern border. i see them taking action. >> together colombia, peru and bolivia produce nearly most of the world possible supply of cocaine, and in recent years progress in could curling -- in controlling cocaine production has resulted in an increase of production in peru and bolivia. i do not know if you agree with that, but i would like to know, and what would be your plan to prevent further cocaine production increases? >> i agree with that effort. we have seen a reduction in the cocaine production in colombia, and as traffickers have worked other places, they have gone into peruke and bolivia. comesof the colocaine from colombia. we're working with columbia in th

defense money that is going to help economic development in afghanistan in close partnership with usaidn fact, looking at both long-term prospects, for example, for minerals that could help turn the corner or help improve the posture long term but also looking at some of these agricultural enterprises and how to encourage them to move forward and how to bring them capital that will help them be sustainable over time. >> thank you. okay. well, talking about sustainability brings me to my next point. as i noticed in the reporting that the ansf is keen to be about 352,000 people at some point being 195 and about 157, general, in your estimation or expert analysis the girls and the development of the non-commission officers within the nsf and the growth and expertise in the junior officer corps are the numbers there to support the force that is this large, and then going forward is the economy and afghanistan strong enough to support? >> i want to know about what you see within the military itself, the expertise and the capabilities and then from an economic standpoint as well. >> it's an i

we do have been a aside -- we do have a usa present -- we do have a usaid presence. we will be having cultural exchanges, smaller aid and reconstruction programs, but nothing on the scale of the infrastructure programs we undertook during the first years of the american occupation. host: missy ruan, correspondent with reuters, what are some ideas of what to do with the embassy space? have been plans floated to bring in iraqi rebuilding groups or strictly iraqi-oriented groups that do not have the embassy ties but could use the valuable real estate? guest: i do not think anything is under discussion in terms of turning the embassy over in the near future. that would be difficult. we want to keep our options open for the time being. i have seen a number of tongue in cheek suggestions about building bowling alleys and bringing iraqis in. i think for the time being, it will remain an american embassy. the staff is smaller than the in the seat was built for. you never know what is going to happen in the future. it does not look like there's going to be any substantial neg

accordingly, i was very pleased by last week's release of the new usaid policy which makes integrating gender and including women and girls central to all u.s. international assistance. this policy which updates guidelines that were over 30 years old recognizes that the integration of women and girls is basic to effective international assistance across all sectors, like food, security, health, climate change, science, technology, economic growth, democracy, governance and humanitarian assistance. it aims to increase the capacity of women and girls and decrease inequality between genders and also decrease gender-based violence. this new policy is as welcome as it is necessary. as secretary clinton declared earlier this year, achieving our objectives for global development will demand accelerated efforts to achieve gender equality and women's empowerment. otherwise peace and prosperity will have their own glass ceiling. unfortunately, as we know, there are still places that this glass ceiling exists and there are major obstacles to women. worldwide one in three women will experience som

this legislation strengthens the capacity of usaid and the state department, increases aid effectiveness, transparency, accountability for sanitation, water and hygiene, and it has no net cost, according to the c.b.o. i strongly urge my colleagues to co-sponsor this legislation and hope that we can move it forward in this congress as there has been movement in the senate. millions of lives will be transformed. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentlelady from florida, ms. ros-lehtinen, for five minutes. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, madam speaker, and i would like to begin my remarks by commending all of the citizens and young students in my congressional district and indeed throughout the country who have worked so hard to raise awareness about joseph coney and his brutal crimes, as we can see in this poster. there's coney and these are just a few of the photos of so many innocents who have been mutilated by coney and his thugs. joseph coney is a mass murderer whose campaign of violence against innocent civilians spans decades. the predatory forces doing his bidding is kn

it was fitting that usaid announced a donald payne development fellowship last week, designed to help people enter careers in international service. i was fortunate to benefit from don's knowledge and advocacy personally as he became a founding member of the bipartisan house democracy partnership which i co-share with my california colleague, representative david dreier. don's counsel and guidance and encouragement were invaluable as the partnership initiated partnerships with legislators in africa and countries affected by the arab spring. our frequent travels together in the region forged a deep and lasting friendship. he probably knew more about the ins and outs of africa politics than all other members of this institution combined he had strong and well-informed views about what our country's policies should be an he was ready to articulate those views persuasively, no matter who the president was or which party was in charge. he also insisted on investigating situations on the ground for himself which led to quite a few one-man cartels and some anxious moments for those who wante

on the president's budget request for usaid. i want to take a moment to recognize representative payne. he took time to offer specific counsel to me and our staff on regular basis. he has visited nearly every african mission, and we were proud to support a modest fellowship to improve our efforts to build a diverse work force in partnership with his efforts and ideas. two years ago we were asked to elevate development as a core part of our national security and foreign policy strategy. we recognize that this work is so important that is has required us to do things differently. it has required us to be more responsive to national security priorities, more effective in foreign policy priority contexts, while being much more results oriented and efficient in achieving core development results in food, security, health, water and sanitation, education, humanitarian assistance, resistance to climate change, governance and basic respect for human rights. in this budget request we believe we have made tough choices, choices that are l