so it has been a challenging time for usaid. the bush administration stood up mcc, millennium challenge, as an alternative, a way to break with the tired old development approaches that for decades have failed. but mcc has had its challenges, too. so-called compacts, in the early days, were big, they were complicated, they were overly optimistic. this has improved some, but mcc must stay true to itself, getting pulled into countries where you don't belong could ruin mcc's recipe for success. by demanding that countries we are aiding have good policies in place, by strictly monitoring and elevating impact, mcc has served as a lab for what does and does not work. it is getting countries on a path towards graduation from foreign assistance. and that is why many of the administration's new initiatives are borrowing from the mcc model. this is progress, if it is well implemented. the president's proposal to reform the international food program, helping more at less cost is a bright spot in the budget request. for much of our food ai

so, it was an educational process of how to move forces and yet support usaid and the role of the country team and port au prince. so, it was very informative there. and to back up when we had the first no fooling hurricane that worked its way up the entire gulf coast, the principal committee calls that were generated during the haiti response were then turned around and then bringing all of the governors into a conference call with the president to make sure that all their needs were being met in the advance of a hurricane arrival. so, we really had all of government, from local all the way up to the white house, fully included in that response. but the haiti response was certainly informative in bringing all these disparate entities together to provide unity of effort during a response. >> we need general spiese. >> okay, thanks. i would offer a little bit from an institutional perspective at the tactical level in the marine corps. that's an area where we could use some improvement. our forces deployed to the western pacific certainly understand this, and they pass it on among themselve

so, it was an educational process of how to move forces and yet support usaid and the role of the country team and port au prince. so, it was very informative there. and to back up when

as a doctor, i recognize the important work usaid does.articularly in the global health initiative and through the pet work sending important programs that have really relieved human suffering. obviously one of the emboles of both mcc and usaid help the countries that were interacting with become self-sufficient. and that always one of our goals. my conversation with the government of india and the state of california as we're looking at the issue of food security and helping india feed its own population. i was astonished at the amount of food -- that occurs in india. upward of 40% of the food get lost. in a nation where hundreds of millions go to bed hungry every night. a lot is around issue of cold storage and issue of lack of infrastructure of taking the food and moving to market. i would be interested in hearing from either one of you on some effort working with the government of india to improve both the storage issue and then the movement issue. >> thank you. i'll address a few of the points. with respect to the food security and in

so it has been a challenging time for usaid.ndeed the bush administration stood up in the millennium challenge as an alternative a way to break with of the tie-year-old development approaches for decades had failed. but it has had its challenges, too. so called compaq's in the early days were big and complicated and overly optimistic. this has improved some, but they may stay true to itself. getting pulled into countries where you don't belong could ruin the recipe for success. bye demanding that the countries we are aiding have great policies in place buy strictly monitoring and elevating impact, m. cc served for a lab that does and does not work. it is getting countries on a path towards graduation from foreign assistance and that is why many of the administration's initiatives are borrowing from the model. this is progress if it is well implemented. the president's proposal to reform the international food program helping more at less cost is a bright spot in the budget request. for much of our food aid this proposal with rem

administration to work with a very complex response, and then recognizing for us the supported commander was usaid that normally isn't in the emergency response business. so, it was an educational process of

do you have -- usaid have such a program? >> absolutely. we actually have increased suspensions in departments and partners of all kinds by more than five-fold relative to the prior administration. we've been very, very focused on accountability in that context. just this past weekend we pulled together all the international partners for afghanistan to use the afghan accountability framework to make joint judgments, should we be pulling back our resources if the afghans don't do certain things? >> thank you, gentlemen. >>> ted deutsch of florida. >> thank you, gentlemen. thank you for being with us today. and answering all these questions. dr. shah, i want to thank us aid and state as well. often underappreciated role of providing humanitarian relief to the sorryi isyrian people. protecting our aid workers. obviously, you have heard here today, extremist organizations, concern is growing and there's frustration despite our efforts we still hear there are syrian people -- people don't always feel that the u.s. is with them. i would point out

because it's been said by the world bank, it's been said by usaid corruption is a tax on the poor. and if you can't trust a government to govern wisely, honestly and transparently, no amount of development assistance is going to propel that country forward. >> let me come back to a couple of my questions, then i'll come back to the twitter questions again. you've talked about partnerships, you've talked about countries that are having success and partnerships between countries. how do those partnerships as we see new countries, excuse me, expanding their influence throughout the developing world offer an opportunity for the united states or for businesses to expand their partnerships and radiate out? >> right. well, let me just say a word about the private sector in this regard because one of the most important lead elements of the u.s. role in the world is how global american companies represent themselves around the world. remember that very often the only american that somebody will meet may be with a corporation. and i have seen some parve louse work by -- marvelous work by cor

and can you comment on the significance of the 6% cut to usaid hiv/aids funding? >> thank you very much, congresswoman. let me emphasize first of all that we were really pleased that pepfar was able to be held whole. i think that's vital. i have personally visited, i was in durbin, north of durbin, in the mountains watching of the program is being effectively administered, and the difference it has made. we are looking at, as secretary clinton testified, we are looking at having an age regeneration as a result of what we've done and we should be very, very proud of that. that will continue completely. with respect to the drc, the answer is yes, we are going to appoint a great lakes special envoy. and shorter i think you'll be very pleased with the presidents of choice. that is also caught up in the vetting process right now. but i'm very anxious to do that because i believe that without a great deal of input, one could deal with in 23 and encourage rwanda to perhaps take a different approach to help the president to be able to deliver better governance. there's a

it has to be coupled with diplomatic work, assistance like the work the usaid and other state departmentzation mcclachee obtained top-secret documents going over four years of drone strikes in pakistan and they conclude that despite claims from the white house that these drones are being used just to go after top al qaeda leaders and that it's only when there is definite intelligence, etcetera, quote, the documents show the drone operators weren't always certain who they were killing despite the administration's guarantee of the accuracy of the cia's targeting intelligence and its assertions that civilian casualties have been exceedingly rare. you've seen -- you saw this report. what is your response? it seems to me that, i mean, a lot of the coverage from the report was obama administration is not telling the truth about who we're targeting, who our drones are targeting. >> i think the obama administration is actually talked a lot about this. they target al qaeda and associated forces across the globe. the good thing about a drone versus other tools is that you can be incredibly precise

this is where the supposedly pros were going to be put in summary judgment the state department and usaid were supposed to bring in the experts from our nation's civil service and foreign service. the problem was many of our best people has already burnt out in iraq by then, and so they simply kind of put out a notice for jobs to be filled and waited for resumes to come in. instead of going out and scouring universities like this, ngos and nonprofits, the private sector. if i were obama, i would have called up the human resources heads at apple and microsoft and google and said, give me one of your people for a year and go out and find people who are willing to live in these obscure conditions, fine people who are willing -- who possess these skills. we never did that. and so i'm not sure that when you look back at iraq anda, it really represents the best of what our nation can do if we really put our mind to it. >> host: thankses a lot. i think it's important that -- reporters in situations like this, military situations, are no less important than medics. it's kind of society's money, i

i understand she's lost some of her usaid funding, she's always under pressure from the afghan governmentrong. i was with her yesterday. she also gets so inspired by others. you know, it's -- she doesn't take, she did say that you know, to have her pictures taken with obama and with hillary clinton is so helpful to her. it gives her legitimacy. so these women are just incredible. we can just not help them enough. >> and there is a lot of concern that once u.s. troops pull out and as afghanistan goes through its political process. that they will lose the rights they have women in parliament, they have you know, women leaders now, something never before under the taliban. when i first went to afghanistan. but that all of this progress could be easily eradicated. >> but you cannot, you know, when you deal with darkness, you cannot think about the darkness. you have to go for the light. and build around the light. because otherwise everything is impossible. you know. everything is impossible. so you just have to go one step at a time and you help one life and you have many lives behind. >> wh

settling in the occupied territories or otherwise present israeli military forces why do so that's what usaid does in other words going to the palestinians most of it so you argue that u.s. administrations have used corrupt language to manipulate the israeli palestinian track but is that the hallmarks for the u.s. foreign policy for that entire region or is it just exclusive to the israel palestine issue well i mean i think this kind of language is not exclusive to this conflict or to the united states i think. i was thinking that syria without what i want is that everything i give it i can think of many many instances i think that the arab israeli conflict and especially the palestinian israeli component of it which is the core is particularly susceptible to mis making and to language which is really fundamentally false i mean israel is a democratic and a jewish state where there are all kinds of rights that are denied to non jews so how much can it be democratic but we say it's a democratic state to be are we are with other countries for i understand that but those those critiques i think i

the statee values of department and usaid that i intend to defend every day. thank you, mr.chairman. i know i went a little over. >> let me raise a couple of issues. this committee has been frustrated in obtaining documents and other information on the department concerning the benghazi terror attacks. this predates her tenure, so i am hopeful we will be able to resolve this as you get your team in place, so we can move forward on this important issue. i would also like to call your attention to the inspector general and office, the key independent office looking at waste and fraud. mr. secretary, as of today, there has been no permanent state department inspector general for over five years. this includes president obama's entire first term. the committee raised this issue in a bipartisan letter sent to you in february. we would like to see an immediate appointment to this position. on north korea, you know my views on this, but the united , past administrations administrations, have tried to offer north korea aid. we have offered over a billion dollars, or sanctions relief

come to the floor to talk about remote and sometimes dangerous places around the world where you are usaid and foreign service officers serve. we know about the difficult places our brave military personnel serve often at great sacrifice. we sometimes lose sight of their civilian, diplomatic and aide colleagues working side by side. i'm always impressed that no matter where on the planet one travels there is an outpost of american ideals and talent dedicate toddy phroepl is i, human rights and helping the less fortunate. these civilians serving abroad can face a variety of threats, yet they do it with dedication, patriotism and a belief that the united states should always be a voice for good in the world. sadly today i come here with a heavy heart as the life of one of the brightest officers from i am tphoeu was cut -- from illinois was cut short. 25-year-old ann sddinghoff was clear-eyed in her determination to make a tangible improvement in the lives of those around her. after two years in the embassy of caracas and venezuela. ann was a bright spot on the embassy impound known to friend

he department of state and the usaid would support from other u.s.cies are alleviate the humanitarian crisis in syria and 1 million re than syrian refugees that have fled to neighboring countries. debt in the united states has spread to humanitarian assistance including emergency care, supplies, food, and shelter. the largesttates is single aid to the syrian people. the united states is leading the effort to make sure that the other countries make good on the $1.5 billion in commitments for the pledging conference in syria held in kuwait earlier this year. we're working through diplomatic and military channels to russia and china to do more to help resolve this crisis. conveyed the message in recent calls with both my ussian and chinese counterparts. internationally, the united states has worked with eu, the league, and over 50 countries to build a robust anctions regime to bring about an end to the conflict. these sapgss are having an on the assad regime's ability to assess the international to access the international financial committee and raise

our international assistance program is funded predominantly by usaid state department or the interested country. we really don't count, you know, reducing 5% or zero really doesn't make much. we don't have much of an international program, which is unfortunate in my view because i think it is incredibly important soft diplomacy, and that the state department has always turned to us to provide assistance that when they can find it to send our employees to assist particularly the developing countries looking to diversify their economies. look at coaster week and their incredible successful national park program. they built that. the u.s. park service. that was our effort to train them on how to manage and protect their systems through tourism, interpretation, and now it is an enjoyable part of their economy. we are assisting south korea, colombia, a number of african countries, and we work in partnership, but it's all through basically no park service funding other than we are paying our staff. it's been a park service employee at normandy probably since the beginning we've had someone th

and can you comment on the significance of the 6% cuts to usaid hiv-aids funding. >> let me emphasize first of all that we are really pleased that pepfar was able to be held whole. i think that's vital. i have personally visited, i was in durbin, north of durbin in the mountains watching how that program is being effectively administered and the difference it has made. we are looking at, as secretary clinton said when she testified, we have the potential to have an aids free generation as a result of what we have done. and we should be very, very proud of that. that will continue completely. with respect to the d.r.c., the answer is, yes. we are going to appoint a great lakes special envoy in short order. i think you'll be very pleased with the president's choice. that is also caught up in the vetting process right now. but i'm very anxious to do that because i believe that without a great deal of input, one could deal with m-23 and encourage rwanda to perhaps take a different approach, help president kabila to be able to deliver better governance. there is a lot we can do but we have

the more we have to do through partners and that's both on the other agencies of government side, usaid, department of state, other agencies of government that have an outreach to international partners, and in our case it's literally security force assistance, building partner capacity, as i think we're doing pretty successfully in places like yemen, like somalia, like north and western africa. and then the last one, on sexual assault. this is sexual assault prevention month. i'm very much -- i've had two daughters serve. i hope you tell those young ladies who are continuing to be interested in the service that they are entering an institution that is taking this more seriously than anyone else i know. i assure you it's not lip service. but i can't stand here today before you and tell you that we've turned the corner. we just haven't. and i had a meeting yesterday with the j.c.s. we meet monthly on the topic. it is as important to us as anything we're doing. and we look forward to partnering with congress to helping each other figure it out and in the process of doing so, by the way, w

between 2004 and 2007, congress passed a series of bills limiting usaid to sudan and applying sanctions against sudan for its atrocities in darfur. in 2007, i visited refugee camps in eastern chad filled with hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children who have fled the violence of darfur. each has a story of horror and violence. wase i was there the border crossed and villages were attacked inside chad displacing thousands of people in the desolate landscape and brutal heat in the dry season. i witnessed with admiration the emergency response mobilized within hours by the u.n. and international humanitarian agencies and n.g.o.'s to provide these newly homeless and traumatized people with water, food, shelter, immunizations, and medical care. i will never forget those people, those children, and will i never forget the caring and highly professional humanitarian aid workers who provided lifesaving support to these refugees under difficult and dangerous conditions. khartoum continues its brutal campaign in darfur and there is no end in sight. eric rodriguez, who 10 years ago bravel

iraq was characterized by poor planning by the bush administration, who ignored state department and usaid analysis, envisioning protracted u.s. involvement in iraq, requiring substantial spending for many years. the pentagon was left in charge of managing postwar iraq and defense secretary donald rumsfeld famously underestimated the resources needed to stabilize the country. when lieutenant general jay gardner told secretary rumsfeld that the united states might need to spend billions of dollars to rebuild iraq, rumsfeld responded, quote, if you think we're going to spend $1 billion of our money over there, you are sadly mistaken. well, of course, it was mr. rumsfeld who was sadly mistaken. and the american public who was sadly misled and the iraqi people who sadly suffered from the chaos and destruction unleashed by ideologues who used iraq as a laboratory for a light footprint war. mr. speaker, unfortunately those lost opportunities and tragic mistakes are not behind us. i'd like to take a moment now and yield to my friend and colleague, a woman who has consistently been against the war