demonstruss failure of usaid to afghanistan. mr. speaker, how much more can the poor american taxpayer continue to said tsh-spend in a failed policy in afghanistan? i cannot emphasize enough that we have children, senior citizens, and veterans here at home that desperately need our assistance, yet we run out of money for their programs because we refuse to make cuts to the funds that are being funneled overseas, and especially in afghanistan. i say to the administration and to congress, that it is time to fix america's problems, not afghanistan's problems and not the world's problems. in closing, mr. speaker, i want to again to mention the three army soldiers who were killed last week actually on july 25.

again this is what we did in earthquake in haiti where we used federal resources to support usaid. >> let me ask you this because my time is short and i want to get to dhh because this is what i'm very concerned about. i agree that the children need to be handled potentially different than other immigration issues and that health and human services has a role but my concern, mr. chairman, is that i am fairly current and up to date on the very mediocre job that's being done in our own foster care system in the united states today and let me give you some statistics on any given day we have 500,000 kids in foster care. i mean in the united states. 691 new children come in to our foster care system in 50 states. so, with a high caseload by casey and pew, low high turnover rate of social workers, not enough judges anywhere, we're getting ready to add to the system that's not the strongest, this group of children that have no paper work. or little paper work. many have no birth certificates. so i'm really concerned about this as all of us are. so i'm going end because i've gone over my tim

usaid confirmed they participate in this program. .> explained what they would do crexendo document,says usaid has its own intelligence analysts stationed with the watchlist and community that is governing this whole system, and fromare collecting data people applying for grants, contractors they are working with. of course they will do diligence to make sure the people they are giving grants to our not terrorists -- are not terrorists. there's nothing scandalous about that, but they're taking this information for people applying for something that has to do with agriculture in india, and translating that to people but that can be suspected as known or suspected terrorists means is activelyusaid engaged. among the items that can be copied, collected, noted, the condition of books in your car, are there notations, your ez pass, health insurance --ormation, your health card we have gone through and look at this over and over. the message that is sent to people that are so-called screeners is basically there is nothing -- no such thing as the fourth amendment if you are on this list. we

[laughter] the millennium challenge corporation would take the good guys, and usaid would take the bad guys. you know and and, yes, about the academic economists. a lot of them do accept these principles, and this would be treated as kind of embarrassingly unoriginal 101 if it was a purely act dem you can discussion we were having -- academic discussion we were having. these are widely accepted. there's a phrase i once heard about sort of another set of principles that could alie to this situation, that these principles are simple but not easy. they're very simple to understand, but it's not easy what you actually do with them, where you actually go next. and i think that's, the the i think the role of academic economists is to keep clear the principles and to make sure the audience that i'm addressing which is really the applied development policy community, that's who i'm calling sort of the relevant experts who do think that they are sort of in charge of development in a sense. there is a sort of tyranny of experts. not as attacking anyone individually is a bad idea, but they think

this is what we did in haiti where we used federal resources to support usaid. >> okay.ut let me ask you this, though, because my time is short, and i want to get to dhh because this is what i'm very concerned about. i agree that the children need to be handled potentially differently than other immigration issues, and that health and human services has a role. but my concern, mr. chairman, is that i am fairly current and up-to-date on the very mediocre job that's being done in our own foster care system in the united states today. and let me just give you some statistics. on any given day, we have 500,000 kids that are in foster care. i mean, in the united states 691 new children come into our foster care children this 50 states. in 50 states. so with a high caseload by casey and pew, low -- high turnover rate of social workers, not enough judges anywhere, we're getting ready to add to this system that's not the strongest this group of children that have no paperwork or little paperwork, many have no birth certificates. so i am really concerned about this, as all of us

state and usaid must development a strategy that includes budgets to support sustainable growth. the millennium challenge corporation should accelerate engagement in the region. i think the state department should designate a high-level coordinator to establish an office to be the focal point for policy formulation and a response to humanitarian concerns facing children escaping this region. lastly, state and usaid should work together to establish effective repatriation and reintegration programs for children who are returned to their home countries. mr. president, if we don't deal with the root causes, this is what's going to happen. we'll expedite the process, we'll deport, and when they go home and face the same violence that we have done nothing to change, their option will still be the same: flee or die. and they will take the risk all over again, and we will have the challenge all over again. now there are no easy answers, but i truly believe at the end of the day immigration reform, which had very significant border protection provisions, very significant antitrafficking

>> usaid added and an ax. >> more than 100. more than 100 seats. >> i don't have that. >> standard embassy design and we added a hundred additional -- >> we added and an ex. >> so you were the one -- in your testimony here, if it takes longer to build an embassy, we have people in harm's way and it takes longer to build the d think that puts people in harm's way or not? >> in the case of porche moresby, we have a significant increase in the number of people who would be located on site and the addition of u.s. marines. >> for those not familiar with that we had 41 personnel, the number will go up to 71 personnel. >> we are required to colocate and not be able to do so have we only build the building for 41 people. >> there is a way to build standard embassy design increasing the number of personnel. why was the number of personnel increased? >> we started with what was essentially a standard embassy design. it was the mini standard design. when we got the increased -- we were -- >> when did they -- what did you get out of it? >

there was an airport and there were all these things for which i think donors and usaid had a presence in the north of course could take credit but because he could make an argument that unlike the americans the europeans were really doing much. all of that credit went to him. all of their relationships with the business community he could kind of monopolize. he could control who is getting what contracts in a much more direct way and of course all of the fallout that would come from conference urgent or counterterror military activity really didn't have to deal with that. it's a double-edged sword having a really powerful donor working with you because you know their relationship could become problematic sometimes. >> let me ask you about another issue. you mentioned the word corruption and let me add to that. drugs, narcotics. kandahar and nangarhar the two provinces have been among the major poppy producing areas of the country. the production has gone up and down and they are also important and are on the border with pakistan. kandahar is closer to iraq and both are major trafficki

countries claiming and saying people are trying to escape the violence, let direct the dea money, the usaidems. it's smart for the president to realize we are not going spend another $3.7 billion that we do not have to address a problem and not deal with these root causes, and the root cause is you have to secure the southern border. this 3.7 bill does not address the root causes. so let's charge it back to these countries. >> well, all of us, i think, have to ask, do we want to be harsh to these children who are coming across the border, freeing drugs, violence, and sex crimes, in their home country? do we wish to be harsh? have you -- >> not at all. >> have you asked yourself that question? i think all americans are asking this. what do want to do with these children? >> absolutely. that and is an appropriate question, and i have great compassion for these children, and i was in fort sill at the detention center in this weekend. congressman bridenstein and i went, and i have to tell you, it is not compassion to have these children in and then release them to somebody that is a sex traffic

i'm going to give you a couple of examples of what some of our usaid is being used for. developing civil society programs. climate change. addressing the gender gap in education and work force. we would be better off spending this money in thor in cities of america. start with detroit. i would say no more money from america until they step up to their own responsibilities and stop their citizens from illegally migrating to the united states. again, regarding mexico, how can we continue to have free and fair trade with a country that not only takes our money but is actually profiting from these drug cartels from human smuggling of children? it is sickening to watch these children on the top of the train, the beast as they call it, sitting on the top of these trains coming up thousands of miles through mexico and the mexican government is doing nothing. we need to act decisively, we need to act now. i would say no more financial assistance either from the united states to the centrals that are shipping up their children to mexico, through mexico and to the united states. a

and the state department and usaid. those are additional expenses that the military will be using at a time we are primebly pulling out of afghanistan. what would a billion of that $80 billion mean to the aleds i'mer's research program here in the united states. we shouldn't appropriate a billion because you can't ramp up that task. if we spread that over two, three, four years and go from 566 billion to a billion and a half dollars, what could be accomplished? i know in the sacramento valley, university of california, davis, has a very robust and break-through opportunity on brain research. i know in your own area of los angeles, university of california, los angeles, and university of southern california, are together operating major research programs on the mind, on the human brain and how it is harmed, what is it that sets off alzheimer's. we can do this, but these are choices that the american people, your representatives are making choices here in this house about how to spend your money. when one in five seniors

there are some programs that have been put in place through the usaid to try to address the economic quality of life concerns individuals in the country may have. there already are resources being devoted to that effort. the other thing we can do that is the subject of a lot of conversation even outside of the latest situation is enhancing law-enforcement agencies in central america and in the united states. in some cases that means offering expertise in the resources about the steps that they can take to enhance their country. the citizens activity initiative is something that the president talks about when he traveled to central america a couple of years ago. the service would be the subject of the ongoing conversations. it had been so far. we would refer you to the state department for the guidance of the resources that have already been devoted to the effort and additional resources that are available her to your asking the president to stop russia. the president has a power if that's a good idea quick >> i haven't seen the letter from the congressman hensarling so we will take a

he said usaid could be cut off. he is meeting with the candidates. was fraudulent. three of the world's richest man are lemming the border crisis on congress. bill gates, warren buffett, and sheldon adelson wrote new york times piece. the republican-led house has refused to revamp immigration. thousands of children are pouring in. moneyss is balking at the president obama wants to use to tackle the problem. those are your top headlines. >> this is the most contentious topic. that would be the minimum wage. aaron dubay is with the hamilton product. the higherh suggests minimum wage outweighs any costs. good morning. the republicans will push against you. what do the keep them in wage crew get wrong? >> i think moderate increases in increaseage can earnings going to those at the bottom and reduce poverty while posing limited risks to the labor market. that is what the research suggests. and that is what i propose. >> what level of minimum wage would you want to see? i understand it is state by state and city by city. do you have a golden number that ge

so we need to thank ge foundation, lumina foundation and usaid funds. please give them a big hand. [applause] >> and now it's my pleasure to introduce ted mitchell, the undersecretary of education. the undersecretary overseas policies, programs, and activities related to postsecondary education, adult career and technical education, federal student aid, five white house initiatives and the center for faith-based and neighborhood partnerships. partnerships. can't believe he is made time for us. that's a lot, but please join me in welcoming undersecretary mitchell. [applause] >> thank you, governor. and thanks not only what sounds like a great conference, a terrific invitation. so pleased to be here, but thanks for the great work you are doing at home. you are a champion for high quality education for all the kids in your state, and we are the beneficiaries of that, so thank you. it is terrific to be here today to talk with you and as i look out literally in the room there are a handful of very, very dear friends and it's great to be back doing this work with you in d.c. before i sta

cultural affairs, the bureau of african affairs, the bureau of international information and programs, usaidu.s. african development foundation, ngo, and academci post20 universities. that is a big group of people who helped make this happen. [applause] importantly, i want to thank you. excited, asred and you can tell, i think. i hope you can tell. to welcome you all here -- it is such a pleasure to welcome so many young african leaders to washington. and, as you know, the leaders of countries will be coming here in just a few days for a first ever summit of all the african leaders. we are very excited about that. the president is personally very focused on it. right now, we have 500 and fellows from all 49 countries in sub-saharan africa. this is really remarkable. this is a first. presence ofthe real a kind of excitement, a hopefulness, a sense of possibility, that is accompanying and defining this meeting -- i can almost feel my hair growing a brown again. [laughter] actually had a chance to meet a few of you. i don't know where you all are in the group here. how many of you met me along

lacking funding, usaid has closed its program in the area. we showed deep concern for girls who are kidnapped in nigeria but not for girls kidnapped by narcos in honduras. why? how can we demand that countries neighboring syria take in nearly 3 million refugees, but turn our backs on tens of thousands of children from our own neighbors. if we short-changed due process, i believe that congress, and this administration, will be sending many children back to their deaths. thank you for the opportunity to speak, and i welcome your questions. >> thank you. as i said before you were able to come back into the chamber, your full statement will be entered into the record and i ask you to summarize in five minutes. there's a vote going on. i'm going to try to see if we can get through the testimony and then recess, and come back for questions. >> great. chairman menendez, thank you very much for this opportunity. senator corker, senator cain and others. i would like to emphasize some of the points that have been made by earlier speakers, but say that

lacking funding, usaid has closed its program there. we show deep concern for girls who are kidnapped in nigeria but not for girls kidnapped by narcos in honduras. why? how can we demand the country's neighboring syria taken nearly 3 million refugees but turn our backs on tens of thousands of children from our own neighbors? if we short-change due process, i believe that congress and this administration will be sending many children back to their deaths. thank you for the opportunity to speak, and i welcome your questions. >> thank you. ms. ardson, as i said before you were able to come back to the chamber, i will ask you to summarize your statement in about five minutes. we're going to try to get through the testimony and then recess and come back for questions. >> great. chairman menendez, thank you very much for this opportunity, senator corker, senator cane and others who have been present. i would like to emphasize some of the points that have been made by earlier speakers but say that a long-term solution to what is now this human

and we also reached out to usaid for a response. they said the share of the u.s.ment in human development, a measure of health, education, and standard of living than any other country in the world since 2000. we continue to work closely with all responsible oversight agencies, including the inspectors general, in support of the administration's objectives and to protect us and u.s. taxpayer funding. we also reached out to the pentagon, but they did not provide a response. i'll see you right back here tomorrow at noon eastern. up next, richard lui. have yourself a great day. ...and a choice. take 4 advil in a day which is 2 aleve... ...for all day relief. "start your engines" we're th12 brands.ou call home, when you're away from home. more hotels than anyone else in the world. like wyndham, we're awaiting your arrival. save up to 25 percent and earn bonus points when you book at wyndhamrewards.com virtually all your important legal matters in just minutes. now it's quicker and easier for you to start your business, protect your family, and launch your dreams. at l

>> usaid aed an next in key zblooef so we added how many seats? >> i don't have that -- >> more than 100 right? more than 100 seats? >> you've that at my fingertips. >> i do. it was standard embassy design and we add more than 100 additional seats. >> we added annex. >> still, seats. >> let me go to mr. jones. you've been so patient. you were the one in you're testimony here, let me ask you. if it takes longer to build an embassy, we have people in harm's way. and it takes longer to build it, do you think that that puts people in harm's way or not? >> in the case of this? >> yeah. >> is that the question? >> yeah. >> the situation in port morsiby is we had a increase in the number of people who would be located on site and the addition of u.s. marines. >> so for those of you that aren't as familiar, we had 41 personnel. and that number was going to go up to 71 personnel, correct? >> right. >> but under law, we're required to co-locate the mission and would north have been able to do so had we only built a building for 41 people. so there is a way,

to address energy efficiency, usaid's programs is designed to enhance the program resulting from the poor use of energy resources in ukrainian municipalities. fortunately, flows of gas through ukraine to europe have not been impacted yet. russia and ukraine have both promised not to disrupt transit and the short-term impact of this cutoff has been relatively small in europe, but that is because it's not in the gas-intensive heating season, and because we've just gone through a relatively mild winter, so stocks are unseasonably high. it's critical that countries use these summer months to aggressively increase their supplies. we're working with the department of energy as they coordinate an effort to assist the most vulnerable central and southeastern european countries to assess contingency plans in case of a shut off. mr. chairman, the lack of immediate alarm in europe cannot lead us or the eu to become passive in addressing a long-term solution. while the media and others have focused on energy and security in europe for the last several months. as you stated in the opening stateme

anorak and moved into major league infrastructure in afghanistan where i know the power plant was usaid. -- wee highway building took that over. some of those projects are going to be outside the wire. there is a percentage of the projects you're going to inherit that we can't have any oversight over because we will not be legit the oversight to where they are with the drawdown we are embracing. i watched and analyzed the mistakes in iraq and i think many of them are going to come to pass again a nap in a stand and i wonder if we will do the exact same thing again. >> if confirmed, i will take a hard look at that. ison't want to see what happening anorak today happen in afghanistan in the future. >> their less equipped than a rack was -- they are less .quipped than iraq was iraq was much further along in terms of having essential ability to impact government than even afghanistan. you so much and i am so proud of what your kid will love. i stand in all of your leadership capacity but i think you're being given an impossible in lightfghanistan and of what the reality is in the country in

senate judiciary subcommiteye on separation of powers, the white house office of planing, usaid.e was a fulbright scholar in the philippines and a fulbright specialist in chile. dr. baker served as law clerk in federal district court and assistants to the stir district attorney in yourself. while a professor he has been a consultant, of the state department and the justice department, he has served on the aba task force, which issued the report, the federalization of crime. he received his bachelor of arts degree from the university of dallas, his jd from the university of michigan law school, and his ph.d in political thought from the university of london. mr. steven d. benjamin is the president of the national association of criminal defense lawyers. the nacdl is a professional bar association founded in 1958. its members include private criminal defense lawyers, public defend efforts, active duty u.s. military defense counsel, law professors and judges, committed to preserving fairness within america's criminal justice system. he is in private practice at the virginia firm of

demonstruss failure of usaid to afghanistan. mr. speaker, how much more can the poor american taxpayer continue to said tsh-spend in a failed policy in afghanistan? i cannot emphasize enough that we have children, senior citizens, and veterans here at home that desperately need our assistance, yet we run out of money for their programs because we refuse to make cuts to the funds that are being funneled overseas, and especially in afghanistan. i say to the administration and to congress, that it is time to fix america's problems, not afghanistan's problems and not the world's problems. in closing, mr. speaker, i want to again to mention the three army soldiers who were killed last week actually on july 25. staff sergeant benjamin prange, p.f.c. keith williams, and p.f.c. darnell hamilton. mr. speaker, beside me i have poster after poster of the cost of war. as a young kid named at this letter jordan, this is actually from 2003. our early days in iraq. a very unnecessary war. his father was a gunny sergeant named phillip jordan, he wa

rural electric cooperative association international currentry is -- currently is providing support to usaid in haiti bring safe, reliable, affordable electricity to areas in northern haiti. on behalf of the fourth congressional district of pennsylvania, i commend jay and the national rural electric cooperative international foundation for their tireless efforts in haiti and around the world. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> my home state of kentucky has been a national model for how the affordable care act can succeed. through connect, our state exchange, 114,000 kentuckians have gotten health insurance, nearly 313,000 of them for the first time mr. yarmuth: these maps show how it's reduced the rate of the uninsured in 20 counties. the orange and red show the counties with preaffordable care acts with uninsured rates from 14% to 42%. some of the

cooperation through usaid lawthe state department's enforcement bureau intended to provide training andtstrap mexican judges, lawyers, in operatingetc., the new criminal justice system in mexico modeled after our own and other systems we see in latin america. on the second point, the strengthening of border security, what we have seen in san diego and other border communities are increased and enhanced efforts by mexican authorities to detect southbound flows of cash and weapons into mexico. new border facilities, new detection equipment. these efforts by the mexican authorities are unprecedented in terms of trying to detect southbound flows that contribute to the strength of organized crime groups in mexico. host: our topic, the u.s. military training mexican armed forces. our phone lines are open. the numbers will continue to be on the bottom of the screen. you can also join in on our facebook page or send us a tweet. i want to go back to the chart that gives you a sense of how much money we are sending. about7-2000 eight, it was $4.2 million. a significant increase over the last five

i don't think you will any suspension of usaid to israel. -- u.s. aid to israel.inched gaza is pretty at the moment. they are strapped for resources. they have not been able to put together a functioning government. they are a bit on the ropes. they have been able to stockpile these weapons. they have made major gains in that regard. i don't know if there is any international consensus for trying to cut off aid or anything like that. at this point, we are trying to get these people to stop firing at each other. that is the more immediate concern. the situation inside syria and the threat from isis. a security conference took place at the attorney general -- with the attorney general eric holder. [video clip] job is to try to anticipate the next attack, not simply react to the last one. we continually evaluate the world situation and we know that there remains a terrorist threat to the united states. aviation security is a large part of that. last week, i directed we step up fromviation security departure airports coming into the united states. this is not somethin

we need to thank ge foundation lemine a foundation and usaid funds. please give them a big hand.applause] and now it's my pleasure to introduce ted michelle vander secretary of education. the undersecretary oversees policies programs and activities related to post-secondary education, adult career and technical education, federal student aid, five white house initiatives and the center for faith-based and neighborhood partnerships. i can't believe he has made time for us. that's a lot but please join me in welcoming undersecretary michelle pleads -- please. [applause] >> thank you governor and thanks not only for what sounds like a great conference and i'm so pleased to be here. thank you for the work you are doing at home. you are a champion for high-quality education for all the kids in your state and we are the beneficiaries about so thank you. it is terrific to be here today to talk with you and as i look out literally in the realm there are a handful of very dear friends and it's great to be back doing this work with you in d.c.. before i start just a moment of personal priv

wolf: the white house needs to pull together the c.d.c., n.i.h., state department, usaid and the world health organization and other western governments and stave off this outbreak before it spreads further. i'm concerned there's not a sufficient plan in place either in africa or in the event it spreads to the u.s. we live in a global world. we need a clear plan and strong leadership now. we cannot wait until a case shows up in the united states. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition? the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. cohen: thank you, mr. speaker. sunday's "new york times" editorial page, the entire page, a very unusual circumstance, dedicated to ending our crazy and unsuccessful and expensive war on marijuana. emphasizing that the war on marijuana costs us much money in prosecuting and ruins peoples' lives. it costs us more than it protects. it has a disparate impact on african-americans and minorities as they are much more likely to be arrested have a scarlet m on their chest fo