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>> secretary of state anthony blinken testified before senate appropriations subcommittee on the department's foreign policy goals and its budget request. lawmakers asked him about china, the russian invasion of ukraine, the us withdrawal from afghanistan, and trafficking by mexican drug cartels. this is just over two hours. [inaudible conversations]

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[inaudible conversations] >> a call this hearing to order. the foreign operations hearing of the fy 24 appropriations process. each member of the subcommittee will have 7 minutes for questions, those present will be calling order of seniority followed by members in order of arrival, alternating sides

between the parties. if you miss your turn and later come back and rejoin i will do my best to insert you at the appropriate time and we will have a second round of questions time permitting. it is great to have you with us again. we have a lot to cover but let me briefly mention that tomorrow is the one year anniversary of the passing of a dear friend, secretary madeleine albright. i was pleased the we could offer her term and its impact on us diplomacy and national security in the last year's bill and continue to reflect our shared values to the work of the state department, thank you for what you are doing to keep alive her memory as someone who was a clear eyed, high-spirited and hard-working advocate for our unique role as the indispensable nation. i know you also believe in the importance of bipartisanship in foreign policy. i'm very fortunate to have senator graham is the ranking member on the subcommittee and strong subcommittee membership

on both sides of the aisle. i'm confident we can forge and maintain bipartisan support to maintain the most good of all challenges facing us and to advance america's interests including supporting ukraine's determined fight against russian aggression countering threats posed by china and leveraging trade tools in the private sector to drive our core economic interests. we've made real progress together to advance our national security priorities over the last two years. this subcommittee has provided you and the president with tools you need to lead the international community in support of the ukrainian people. we recognize the need to enhance un's competitiveness using our dealt elemental tools especially to address the coercive influence of authoritarian states like the prc in russia. we work closely to help strengthen the state department workforce, provided additional flex ability, increased funding and work to expand the us presence overseas accordingly including in the indo pacific. we've address the impacts of an

unprecedented number of globally displaced people, roughly 100 million so far and an ongoing global food crisis and reaffirmed us multilateral engagement by enabling you to rejoin unesco and to support american seeking entry-level and leadership positions in international organizations, but we face enormous challenges. i putin continues his barbaric assault on ukraine, the prc through misinformation, expanded appomattox of elemental trade investments seeks to reshape the global environment challenging our core interests, the ongoing impact of climate change including increased water and food insecurity that are driving mass displacement, fueling instability and sustained global trend of democratic backsliding, we need to be proactive and use every tool at our disposal to get ahead of these challenges, the task is daunting and my message to my colleagues is simple, we can't do more with less. we must increase investments in

diplomatic and irrelevant tools if we want to strengthen our national security. that is why i'm encouraged by the fy 24 budget request by related agencies. it is an ambitious request but the challenges of our time demand no less. lou look forward to discussing details with you including your highest priorities as we consider how best to support the department's critically important people, programs and operations. thank you, mister secretary, senator graham. >> thank you. i also want to welcome senator collins and senator murray. they've done a good job getting the committee back in business. we are going to do markups, we are having hearings, we are going to do markups, become appropriators again and that's welcome news to me. as to the budget request, it is ambitious, we have to deal with the house eventually, 11% increase, don't think the market will bear that but we will do the best we can. i consider this account of the national security in another

form, soft power to me is just as important as hard power, many times more important. we are dealing with real threats out there, countering china is one of them, 13. one billion mandatory spending request in this budget is not going to fly we need to appropriate money directly for china but will not be in a mandatory spending construct like has been created but i want to work with you mister chairman and the department for coming up with funds to counter china throughout the world particularly in their backyard. bottom line is we will get it done, we always do. i enjoy working with you. taiwan, there's nothing in the budget specifically for taiwan. senator menon dez and i and many others have tried to create a $2 million location for taiwan's defense needs, we need to put money for taiwan's defense needs in this markup when that time comes but mr. secretary, i want to say this

to you, you serve in dangerous places without a lot of military support at times, the military deserves a lot of credit but men and women in the state department are heroes in their own way and i appreciate what they do for our country. >> thank you, ranking member graham, it is my understanding the chair and vice chair do not want to make opening statements? are you okay with waiting for the secretary? mister secretary, if you would please proceed. >> thank you very much. chairman kunz, ranking member graham, chair murray, vice chair collins, committee members that are here today, thank you for this opportunity to speak about our proposed budget for the state department and usaid. as you laid out in different ways we are meeting at an inflection point. the post cold war era is over and there is intense competition to shape and

determine what comes next. we have a positive vision for the future. a world that is free, secure, open, prosperous. for the budget we put forward to advance that vision and deliver on issues that matter to the american people particularly by preparing us to effectively meet two broad sets of challenges, the first is the challenge by our strategic competitors, the immediate acute threat posed by russia's autocracy in russia, most destructively, the brutal aggression against ukraine and the long-term challenge from the people's republic of china. the second set of challenges is really posed by shared global threats including the climate crisis, migration, food and energy insecurity, pandemics, all of which directly impact the lives and livelihoods of americans and people around the world. with this committee's leadership and support

including through the fy 23 omnibus the united states is in a stronger position than we were two years ago, hence our ability to deal with these challenges has been enhanced. we have drawn enormous power from investments we have made in our own economic strength and technological edge at home including through the infrastructure and jobs act, the chips, science act, inflation reduction act. the unmatched network of alliances and partnerships has never been stronger. we've been building on it, not only strengthening the partnership but building new coalitions of countries and other institutions fit for purpose, we are expanding our reach in the indo pacific, leading the unprecedented coalitions to confront aggression and address humanitarian challenges around the world. the 24 budget request for the state department and usaid meets this moment head on. this budget will sustain our security, economic and energy, humanitarian support for ukraine to ensure president

putin's war remains a strategic failure. it will strengthen efforts to outcompete the prc. president biden is firmly committed to advancing free and open indo pacific which is why this proposal asks for a 19% increase in the budget for that region over fy 23. the budget contains discretionary proposals and we are happy to talk about why we proceeded this way, new innovative investments including by enhancing our presence in the region and ensuring what we and our fellow democracies are able to offer including maritime security, clean energy infrastructure, digital technology is more attractive than any alternative. the budget will have us push back on advancing authoritarianism, democratic backsliding by strengthening democracies around the world including through supporting independent media, countering corruption, defending free and fair elections and allow us to pay contributions to international organizations because we need to be at the table wherever and whenever international rules affect the

livelihoods of our people are being debated and decided. the budget allows us to continue to address global challenges in food and energy insecurity to climate and health crisis. on that last point, we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of pet far which is one of greatest achievements in our foreign policy in the last decade, helped us save 25 million lives around the world, this budget will help us continue to fight against hiv-aids while advancing health security more broadly through a new bureau of global health security and diplomacy which i look forward to working with congress to establish this year. the budget will advance our efforts to modernize the state department including by updating our technology, carrying out diversity, equity, including accessibility, including to make our overseas missions more successful. i'm grateful to the progress we made including congress's support in updating the secure embassy construction and counterterrorism act and accountable he review board to give us the flex ability we

need to open new missions and better manage the risks we face. we know there is more to do and we look forward to working with congress to accelerate modernization efforts so the department can better attract and better retain and support a first rate workforce as they advance our interests in what is a very complex and fast-moving world. finally the budget will further a personal priority for me and many of you, supporting a whole of government effort to resettle our afghan allies. keeping promises to those who served alongside the us remains an unwavering priority, this budget will help us continue to make good on that commitment. when i took on this role, i committed to doing my part to try to restore congress's place as an equal partner in foreign policy, i am determined to continue to do that and very much appreciate the work that we have been able to do with this committee the last couple years and look forward to the work we have on that and with

that i welcome questions. >> thank you for that brief but broad review of the challenges we face, the leadership you 've shown at the helm of the state department, let me open with a question about the workforce. i had the opportunity to visit the state department employees around the world and lots of difficult and dangerous places and like all my colleagues, uniformly impressed with their skills and determination. if we are going to achieve national security objective and it is critical to ensure our diplomatic corps, putting the right people with the right tools and the right resources and training in the right places to carry out their work, we work together to ensure that last year's bill delivered on that goal but there is more to be done. what are the most critical workforce and other investments needed to strengthen the department to meet the challenges confronting us today and to have the flex ability to meet emerging challenges? >> appreciate question. .. i appreciate that question and really it comes down to people, the resources and in some cases to some authority.

what you will see in the budget is a proposed hiring increase for another 500 new employees to fill the staffing gaps. we -- we need more people to we need more people to address some of these emerging priorities and emergencies. that includes, for example, a couple hundred new consular positions like i know you all seized with some of the challenges consular affairs has experienced because of covid. we've been building back in a significant way but we need more work there and we need more resources there so the budget proposes that. we need an additional number ofi civil and foreign service of oyster skill of the indo-pacific strategy and to outcompete china come to strengthen our outreach to fully step for examples and omissions in thehe pacific islands, something else we can talk about. we want to make sure we are building on something that's been a terrific innovation that's been supported by this committee and that is having additional positions we can inincrease our float which enabs us to pull people and allow them

have career long training so they can keep their skill set fresh. in fact, i get -- get new skills of the galante for example, i come here by going to an academic institution, et cetera. we are requesting an addition new management hires. this is critical because where the rubber meetser the road and the department as in so many other institutions is particularly a mid-level management. and we have terrific management people and the department but what you know and what you'll see is people don't actually come up through the management silo in the department are nonetheless called upon ae different stages in their career to exert management skills. we need more there. we have money there to make sure we're protecting our missions and our diplomats. i commend that to you. we have to keep pace with increased security threats and costs, the going overseas present in the pacific islands. we hope to reopen the mission in libya. that's going to require some funding as well. with significant funds to make

sure we are up to speed on cybersecurity. we have all been challenged across government by this and went to make sure we have the funding to do that. there are a number of authorities as well, mr.s chairman, we can get into and i'm happy to share with you that would be helpful, very useful to us to have a new funding account for the entering welcome operation to consolidate up to about $2.5 billion in existing dollars in existing funny for relocating our afghann partners. there is some personal services contract authority we need to hire more domestic personal services contractors. we can get to that. spatial immigration visa adjustments to make sure we're making good on our commitments to our afghan allies. and then i would just cite one last thing, there's more to be said, but you touched on this. i think it's very important for us to be able to pay our multilateral commitments. this is not a get to these institutions. it's not saying these

institutions are perfect or don't need a lot of work. it is saying that when we're not at the table then usually someone else is and probably not in a way that advance our interests and values.es and particularly in institutions that are having aly real impactn windowless rooms,nd people don't see, in shaping a lot of rules and a lot of norms and a lot of standards. for example, the way technology is being used. we need to be there. part of being there sometimes is paying our dues. that happens,gng where the largest actually contributor to the u.n. system,, and yet when we are in arrears are competitors and adversaries .2 that and say the united states isn't serious about it. i hope we can discuss possible. on data very much believe we should be back in unesco. again not as a gift to you and ask about because things are happening at unesco actually matter we are not there, we're not shaping it, they are working on rules and orders him

standards for artificial intelligence. wewe want to be there. they're doing the the same thing that education curricula around the world. china right now is thehe single largest contributor to unesco. that carries a lot of weight per we're not even at the table. it's important to get back there. thank you. >> thank you, mr. secretary, both for the answer for your leadership also different issues. you mention at the conclusion of your introductory statement operation enduring welcome. i just would be interested in a brief update on your efforts to review and identify any lessons learned on afghanistan so far. >> thank you very much. yes. one of the things that was very important to me was that we conduct an after action review of the state department's role and execution of the withdrawal from afghanistan. and we initiated that review. we brought ined a very experiend people, including one of our most senior retired diplomats to conduct it, and they conducted

many, many interviews, reviewed many, many documents and have produced i think an important report that looks at what we did, what we did right, what we did wrong and could do better. and other agencies have been doing the same thing. we have been spending time putting all of this together to make sure that we look at some of the common lessons are especially where this overlaps, and i am committed and determined to make that information available to congress. and we will do that. we will do that by mid april. so i can tell you today you have the after action review. we will share the findings and find appropriate mechanism to do that within the next two weeks. >> thank you, mr. secretary. you reference your commitment to continue consulting with congress including us in the foreign policymaking process and this is a good example of that work. i have long questions the other

foot asking butou the developing finance corporation, the global fragility acts but i will ask one and then turn to my ranking member. we are in the middle of the global food crisis. according to the world food program for a pandemic there were 135 million people and more than 50 countries 50 countries who are facing hunger. that is got up to 345 million people across more than 80 countries today. it's fueled by conflict, climate change, covid-19 and as the ther in ukraine grinds on, food and fertilizer is driving millions to the edge of starvation and increasing instability. what's the department doing to increase contributions from other donors to help tackle this challenge? and which of the international community be doing differently in order to improve the resiliency of communities facing food insecurity for the long-term? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i very much appreciate the leadership of this committee, particularly you, senator graham, on this issue, and

others. i say quickly two things. first of all, we had to tackle two aspects of this problem. we had emergency situations that can have an emergency response where people need food now. back in may we gather together countries around the world of the u.n. security council to focus them, not just us, on the specific things that they can do and wein can do to make sure toa the best of our ability to food is getting tole people when they need it. of course as you know very well without almost a perfect storm that's built up between climate change come between covid and, of course, conflict, and now exacerbated dramatically by russia's aggression against ukraine. ukraine is a breadbasket to the world. that grain was taken offus the market. i'm glad to the work of the united nations and turkey were able to get the black sea corridor going but that's a fragile thing. it's made a difference but it is fragile. there's emergency assistance. we significantly increase your own contributions.

we provided about $13.5 billion going back to the russian aggression over the course of 2022. we've gotten other countries to step up and increase theirp contributions. world food program, food agricultural, the u.n. fun. that's one critical piece but again you know very well the of the peace that is critical and what i hear an interview here from our colleagues around the world especially in africa is this as focused as a are an emergency assistance what you really want is investment in the productive capacity. this is absolute critical to making sure that they are sustainable agriculture production and that they ultimately can feed their own people and actually feed others. there is tremendous potential and -- let me cite one thing we are doing. we in the budget significant fund for this. to me one of the most exciting things building on and adding to the feed the future program that aig and state department run is something that we have i think

you know one of the leading in the world at the state department doctor fowler one of we learn in recent years is that the two most determinative things to having sustainable food production capacity comes down to two things, soil and seeds. if the soil quality is bad, you go through as much fertilizer on as you want, it's not going to work. w we now have the ability to map the quality of soil pretty much anywhere including throughout africa, determine where it's good, what's bad, what needs to be done to improve it. we have a program there. the seats, if are not resilient, to drought, the climate, and other things, again doesn't matter. we have the capacity to do that, to provide resilient seeds for nutritious crops pics i think what you'll see in the budget, excuse me, is the beginnings of an important program to provide for that. >> thank you, mr. secretary at the topic of interest to both of us. let me turn to my ranking member

senator graham. >> yeah, really want work with you i think what you said is absolutely spot on. i talked to larry ellison from oracle. he's created a new school i think at oxford or cambridge, can remember, about food security. there's a lot of people interested in making sure people can feed themselves, soil, seeds and water, you've got to have water. it wouldse come look forward to working with you on that. are you familiar withrk the icc arrest warrant that was issued against putin? >> yes. >> do you think that sound? >> i think we've all seen the atrocities and war crimes committed in ukraine. and we believe strongly as was at speeds i think the that he thought that was -- >> the need to be accountability and the icc is speeded what to do want to arrest him for? >> the focus of this understand it, the focus is on an effective abduction of children from ukraine, taking them to russia, giving them to -- >> let's stop for a second.

there's an arrest warrant for putin by the icc for kidnapping children in ukraine andin taking them to russia, is that much it? >> right. >> it putin came to the united states whatever reason, what would turn them over to the icc? >> i can't get ahead of that because i have to look at the loss and most of us were not a party to the icc said it would engage in that hypothetical. >> i would encourage you that if you came and we should turn him over. >> i don't think he has any plans to travel here soon. >> well, would you encourage our european allies to come over? >> i think that anyone who is a party to the court and has obligations should fulfill the obligation. >> are you aware that congress, 100 to nothing, which is pretty rare around here, supported the idea declaring russia state-sponsored terrorism under u.s. law?in >> yeah. >> i don't know much more we can

do to help you in that regard. do you speeded could i just -- i appreciate it. look, we have as you know multiple designations that focus on russia's war crimes, atrocities, et cetera. the ssp brings with us also think potentially some unintended consequences. >> here's my question. are you going to designate russian state-sponsored terrorism? do you intend to do that. >> with what we'veve been doings you know is working with you to look at a new designation that would go speeded well, what we sort of failed in that endeavor and since we started he's been come and arrest warrant -- what more do you have to do to be a state sponsor of terrorism? china, the meeting with china and putin, would you consider that a marriage of convenience or strategic alliance? >> perhaps accommodation of both. both. i think you've got, you drove a partnership. remember as you know ready for the russian aggression they mett they talked about a partnership

with no limits. >> let's break that down here with no limits. the world decide to put a cap on russian oil? >> that's? for china disagreed about oil as much as russia can supply. they're undercutting our efforts.s. do you agree with that? >> they are about what we tunis two things. with the oil cap, we try to cope with two goals. one reduce revenues russia getting from selling energy but it's the same time keep enough an agenda market so that we don't have a crisis. i think with large a a compass that. russian oil revenues are down as result -- >> but china has made a a plee to buy all the russian oil they can buy, right? not have the cap price per we will see speeded the bottom line is china is working against us when he comes to russia, do you agree? >> i think there to mix up or, political support edison exit mitchard support for russia sort of goes against our interests in bringing this war to an end in a way that is -- >> you publicly said that you

would reasonably china may be considering providing lethal aid to russia, is that correct? >> that's correct. >> if you provide legal aid to state sponsor of terrorism, that would be considered material support under u.s. law, is that correct? >> i believe that is correct. >> don't you think it would be smart to tell china you provide legal aid to state sponsor of terrorism, they may be more deterred than if we just remain silent about that? >> senator, i had shared drug with my chinese counterpart, the serious problem that chinana providing legal material support to russia for speeded do you think it is working? do think it will provide aid? >> as we speak today we've not seen them cross that line. >> so my point is that we made a mistake i think by not having sanctions. we should supplied more weapons to ukraine before the invasion to deter the war. we are at a tipping point here. china is openly embracing

russia, undercutting everything wasin trying to do to isolate russia. thereby unlimited oil. i think now is the time, mr. secretary, to label russian state-sponsored terrorism, because it are come up the ante if china wants to continue help russia. would you please consider that as as a deterrent possibility? >> we want to look at every reasonable: deterrent, and agan when it comes to the ssp we should talk about this further i think they're better ways to get at the same -- >> whatever those ways are, where over a year into this thing. let's do something. and i discarded tell you as a friend, i like you, i tried to work with you, knuckle to set up sidelined any longer and see russia not label from the are. they are terrorists. they are wreaking havoc all over africa. we just got back from africa. the wagner group, russia committed immense war crimes in syria. this is a modus operandi. they bomb the hell out of people, use rate as weapon of war and is now time to stand up

and say you are a terrorist state under u.s. law, i think the sooner we do that the better. let's go to mexico right quick and i will try to keep within my time, go over a couple minutes. are the places in mexico that the government of mexico does not have control? >> i think you see s significant insecurity in part speeded my question is are they -- >> individual places, committees. >> other drug cartels in control? >> >>i think it's fair to say y. >> do you agree with the following statement, , that didt know coming from mexico is killing americans by the tens of thousands? >> it is and it is also telling mexicans. >> do you agree it's now time to change our policy because it's not working or do you think it is working? >> i think that, senator, personal your exactly et the insecurity in mexico. as i said the mexican people themselves or the number one

victims of that insecurity. the mexican government speeded are more mexicans dine at fentanyl poisoning than american? >> currently no but it is going problems. >> how many have died in mexico from fentanyl? >> i don't have exact number. >> well do you believe are policies toward drug cartels and fentanyl coming from mexico that those policies are working? >> they need to do more. they need to be more effective your. one way we can do that is making sure we have, for example, the technology on our borders to detect and intercept the fentanyl. 96% federal come into the united states is, the legal ports of entry. we have the technology that can catch a lot of that and we need to deploy it faster. >> how about this idea? rather than interdicting it at the border we go to the source of the club mexican drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations under u.s. law? would you consider that? >> yes, we certainly consider that. >> that would help us with china because if you provide mitchard support for foreign terrorist organization you could be prosecuted in u.s. courts.

>> also transnational criminal organizations and that brings with it -- >> that's what they are today. i want to -- >> i can, will get additional tools or authorities, , it's woh pointing out -- >> you work with china, mr. secretary. tcos, metro support is not bring in u.s. court. material support would capture in u.s. courts a china company. please consider that. policy is notr working. introduce a map compasses travel is travel advisory map the state department tell you what you go and not to go in mexico. the red is getting redder and, mr. secretary, enough with mexico. obrador is going to call cheat, great, looking for a phone call. looking for action on their part. molly to do a plan colombia type effort with mexico but i want but the mexican government on notice and your department when it comes to the poisoning of america we are going to take different action because what

we're doing is not working. this is not a confrontational statement. it's a statement of fact. they are killing more americans from being poisoned by fentanyl from mexico denver lost an entire vietnam war over a decade into single year. the leading cause of death in america from 18-45 is fentanyl poisoning. enough is enough. >> i absolutely shares your speedy thank you. thank you, mr. secretary. >> chair murray. >> thank you very much, chairman coons and ranking member graham i'm really glad to join you as we took off his subcommittee hearing on president biden's budget request we are really lucky in the senate to have a chair and a ranking of on this committee who both really know their stuff when it comes to foreign policy and a so similarly committed to finding common ground for the good of this country. these hearings provide a really important opportunity for us to assess our countries needs as we write our funding bill for the year ahead. vice chair collins who should get it and i've made very clear we want to return to regular

order, agoa knowth both both you and the ranking member share, and many of our colleagues to as well. we have a responsibility to work in ase timely way to write fundg bills that would build a stronger economy, make harkin energy safer and make sure we stay ahead of our global competitors. we all know getting this done through regular order for the first time in years will be no walk in the park but it will be worthor it. i modified to both that you as partners in this effort and i look forward to workingst with everyone on the subcommittee to provide the robust funding at these issues deserve. now, this unit offers an important reminder that when it comes to keeping our nation safe and competitive and secure defense spending iss important but it is only one part of the equation. after all, our strength here h t home and across the world isn't just measured by the strength of our military. it is measured our diplomacy, our influence abroad, and our strategic investments which make

the world including our own nation safer and more secure. and thaty is why boosting investments in our nondefene discretionary spending is so critical. he comes we are weaker. our families on what risk when we retreat from the world stage. folks that home get that. they see every day how our world is more connected than ever and have crises on the other side of the world have ramifications for their daily lives. like when supply chains are broken and families can't get the products they need or when small businesses and our growers are cut off from foreign markets that they rely on to make a living. or when viruses spread undetected leading to outbreaks and as we know pandemics. or when the world becomes more hostile to women as the rights are attacked and those free democracies are in the mind. with families become refugees and flee their homes due to persecution and violence. the more we are engaged in the world now, the better we can address and prevent these challenges before the reach our

door. but if we failin to invest in te state department and the powerful diplomatic tools we have, if we don't keep our embassies well staffed, mr. secretary, as you mention, if we don't invest in preventing conflict before it causes catastrophe and promoting stability with humanitarian aid and development, if we don't stand up for democracy and stand up to autocrats and if we don't invest in global solutions to global challenges like food security and tackling the climate crisis, in short if we stand out on the world stage our adversaries and competitors will step up and fill the leadership void. we know china iss already workig to build relationships and alliances across the world by building infrastructure arby on its borders. if we're going toon stay competitive we have to continue making smart investments that makes our allies and our partnerships stronger. and we know a global challenge like the climate crisis cannot

be solved through unilateral action. they can only beot a solved thrh global cooperation and that requires leadership. i really appreciate your leadership and folksy and how we must address the climate crisis on the world stage because we're constantly saying newld alarming examples of how the climate crisis poses an immense threat to global security and to our own national security. water scarcity, food scarcity, extreme weather events don't just create humanitarian pisces in a vacuum. they can destabilize entire regions threatening our own security. and we have also seen how russia has tried use energy dependence to strengthen its hands in its brutal war against ukraine,, which is just one more reason it is so important that we invest in global solution to the climate crisis that allows our allies be less reliant on our adversaries for energy. at the same time we're to keep in mind that when we strengthen our ties in asia, when we support economic stability in

latin america, when would build a public health capacity in africa. those investments pay dividends include a trip including all of us microtome, trooper comes across the country and especially from a home state of washington. my state is a hub of global trade, especially with asia and one of america's great gateways toan the world. welcome diplomats and have numerous consulates in our state. we welcome refugees and a one of the top five states when it comes to hosting families that have fled the conflict in ukraine. and not only do we welcome students and workers and tourists come we engage with the world, too, including the many fulbright scholars and students and peace corps members who had out from washington state to learn about other countries and cultures and buildit relationshs and strengthen communities. our investments in these programs help create a world that is safer and more open to americans.

so mr. chairman, i will just end by noting the list of issues in the subcommittee are really critical for our nation, for our families, and he literally span the globe but the bottom line is pretty simple. we cannot be a player on the world stage and keep our country safe and prosperous if we put ourselves on the sidelines. and there's just too much at stake in thisav moment to let tt happen. we have to continue the work of leading a global coalition that holds russia accountable for its cruel and unjust invasion of ukraine. we have to continue standing with our ukraine allies, supporting refugees and providing the support they need. especially as we know as we see china stepping in to grow its influence. we have got c to continue to be steadfast in our investment to counter these influences and continue to lead by example. so mr. secretary, i welcome her today. look forward to working with you

and the administration and working with my colleagues on this subcommittee on a bipartisan funding bill for next year that provide robust investments for the state department so we can strengthen our ties can support our allies, and solidify our place as a leader of the free world. so i've used my time to approximately question for the record but try to just let me say i'm following the subcommittee very close to looking closer working with you on a bipartisan product for all of us too support. >> thank you very much manager, madame vice chair collins so o excited by the drive, the energy, the leadership you are delivering look forward to spending lots of time together. on subcommittee hearings, unfoldment hanks, on markups and getting the work product out and thank you for sharing with us the ways in which washington as a suspect we may now here is also true for maine, are parts of our nation that although thousands of miles apart share a common connection to the world come to global trade and a connection to our security. madam vice chair. >> thank you very much, mr.

chairman. i'm going to take the opposite approach of the chair murray. i'm going to submit some comments for f the record and go straight to questions. so as usual we are complementing one another. let me start with ukraine, mr. secretary. there are thoseth who view our support of ukraine as an either/or proposition for our nationalei security. and they are either that the united states focuses on pushing back russian aggression in ukraine, or the united states focuses on countering the rising influence of china. i don't agree with that assessment. i'd use to challenges as interconnected,. and believe tht

russia and china are working in concert to reshape the international order to our disadvantage. two questions for you. first, what message whitted sent to china and russia were we to abandon ukraine at this point? and second, please articulate the case for why our involvement in ukraine is in america's national interests. >> madame viceou chair thank you very much for the question. first of all i fully agree with you and let me put it this way. because it does go in effect the second part of your question goes right to the first part. wisest in our interest? wise for him in interest of the united states to do what we've been doing, which is to continue to stand with ukraine as it defends itself against this russian aggression to continue

to exert pressure on russia to in the aggression and to strengthen our own lives defensive alliance nato in case at aggression spreads? its two reasons. fundamentally first of all americans do not like to see big nations bullying smaller one. >> that something that sticks and our craw and we see the horrific abuses and atrocities that are being committed and that something i think americans focus on very intensely. but fundamentally the reason is this. russianlow the aggression in ukraine to go with impunity, if we allow the very basic rules of the road for how countries relate to one another, that were established after two f world ws and the focus among other things onie making sure that countries respect the turtle integrity of other countries, respect the independence, respect the sovereignty, if we allow t thato be violated with impunity but russia we open a t pandora's box around the world where would-be aggressors edward look at this

and say if they can get away with it, i can, too. that is a world of conflict. that is a world of war. that is a world we've been in before and we have to come in and do something about it to start the world that we want. so the stakes in ukraine go well be on ukraine. and to your point i think it has a profound impact in asia, for example. everyone is watching to see how we and the work response to this aggression. they will draw the lessons from it. one of the reasons that somebody partners involved in this from asia is precisely because even though this is happening half a world away they see the stake for them. one of the leading countries in our coalition for support is japan. south korea is playing anre important role. australia is, too. they see the stakes. if china is looking at this end of looking at it very carefully, they will draw lessons for how the world comes together or doesn't, to stand up to this aggression. >> thank you. and let me encourage you and

other members of the administration, including theth president, to make that case to the american people much more forcefully so we do not see this continuing, troubling decline in public support for our efforts in ukraine. it goes way beyond doing the right thing from a moral, or a humanitarian viewpoint. it's very much in our interests. let me follow up to some extent on senator graham's questions on fentanyl. we recently had a tragic case in maine where a 13-year-old girl with no history of drug abuse died from taking a pill that was laced with fentanyl. so this is a tragedy that affects each and every one of our states. the international narcotics control and law enforcement

to reduce the production and trafficking of fentanyl and other drugs to its drug supply reduction program.id so the president's budget proposes $20 million for this program, which is only a $3 million increase above this year's level despite the flood of fentanyl that the precursors of which come from china, goes to mexico and then into this country to poison our people. so this disappoints me, and i will ask you, do you think you are requesting sufficient funding? if you do, what other measures are you taking to specifically address the threat of fentanyl flowing into our country? >> thank you very much for the question because i absolutely share the priority that you,

senator graham, think everyone on this committee is putting on this problem. as senator graham upset the number one killer of americans 18-four and is fentanyl, synthetic opioids. this is, needs to be a national priority. and i think the way we're approaching this is really a whole of spectral approach by which an any obvious who werg work at home to try to reduce demand, protect our ownma peopl, given the treatment and antidotes they needd but that's not the answer. it's not theit but answer. we talk a minute ago about border security technology were we can do a lot more to effectively intercept things come into the country but that's not it we have to and we are working to do something national criminal organizations making the stuff and moving the stuff and we are. we need to be working with as we are with mexico to take down the lads come to take down the enterprise, and we need to your point to be y more effective in preventing the diversion of

illicit precursors into the illicit fabrication of synthetic opioids like fentanyl. so we have done number of things to intensely focus on this. with mexico. we actually are working in very close collaboration. they have now over the last year arrested dozens first and second tier transaction criminal organization leads. they seize record amounts of fentanyl but it's a huge sea. that's great. theyci disrupted with our assistant. we have financial intelligence with theirs to disrupt the financing ofs. these networks. and we have not as result of work that i did with my colleagues the joint synthetic drug action plan with mexico that expand cooperation with them from law-enforcement to the regulatory agencies in mexico to the trade and health organizations that are really important. second, more broadly, for the first time, i just came a couple months ago from the g20 foreign ministers meeting in preparation for the leaders. for the first time the united

states got this on the full agenda of the g20 pics of these of the most important economies in the world that have a real role and steak and giveaways and this and we will be establishing a working group in the g20 to work on this. third, from the perspective of the state department, one of the things we're working on is building a coalition on a voluntary basis at first to tackle another aspect of this problem and that the illicit diversion of legal precursors. this is a big problem as you know. there are things we can do much more effectively, sharing information, labeling, putting in place know your customer protocols around the world including with china to make sure that companies that are i can and pulp in perfect illicit precursors to not have them diverted into the fabrication of synthetic opioids. so alll of that come together. as to the resources, madame vice chair barr he happy to work with you very closely to make sure that we are properly resource

for this to i could not agree with you more. this is the number one player. >> thank you. >> thank you, madam chair i chair. my strong suspicion is that an amendment to increase funding would get unanimousus support. senator shaheen. >> guess i'll be happy to cosponsor it. mr. secretary, thank you for being here, and i want to begin by thanking the state department and the president for your request in theti budget to suppt those people have been affected by -- as we know that continues to the issue for people affected and i appreciate the continue work of the state department. i was also pleased to see the president's budget included 20,000 additional special immigrant visas for afghan ally. >> you mentioned that as part of your remarks. and i understand the department has undertaken an effortor to review our withdrawal from afghanistan last year.

i help that is abuse it also considers the implications on afghan womenen and girls, have been, once again had the rights stolen by the taliban regime after our departure who were not as we've heard have real concerns about what the future holds. so can you give us an update on this effort and is it going to be shared with the members of congress? >> so for the action attribute i think i mentioned at the very start just before you were here, yes, in short yes. we have been working on that review. this was a commitment thatre i made veryma early on after withdrawal to make sure we learn the lessons from our part in that, what we got right, what we got wrong, what we need to learn from it. we brought in very experienced retired senior foreign service officers to run that process. we did that. other agencies have done similar

efforts.ef we have been working in recent months to bring all of that together to understand what the common lessons learned should be. bottom line is this, we will be makingll those reports available sharing that information with congress within the next three weeks. >> you would like to predict what it is going to say, which is broken i do want to get ahead of it except to say that we've been looking at just on the perspective of safeguard, i can't speak to other agencies, about how we can be more effectively organized to deal with complex emergencies in advance and we definitely learned lessons from this experience that if they can make us more effective going forward. but we will share in detail what we have learned. >> thank you. i look forward to seeing that. one of the places where i think that kind of more coordinated strategy would be really important is in the black sea region. and the invasion of ukraine really pointed out with the

closing of shipping lanes and impact on food security globally just how important that region is. as i'm sure you're aware we had language in the last on the bus and defense authorization bill to ask the administration to develop a comprehensive approach to the black sea. i i think it should include not just national security issues, which we saw with the downing of our drone how important those are in the region, but also economic and democracy support for what's happening in the region. so can you talk about where the administration is in developing that kind of a strategy, when we can expect it, and how it's helping, helping us think about our approach to the region? >> senator, i very much appreciate your focus and leadership on this, , and bottom-line upfront we will

produce that strategy. i think there's a deadline in the legislation of june and we will produce it by then. i couldn't agreeeg with you mor. it requires and we're focus on a much more confidence of approach to the black sea region. as you i know larger than the california, it's got six countries on its coast three of them are our nato allies. others like ukraine are obviously important friends of the united states, and to your point, the strategy will focus not just on the security aspects what i'm promoting political engagement, on promoting economic cooperation. including strength and energy security which is critical to all of these countries in a variety of ways as well as building democratic resilience because they are in it challenged neighborhood. one of the things we've done and the reason we want to make sure we get this right is we have gotten inputs from some of these countries. we want to f make sure that they are factored into our strategy.r

for example, our romanian colleagues have done as you know very well come have done a lot of thinking and brought a lot of folks to this. they shared with us their own views and plans, and that something where factoring in. bottom line is we will have it to you by june. >> i can tell you i was in the region in both romania and georgia at the end of february and is a great deal of interest in the fact will beginning to think about that region more comprehensively. and really looking also at the economic potential that is there. in georgia to look at what they're calling the middle corridor that would provide an opportunity to get around. russian terms energy. as a look at countries like georgia where i'm disappointed by some backsliding in the government but where the people are very clearly committed to looking toward europe, to looking at nato. we need to think about how we can better support them. our ambassador there, has done

an excellent job. >> thank you. >> as i missing to the chairman comer thinking about where we put a develop finance corporation office in that region, georgia, i think at some real potential for that as something that could be very important. let me just in by going back to the fentanyl question, because it's been such a huge issue for us in new hampshire and for everybody i think on this committee. we pass, senator portman and i, worked on legislation called the fentanyl results act to try to give the state department more resources to work with other countries who might want to help us address fentanyl come in to the united states are the resources you need to do that,, legislation? and if so, what do you need? let us know what you need so that we can ensure that that happen. >> i would welcome working with you onn that because indeed one of the things we're doing is

working to build a coalition of countries backward to give them more effectively to do with the challenge internationally, particularly can when it comes to the diversion of illicit precursors into illicit production of fentanyl. we started to do that ass a mentioned at the g20, but there may be other ways to will be effective in building that out a car some additional resources. be great to work with you on that. >> thank you. from what. >> thank you store shooting. senator rubio. >> thank you for coming and we appreciate it. it strikes me, i know you like history, was how one of your major? >> yes. >> i think history is always instructive. one of those interesting things that history to look back at the pivotal moment in human history that people of that through them didn't realize that was what was happening. when you're living a hinged moment in history and you're busy with every life in every thing else that's going on and sometimes you don't and highly perceive it. i'm pleased as read the beginning of your statement here and heard it before i came in on

the broadcast, the post-cold war world is over, and there's an intense competition underway to determine what comes next. so it's an acknowledgment that is not what it was like ten years ago, five years ago, very different. that's important. i would argue we are beyond simply a competitive, understand what we talk about strategic competition. i don't say this with any joy in my heart but simply because it ishe sort of par for the coursen human history, i think we're entering perhaps the beginning of a three pack of conflict which doesn't necessarily mean military conflict nonetheless. we have an all-out war in europe. people call it a proxy war but it is been globalized. we saw that very clearly yesterday with chair coons visit to moscow but the way the world is aligned inn different ways. -- chair coons visit -- militarization, germany, japan

come nothing against frank because given the necessity of the world but this post-cold war come post-world war ii order whh both countries decided that they're going to be i less marc, less military, necessitous change it for both of them. a positive development for our allies but nonetheless a reality. we have these nine eastern european countries that are even more hawkish than the rest of europe, grp jeremy puts thet at the edge of russia's aggression and vacancy very cloudy what's happening. we have very clear outlines of this emerging conflict. the u.s., the west, the democracies and an alliance, the china-russia alliance. they don't want to call it that but that's what it is in conjunction with others like iran potentially participating as well. and then these dozens and dozens of developing so-calledng non-aligning nations all tried to cut deals for themselves. we saw that with saudi arabia to use it throughout africa et cetera..

but that in this emerging block of two nations between, , it's that simply these military alliances. we are saying the rise of alternatives to thehe banking system come to u.s. dollar, ways that the growth of countries that now have a vested interest in figure out how to evade sanctions. you see supply chain diversity. europe is diversified where it gets its energy and wrestling world is diversifyingg because i think there is the understanding that the market is responding to the fact that were entering a period of conflict. it is in that vein given all that but i'm really concerned about whether we can continue to afford to do some the things we're doing. i do mean from a dollar standpoint but from what your political standpoint pixel for example, plus some of state department release report attacking the solid soloms for their stance on same-sex marriage or get alienated their partners of their pick the next week they signed a a mutual security agreement with beijing and the pacific, and the prime minister declined to participate in the commemoration of them

moral marking of the battle of guadalcanal. that's one example. we could go, i could take ten, 50 minutes to go through each and .2 different such places where we are sort of aligned ourselves in that way. haven't we now reached a point backward frank frank went under so we're entering a time of geopolitical competition bordering on conflict come comfortable metacarpal, economic conflict, and confident the potential military conflict? and asid a result need to govern ourselves accordingly. not that these values or whatever our values don't matter, our approach has to look very different than it did five, ten, 15 years ago when frankly the u.s. was the world's sole superpower and we had in many cases the luxury to be able to go through and b do some of thee things. because it's notot that these issues don't matter. it's that none of these issues are going to batter if 18, ten or five years ago we live in a world in which the dominant

economic, military and technological power in the world is in the hands of authoritarian regimes who frankly resemble what the vast majority of human history looks like, and that is led by despots weather although individual rights and all these things that itdi may not just or prosperity and freedom possible here but the world a better place. isn't it time for us to view the world through thet lens frankly of the beginning scum of the early stages of a geopolitical conflict? >> senator, i share yourit basic analysis, and i think that since it's exactly what we are doing. we have worked from day one to do two things, foundational things. one is to support important investment in ourselves, which i talked about a little earlier to make sure we are as strong and competitive as a can be. ii think thanks to congress with a those historic investments. the chips and science act is maybe the best example.

but second, we've worked from day one both to reengage, rejuvenate and strengthen our existing alliances and also build newt ones, new coalitions of countries and evenn beyond countries that are fit for purpose in dealing with different parts of the challenge that i think you discussed very, very well. just to give you one quick example, when we are dealing with the challenge posed to supply chains around the world to make sure that we have and benefit from diversified and resilient supply chains we brought to get the coaches in a coalition to do that, too in many cases nearshore and friend short of early systems in place if they're being disarmed also through some to call the minerals is a good partnership, make sure countries are focused on ensuring that we are able to invest in effectively some other critical minerals that are e so important to so much of what we are doing. when it comes to our engagement in the asia-pacific region,

indo-pacific, we have put that on full throttle. we have reopened an embassy as you know in the solid items. we are looking at other places in the pacific islands we can make sure that we are present in ways that we haven't been in recent years precisely because we are engaged in a competition. i could go down the list of different collections of fit for purpose partnerships that we built to do with exactly the world that you're describing. i do think and you said it that as we do that the values that unite us are also to two important to the strength and solidarity of these alliances. not every country that we need to be working with is in the same place that we are. i think we recognize that and we need to make sure we are adjusting and flexible enough for that. the last thing is the best. there are a number of countries that are looking national very carefully at what's happening, making their c own decisions, in

some sense making their own bets about which direction they're going to go in. from my perspective this is less about saying to them you have to choose, and more offering them a choice. if we're able to to do that, for example, to catalyze real infrastructure investment that's a race to the top, not a race to the bottom, they will choose us. we also have to have strategic patience.ts there are countries that have had long-standing for decades relationships come for example, with russia where moving away from that as they want to do. it'st not like flipping a light switch. it's like moving and aircraft carry a metal to work with them to do that.er i share the basic picture that you painted and really welcome working with you to figure out the most effective ways to deal with it. thank you. >> thank you, senator rubio. i couldn't agree more that that is one of the core argument for robustly resourcing the state department and usaid is to make sure we meaning this moment. senator murphy. >> thank you very mu ch, mr. chairman. it is you, mr. secretary.

the eyes of the world and nation are rightly focus on ukraine, on a broad set of competition challenges with china, the middle east always gets an outsized share of attention from this country and this congress but i want to thank you for the work that your diplomats have done to achieve two preliminary very important smaller scale diplomatic agreements in the past several weeks.th first, the windsor framework which the united states had a great interesting to make sureke that peace is preserved in northern ireland ahead of the 25th anniversary of the agreement and the normalization between kosovo and serbia, the team that you have in place in that region is absolute exceptional and well, that is the beginning of what we hope is more accommodation between those two countries are really important step. i just wanted to congratulate you and your team on the work that you have done on those two important achievements. i want to turn your attention to

the global engagement center because this is something you and i have talked about, and i appreciate the fact that we've continued to scale up the sides of the global engagement center and that your budget requests another double-digit percentage increase.. ii am of the belief that the gc needs to take a primer rather than secondary rolend when it comes to the way in which we counter misinformation around the world. i think often the department defense which has a budget that the worst out of the gec doesn't always have the sensitivities but the state department is about whatst messages work and what doesn't. what concerns me more is that we have ahead of us the reauthorization of the gec. we got to put back on the books and there is really no way to combat russian misinformation, the propaganda efforts, which are integral to the campaigned against ukraine, or china's efforts to expand its reach without the gec. i just want to stake in at least one more question butne ask you

for a minute to talk about what impact it would have if we were not able to extend the gec is authorities beyond the end of 2024. >> thank you for raising that, also thank you b for your leadership on this. and this is a front in the conflict that senator rubio was just talking about. that is, information. and we have competitors, adversaries who are using information or more accurately misinformation and disinformation against us, virtually every minute of the day and against our allies and partners. both to drive wedges between us and also to misinform public in profound ways. the gec for us is a critical tool in actually been able to deal with that. as you know what it's doing is working with other agencies to direct, delete is in contrast to coordinate our efforts to understand these trends in

foreign maligned actors trying to spread disinformation and propaganda outside of the united states. and both to understand it, to expose it, to share that information with others and to help them develop the tools to combat it. we havewe campaigned to do the c to come as i said, to expose come to educate him to mitigate this information. it is now the premier information sharing platform internationally. for this we have dozens of countries that are participating with us. among other things to society examples with exposed russian websites that have been pushing misinformation and disinformation including about ukraine.nf again, in countries around the world. this information come from china and third countries about elections begin about russia's war of aggression against ukraine. we have been tremendous work i think doing open-source mapping

of some of the use that china has made of surveillance technology and data collection. i could go on but the point is it's a very effective vehicle for doing this, and if we lose that we are in effect disarming ourselves in this aspect of competition. >> hear, hear. i hope that those of us who work in a bipartisan way to support the gc will continue to do that. fowanted to turn your attentiono north africa for a moment. senator coons has led thee efft in trying to increase our ability to operate in fragile and departments, and there are a number of them in north africa. one of the ms. libby. your budget requests a 6% increase in worldwide security protection funding for local forces to make sure that we have a diplomatic presence in dangerous places. a few more dangerous places than libya. but other countries are reopening their diplomatic

presence there. senator risch and i led an effort to rewrite the accountability review board accountability review board process to try to give folks a little bit more reason to engage in those fragile places. i just worry that without a presence there and 2023 we are going to have a hard time protecting our equities and a lot of taxpayer dollars have been spent there. do you have come with this additional funding to put in the budget do you have any timetable for our ability to reopen the embassy in libya. >> was senator, i think of your timetable, we are very actively working on. and like you i want to see us be able to reestablish an ongoing presence in the libya. there's also an important moment where through the work of the u.n. envoy there may be emphasize may be a path forward to moving libya and a better direction including getting elections for legitimate government. and out of the mets are deeply engaged at but obviously it

would be a lot easier and more effective if they're on the ground that in india. we're working on it. we want to work with you and this committee will be necessary to support that. >> lastly, on tunisia, i know that you are just as concerned as this committee is about the dramatic turn in tunisia away from democracy, and 11% turnout in the so-called elections. it seems to me their present as made up his mind to move away from success story of democracy in tunisia towards autocracy racing to budget is bit of middle and grant and maybe that is what you want to be cutting economic funding, maintain military funding but then also a opening up the possibility of additional military funding if tunisia quote show signs of return to democratic governance. i kind of feel like they've made their decision and iti think our funding and our policy should reflect that. but your budget suggests u still have hope that tunisia can return to the rule of law. is that correct?

>> hope is always important, but, of course, it has to be grounded in reality. i have met with president saied on a number of locations in the most recently i guess the african leader some the end of last year. where engage with the tunisian government. we are indeed concerned about what we've seen over the last year. another aspect of his that's pretty important that goes where budget, which is most critical thing they can do on the economic side is actually get an imf agreement or we've andecg in treating them to do that because they come risks falling off the deep end. we need to see that but we also want to see steps taken to put tunisia fully back on the democratic path it was on. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator murphy. one of the things we could do to help with public diplomacy is confirm elizabeth allen, undersecretary for public diplomacy.

.. the first thing i would like to touch on, i passed a law to create the commission on reform and modernization of the department for 20 three anti-aa. >> to offer specific legislative proposals for modernizing the department and funding the commission will be one of my top ep priorities this year. secretary blinken if the committee has a modernization, do you commit to cooperating with this commission and the underlying law. >> yes, one of the things i'll look at quickly, we've been talking to your team recommendations and for that we want to provide the support to

do it. >> we look forward to working with you. as senator rubio said, we face new and evolving challenges and i think the department will help address those challenges. thank you for that committee. turning to another area that's very troubling, it's an issue related to our neighbor at our southern border. president obrador takes arbitrary and punitive actions against businesses in mexico. my first question if you're aware of the mexico can seizure of a port on the yucatan peninsula in mexico? >> i'm not sure if i'm aware of this particular seizure. when did this happen? >> it recently happened in the past few weeks. >> happy to follow up. >> i'd like to do that. in that situation, it concerns me that the mexican government's put its military in charge of constructing a section of the railway near

this recently seize the port and the bigger concern is the fact that china may be involved in building sections of that railway. the chinese have bragged that the china communications construction corporation is heavily involved in providing key materials for the railway. you probably are aware-- >> if i could ask as a point of information. there's the case and i'm not sure if it's the same one, vulcan materials. >> yes that-- >> yes, that i am aware of and share the concern about that and we have been asking the mexican authorities, local authorities, as well as national authorities about the military, and police presence there, so this is a deep concern. i think, as a practice cal matter as well, cases like this can negatively impact mexico's efforts to attract future investment from the united states and any other countries. >> absolutely. >> i'm sorry, that-- >> i think that's a grave

concern as you've described that mexico would take this arbitrary and detrimental actions toward u.s. assets and i'm shocked that the president obrador is actening this manner and the deeper concern is the chinese company is building a section of the railway nearby and understand that this company they're using is deeply involved in building chinese military infrastructure and militarizing the island in the south china see that china has poured concrete into the oh and built. and i think the other thing we can investigate whether the chinese are financing this. there are deep concerns potentially chinese companies working with the mexican military to take adverse actions on u.s. assets and in particular, seizing a deep water port in that location. i'd be interested in your opinion whether this would be in the interest of the chinese

communist party to have control of this port. >> i think it theoretically would be and not in the interest of mexico. one of the things we've worked actively with mexico on, in other examples, in telecom sector focus on making sure they have trusted vendors engaged in their system because we know the challenges to their own sovereignty when you don't have a trusted vendor in your-- >> and something i must say that president obrador seems with, the information that you have about this particular case and sharing with your team what we know. >> we'll share information and may have an opportunity to discuss it this afternoon in the frc. and i'd like to turn to another area relates to china and situation with taiwan. in 2023, this year, february, cia director burns said a matter of assessment, chinese seems capable for this 2027, do

you agree with this. >> yes. >> and time doesn't seem to be on our side since we have a 19 billion dollar backlog to taiwan. and there was a law passed 2023ndaa. and authorizing as much as two billion in grant, foreign military fansing for taiwan between now and 2027. i was deeply disappoint today see the president's proposed budget $113 million in new fmf lines for foreign emergency priorities, far short of $2 billion project. this 113 million, 16 million as a baseline for foreign military financing in the indo-pacific. why did the state department's request exclude funding for

this bipartisan law? >> senator, as you point out, we have as part of our request, the emerging priorities fund globally which is used 113 for the budget. taiwan, fmf is one tool, we appreciate the authority and the draw down authority which we're looking at, but we have looked at how we can be most effective in supporting taiwan and its defense. as you know, the state department has notified just over the past decade or so, nearly $40 billion in foreign military sales to taiwan going between 2019 and today. and 21 billion. i have signed out more cases than any secretary of state in history for taiwan. taiwan also increased its own defense budget by 11%, giving it the additional means to buy equipment necessary for its defense. >> back to the original question, mr. secretary, i'm sorry time is so tight. to the original question, the budget is far short of what you've been authorized.

my question now is whether the prc has said to you or anyone that said to you or the diplomates, whether there's any red line for us to step up. >> no, to the extent they'd say something like that, that's obviously not something we'd take into account i've signed more cases than any other previous secretary of state. the challenge we have, we know the backlog, a significant backlog that's built up and goes to production challenges that we have. i know that we're working on, on a bipartisan bases, working with industry to build up that production capacity and that's the long pole in the tent. >> i'm familiar with the foreign military sales process, we learned-- we had an opportunity for deterrents with ukraine, we didn't take it. we have the opportunity here the menendez law actually is aimed at providing for

deterrents that could be significant and i encourage and looking forward to doing everything we can in that regard. >> thank you, mr. haggerty. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you for you and the state department foreign service as well as civil service. a few years ago i teamed up with my colleague senator sullivan and passed with the support of members of this committee in the senate the foreign service families act, which is designed to help us continue to retain and to recruit the finest diplomatic corps in the world. we're in the implementation process. my staff just met with your team yesterday. we're pleased with the progress that's being made and i'm asking for your assurance today that we will continue to implement those parts that are still in progress. >> yes, absolutely. because it's critical that we be able to attract and retain the best talent available.

this is an important component of that, it's something you've known and lived as much as anyone, this is a family enterprise, it's not simply the foreign service officer that is there, it's the entire family, so we want to make sure that we're finding ways through the act to support them, to create greater opportunity for them because that's the most effective way to attract and retain people. >> thank you, mr. secretary. >> let me return to the recent meeting between putin and president xi, which took place, of course, just days after the icc confirmed what we knew, which is that putin was a war criminal. this case based on the fact that they've abducted ukrainian children and taken them forcefully to russia. president xi reiterated the fact that that relationship between russia and china knows quote, no limits. the friendship knows no limits.

you and others in the administration have warned as a possibility that china would provide, start providing material military support to russia in its fight against ukraine and that that would be a red line that would trigger severe economic consequences in the form of sanctions. i'm glad you've established that very clearly. in order for that to be effective we need to make sure that our allies and partners are on board. that includes our european partners and our democratic partners like south korea, japan, australia and others in east asia and around the world. so my question is, do we have a break the glass plan? what we don't want to see happen is if, if china were to provide military assistance that were, you know, all fluttering around trying to figure out the way forward, obviously imposing economic sanctions on chinese entities is tougher than on russian entities given the more interconnected nature of the economies, but do we have a

break the glass plan with our partners in the event china were to provide military assistance to russia? >> thank you, senator. let me say two things quickly about this. first, as you noted, going back to day one of the russian aggression, we have been very clear with beijing about the serious problem that any material lethal support to russia would suppose for us and countries around the world. president biden shared this directly with president xi three weeks in, and we've reit lated that and as we've seen that consider it more actively in recent months, we've doubled down in making clear the serious problem that this would pose, but what's important is this, and it's to your point. >> it's not just us. when we shared with allies and partners some of the information that we had about the active consideration that china would be giving lethal

support to russia, this galvanized other countries engaged chinese leadership and so we're actively talking to them about what it is we would do in the event that that happened, but my hope is that china, having heard not just from us, about you from many countries, including countries with which it's trying to curry more favorable relations, that it heard them, and heard us and will not cross that line. >> mr. secretary, i proo-- i appreciate that and i think it's important a specific plan with our partners that we're ready to go and china knows we're ready to go because the deterrent effect of that depends on their clearly understanding the impact. if i could turn to the israeli, palestinian issue. since the new israeli government was formed, high level members of our government have visited israel, including yourself, just a few days ago. president biden had a phone

call with prime minister netanyahu. the readout from that call indicated that president biden underscored the need to quote, maintain the viability of the two-state solution, unquote, and the importance of abiding by the two agreement that the united states helped to broker between palestinians israel and to, i quote, stop discussions of any more settlement units for four months and stop authorization of any outposts for six months. within days of the agreement as you know, prime minister netanyahu rushed to disavow it. said that doesn't apply. and then just days after the meeting and the phone call between president biden and

president netanyahu, there were four settlements that israel committed to evacuate 20 years ago, the state department spokesperson patel said the move was, and i quote, inconsistent with israel's recent commitments to deescalating israeli-palestinian tensions and contrary to the commitment to the united states and i suppose you support those comments made by the state department spokesperson. >> senator, i do, but it's based on what i hear and heard directly from israeli leadership as well as the palestinian authority about the desire for both sides to see the violence that has reached record levels in recent months. deescalate and to try to get a period of calm. and that's clearly in the

interest of both sides and it's an interest that at least prime minister netanyahu has expressed directly to me and there are a number of things-- >> mr. secretary-- >> if we see steps inconsistent with that, i think it does contradict what we believe both israelis and the palestinian authority are seeking to do and what they've said to us is in their own self-interest. no, i appreciate that. obviously we need to see compliance on both sides, the palestinian authority and the government of israel. but this was a very official act by the kinnesset days after, and i'm pleased to see you endorse the statement by the spokes department spokesperson, but it seems to me that we look very weak when we continually make statements without any kind of consequence. so i guess my final question to

you is, what are we prepared to do? what is the biden administration prepared to do if you see continuing violations by either side of this agreement. >> look, i don't want to speculate or get into a hypothetical about where this may go and what we would do. i can say that both the israeli governments and the palestinian authority want us to be involved and engaged in helping, supporting and working with them to try to get to this period of calm at some point if either or both sides are not doing what we believe is necessary to get there, it will be hard or maybe futile for us to do that. so we have to look very carefully at that. but i also think that it's important for everyone to try to doubledown on the steps necessary to try to get there because it's profoundly not in the interest of israel, our close ally and partner, or for that matter the palestinian

authority to see this cycle, cycle up. >> mr. secretary, i appreciate the efforts and the united states has been involved in trying to broker the agreements and my question, i'll leave it with your last answers, what are we prepared to do when we see violations of those commitments, thank you, mr. chairman. >> mr. van hollen. >> good to be with you. last year in this city committee i asked you about the trans-pacific, the economic forum, highlight for you in the last six months australian minister, singapore's minister, japan's minister noted i think with objection our absence from that agreement. what is it that keeps us from a willingness to engage -- you can shift me back to the indo-pacific economic forum,

but why is it that this is not a good idea, the tpp is not a good idea for us to engage in? i say this, i mean, perhaps from an economic, you know, point of view, but from a relationship, i meant to say this at the beginning, i'm as concerned go our nation as i've ever been. sometimes it's been a throw away, but suggests to me that we need more friends and allies and our trading relationship and economic support, those relationships matter. i walked into senator rubio and were you conversing and it seems to me that our foreign policy needs to be different in today's world than it was just even a few years ago and this would be one that i think would be important from a relationship, from a national security point of view as much as it is from a check point of view. >> so, senator, a couple of things on that. first, our focus in the

immediate is building up and building out the indo-pacific economic frame work that does include among other things, some trade facilitation measures, it has a focus, for example, on digital trade, which is so critical to the 21st century economy, something the partners in that endeavor. >> why does that exclude tpp? >> it doesn't exclude it. our focus is supply chain diversification and resiliency, that's a big part of it, building out clean economy infrastructure, that's a big focus and then, as well, making sure that we're combatting together, corruption that so undermines the systems that we're trying to bring together. i was there when tpp was negotiated during the obama administration. i was engaged in that. and i think that in that moment it was a very good endeavor and

one that i think both economically and strategically had real berths. i think as it now stands, the world has moved on and i think we have to focus in the first distance on what we can do and what we can build out and generate support for. let's see where-- generate support for within the united states. >> within the united states and among our allies and partners. would i note, of course, that even as we're working on the indo-pacific economic frame work we've been building new partnerships in the pacific, with the quad, i came from japan, australia and india, very effective vehicle, including on increasing on economic matters and we of course, more strategically have august, president as you know came from a meeting with u.k.

and australia on that and deepened and strengthened our engagement, including economically, all of those would fit together. >> from my point of view, when you say we have moved out, we should not have moved on, and we should reengage. what you described as occurring is in my view is good things, but leaves out an important component. i joined a number of my colleagues, hunger caucus, afghanistan, massive, massive humanitarian crisis, 20 million people facing food insecurity. the taliban recently eliminated the ability for women to work in ngo organizations and food delivery. what steps are you thinking between you and samantha powers and others that can be done in regard to afghanistan and the world food crisis? >> yeah, senator, you're right to point to this use challenge.

we have been, even since withdraw from afghanistan, and since the war, largest single contributor to afghanistan, particularly when it comes to the fundamentals, the basics, like food. we've been working relatively effectively through international partners, implementers, the united nations, ngo's that were getting food where it was needed and getting other basic humanitarian support, i think there was a concern in the first year of the possibility that afghanistan, deeply challenged as it was falling further off the edge and didn't happen in large part. the problem that we face now is the edicts promulgated by the taliban preventing women from participating in the delivery of assistance. that violates a fundamental principle that we do not want to in any way ratify. what he what's happening as a practice cal matter in many

parts of afghanistan, that edict is not being implemented which means where it's not implemented we're able to continue to have the groups provide, support them, providing assistance because women are still allowed to participate in its distribution. so, that's what's going on right now. and look, i agree with you. the taliban is taking steps that are digging a deeper hole for the people of afghanistan. >> this evening, a number of us will say goodbye to ambassador beasley and hello and welcome to ambassador mccain and russe this opportunity to express my gratitude for him and 38 seconds, i sent a letter along with colleagues to assistant secretary bidder, consular affairs. what need to be done to improve the processing of--

the nature of our inquiry can take over 400 days for a student to get an appointment. they're strategic in relationship and family and humanitarian, i our office, like i would guess many of my colleagues, are a passport and visa office and we're apparently the state department with just hundreds, i see a report every week of what we call case work. lots of many significant things, visas and passports occupy a significant portion of our staff's time. we're willing and happy to do it, but there need to be change the at state department and consular affairs. >> i very much appreciate that and this is something that, senator, we are, and i'm absolutely seized with. and as you know we've had to build back from covid the system for doing the visas, as well as. by the way, here doing passports is very labor intensive, a lot of that labor, both in terms of contracts and

represents state department personal personnel went away during covid and that's a challenge. we're focused on the wait times that people are experiencing in countries around the world and affects primarily first time visitor applicants. processing times for categories that have a particular impact on the u.s. economy, temporary workers, maritime renewals, they are where they were before the pandemic and they're better. for visitor visas, the median wait time is now under two months. that's the median, i don't want to say there are not places of importance where it's longer, but the median time is under two months, that's half of what it was in a year ago in 2022, most places, the way times are actually much lower than that, as a practice cal matter. we have 58 million nationals and they have visitors vees

yeahs, and most visitors come to the united states without visas, they're canadian or part of the visa program. and the first five months, fiscal year fy23, we've had a huge surge of nonimmigrant visas, and we've increased those by 18% over the same percent in '19 before the pandemic. many countries like mexico, like bras sail -- brazil we issued more tourist visas. india, the wait time for these dropped 60% since january of this year, just in the last few months. and we've issued 60% more nonimmigrant visas this fiscal year to date than the same

period again going back to '19. it's a long way of saying if you look at it ccomprehensively, there's progress, but there's places we need to do more to surge some of our assets and i think also what happens is, you know, anecdotally, these are real human problems, we all hear about them. we get seized with them. we want to work with you to continue to strengthen this and improve our-- >> in that regard with you thank your personnel at the consular affairs. they have been helpful and appreciative of the circumstances that we and people we care about are in. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, senator. we agree on an awful lot of trade policy issues. senator. >> thank you, mr. chairman, i'm thrilled to be on this committee. mr. secretary, thank you for your service and thank you for being here today. first question is, what's your level of confidence that israel is in compliance with the leahy

law? >> to the best of my knowledge, they are and certainly it's something that we take very, very seriously everywhere around the world and when we do the necessary vetting for foreign military sales or others, one of the key things we look at is leahy law compliance. so, to the best of my knowledge, they are. >> thank you. i see that you have a new program, strengthening forest conservation and land management initiative which is great. you know i care very deeply about international deforestation, especially commodity driven, a kind of technical question. it's not obvious why you're dividing implementation between state and aid, can you explain the theory on the case here. >> i can come back to you on that and give a fully informed

answer. i can say generally two things, one, we're deeply committed to this and appreciate the leadership that you've shown on it, just as by way of example, the president was in washington to meet with president biden, one of the things we were focusing on the deforestation of the amazon and hopefully the reforest ration, as necessary and we'd like to contribute to the amazon fund something we'll probably need to work with congress on. as to the allocation of resources between state and the i.d., you know, generally speaking, we are focused on, by we, i mean the state department, are focused on the policy and diplomatic aspects of working things, and aid tends to implement and it may be that the budget division reflects that and i need to give you an informed answer. >> just on lula, there are incredible opportunities, we're

not going to save the world's forest, just hoping for a bunch to get elected across the planet and so, i think we do need to come up with an economic-- >> and a willing and enthusiastic participant, and the country has to see economically so they can see a path we that works for them. i can see about the deforestation fund and wherever we can be supportive there. and the budget focus on democracy and human rights robust funding for promoting press freedom. there's no dedicated envoy or office for press freedom so how do you ensure that press freedom stays high on that list of priorities as your offices across the planet have so many things to contend with and yet, this seems to me to be part of

the slide toward authoritarianism across the planet. >> it really is front and center on the agenda for a number of offices at the department and by the way, for me, this is something i've spent some time on, including making sure that i was speaking up and speaking out on world press freedom day, but also making sure that programmatically we're putting force the tools for press freedom. that's what we've done the last tum of years and it will be a key feature for the summit for democracy and it's one of the critical pillars in that. we put in place, for example, funds to help the press that is being assaulted with law fare in various places to be able to have the fund to defend themselves. resource toss protect journalists who are under physical threat. senior officials in my

department, particularly bureau of democracy and labor are-- this is right front and center on their agendas. i can tell you that it's something that i'm personally focused on and the critical bureaus in our department are focused on. >> thank you. let's move to the pacific. i'm glad to see a larger request for the administration for foreign assistance for pacific island countries for fiscal year 23, but it's still short of the enacted level. could you speak to that, the dollar amount, but also, i want to give you a chance to talk about what we're doing in the pacific island region and i want to coach you a little bit, not that you need coach, but i want to remind us that it is difficult to compete with graft, right? >> yeah. >> so, what we have to offer are, as you say, values, right, and relationships and as i've talked to pacific island leaders, sure, they need resources and especially in a climate change context, lots of

these countries are really in need of our direct material assistance, but they also want to be respected as sovereign so i'd like you to talk through how attitudally we're shifting and not throwing say another 80 million in the project and park our military equipment wherever on the map, a sovereign to sovereign relationship. >> we've elevated pacific island countries in our department and diplomacy and that was historic summit meeting between president biden and the leaders of the pacific island nations, something that i took part in and it really was an extraordinary moment because i think it said to them and said to their people that the united states is engageled in -- engaged in a different way and now concrete ways, our diplomatic presence, as you know, we opened in the solomon

islands and looking at establishing two to three other embassies or outposts in the pacific island where we've been absent and that's reflected in our budget. our economic engagement, particularly in finding and resources that deal with challenges that are affecting the lives of pacific islanders, that is front and center. as you know, it's an interesting challenge because in many cases each individual island nation is small and so making a market to be complicated, but particularly, as they're pooled together and we're able to pool resources we're doing that. on climate we're having a responsibility. and we're acting on it to provide the technical assistance and the technology and yes, the resources to deal with particularly for countries that literally not existing for

climate change. the budget for education, government nance, building institutions, all of those are there. i'm happy to work with you and your team to make sure we're properly resourced to do this, but this is front and center in our thinking. >> one final thought what's happening with climate. some cases, where they might vanish and i think the less precipitous, but just as bad scenario, salt water inundation of the fresh water systems of the irrigation systems and you can't drink water you can't use water to farm and then there's no economy at all. >> yeah. >> and none of these people have anyplace to go. and i love what dfc is doing and i love the opportunities to kind of envision economic growth, but the truth is, some of these people need immediate assistance because they can't drink the salt water and their runways are flooding and so i think we need to race to their aid without pre-condition.

>> appreciate that. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> mr. secretary, if you have 10 more minutes rather than submitting a whole bunch of questions for the record i'll quickly running through five topics, we have a noon vote, to my knowledge no other member of the committee is coming back and none will surprise you, but worth the time since we have you here. let me pick up from the point that the senator was just making, the development and finance corporation i think is a big step forward. you're the chairman of the board. i'd love to hear-- so i briefly want to talk about dfc, conservation, mexico. i can start with the first two and disposed of quickly. the 20th anniversary of pep far is worth celebrating and i'm glad you priority advertised in your opening statement we have some real work to make sure it's authorized and funded and i look forward to working closely with you on that. i just spent the week in mexico

with a broad group of senators and health members and we have an outstanding ambassador and we got four hours of the president's time. president lopez obrador and his cabinet and for the first hours he just listened. and i believe there's much more good news about our partnership and its potential in terms of border crossings and security, fentanyl interdiction, economic development, and some of the ways that our economies and our values and priorities align than one could easily discern from the cable coverage of this. and irritation in this. >> and senator, i very much agree with this, and we've seen in many places our mexican partners step up to including dealing with drug trafficking, dealing with the transnational criminal enterprises, the problem is huge. they are resource deficient and

so, i think we have to continue to work with them. we've restored the security dialog that was held in advance, we're working actively on that, a bicentennial framework as we called it to move out on concrete cooperation and we've seen seizures go up, we've seen the very active work to disband criminal enterprises, we've seen a very significant increase in mexican law enforcement that has arrest authority, creation of a national guard, that's been important. and of course, on migration, they have been a critical partner, doesn't answer the full problem, but absent that partnership, the challenge would be even greater so sorry to interrupt, but it's important, you're right to under score the fact that they are a vital partner, never mind the fact that one of our two largest trading partners in the world. >> a presentation at the ministry of foreign affairs made it very clear that the recent initiative taken by the

biden administration to require an application, a legal process crossing at our border point, brought down dramatically entrants from four different countries, i'm eager to work with you if i possibly can to support finding a path forward as we anticipate the end of title 42 in the middle of may. so, dfc. you're the chairman of the board. >> yes. >> how successful do you think we've been using this newly expanded tool? it's built on the base of opec, but it's got new equity authorities, do an r.n. range of things and what do we need to fix to make it reach its potential? >> i fully agree dfc is a critical tool one increasing using collectively and going to the points that you're making, for the united states, the comparative advantage we have,

if we do it right, is mobilizing, catalyst on the private sector, we're not going to match china, dollar for dollar coming from our taxpayers and the dfc is a vital tool in doing that. i think there are a couple of critical additions that we could make to the dfc that would make it even more effective. and one, maybe the most important one from my perspective and our perspective is listing the constraints counting equity like a grant. basically, what is most in demand, which are equity investments from the dfc, end up being what cost the most, and i believe if we do that, we will see its effectiveness in leveraging more private sector investment go up significantly. >> well, i look forward to working closely with you on that. your budget proposes mandatory to the dfc, while welcome, while engaging, that does not

address the most important issue you're absolutely right, a legal fix to a scoring issue restraining this from being-- if you come to the party and everybody else has equity investments and you've only got debt, you're the only people we often don't get to pick our partners, drive and scope the project and core and transparency in labor and environment that we'd like to see, and i hope in the foreign relations committee where you may well be this afternoon, this issue might also be discussed. the global fragility act something senator graham and i crafted based on positive experiences with colombia. it's an important tool, but the wloel goal was to with state at the lead, aid and dod jointly planned and having recently visited, i know you did as well, likely headed back to

coastal west africa, there are places we need to show this kind of prioritization. i think it's off to a slow start and i'm concerned about the lack of active senior engagement from dod. i want to make sure that this isn't just viewed as another foreign assistance program, but instead as a framework, that prioritizes state's leadership. what are you doing to get this off the ground right and how can i help. >> this is a critical framework for us and i think it has the very strong merit in making sure that we have a holistic comprehensive whole of government approach to dealing with fragility. because we know that just focusing on any one piece of this security, foreign assistance, you take it, is not enough, doesn't answer, and i think this is a welcomed thing. yes, we've been-- we have been working intensely on this. what i can tell you today is that i think very, very imminently forth coming are the actual approved country plans

by the president. so i think that will be an important step forward and as i said, i think that's imminent. >> perhaps we'll have another conversation as soon as those are out how to better engage dod at a senior enough level that it moves the needle. thank you. last thing, i'm sorry, i've got one more. >> please. >> we have worked hard together to provide robust assistance to ukraine, and in fact, i think that this has been president biden's best chapter in a very long career of public service marshalling the resources of the world to deliver from sanctions to humanitarian, to economic, to military assistance, as ukraine continues to fight bravely. are we doing enough to ensure proper oversight of our assistance and to avoid an unforced error challenge through a lack of transparency. >> this is something we're

focused on precisely because we have an obligation that the taxpayer money is being used the way it's intended to be used and we don't want to give those who might not want to sustain the support, reason to move us in that direction. so we've been intensely focused on this. i've got on the ground in kyiv, 45 people whose responsibility is to oversee the funds that we're providing to the government of ukraine. that's just on the state department side. dod has its own people on the ground including at our embassy to make sure that the military equipment that we're providing is being used in the right way. the system that's in place is actually a very, very good one, basically when it comes to direct budget support, most goes through the world bank. the world bank has a system where the money is to reimburse based on receipts and approved

expenditures the money and the inspector general did the first report on this that came out a few weeks ago and it found, i don't want to quote directly, but bottom line finding, we got very good marks on the oversight and making sure that the money is being spent well and the processes are in place to ensure that, and third party validation, deloit is working within the ministry of finance in ukraine to make sure it has the systems in place to make sure that the money is being well-used and the final thing is this, we've seen president zelenskyy go at challenges of corruption or misuse of funds in the government with a sledgehammer, removing very senior officials, involved in corruption or improper oversight of the funds. that's a good size not only are we seized with it, but the ukraine government is, too. >> he talked with two members with reforestation in the amazon in brazil and the

importance of climate in a meaningful way. and one of the areas i think we could come together, is around reforestation and conservation, improving the management of wild and open spaces that are not yet overrun by people and poachers particularly in south america and africa, a group led by senator graham and me, and four others, introduced the u.s. foundation for conservation act. it would principally draw in philanthropic and private individual donations set up a board that would have u.s. government experts in the field and donors, prioritizing the funds for long-term presidenter evaluation of spaces generally at risk. are you aware of it? is it something we would work on together? >> i need to look at this. as you've described this, sounds like something we'd want to support. let me get the details and come back to you. i think there's a lot of merit

to that particularly, when it comes we're engaged now in places that are still open to being secured and preserved. so, i'd welcome working on that. you just released the department's annual country reports on human rights practices. >> yes. >> closing question. where have we made the most progress? what have we left undone sm what should we do in the next years to advance human rights? >> so if you look at the report, i think it's, let me say diplomatically, a mixed picture. we continue to see democratic back sliding and back sliding on human rights in a number of countries, something that we call out clearly in the report and one of the things so important is we apply the same lens to competitors and adversaries across the board and acknowledge our own challenges in that. at the same time, i think the report points out in a number of places we've seen genuine

progress, important progress, i think there are a number of countries, for example, where looking at some marginalized groups that haven about particularly victimized like the lgbtq plus communities, and some countries we've seen progress in upholding and protecting their rights, just at other places it continues to back slide in a significant way. so it's a mixed -- i think it's a mixed report, but what's important about it is it continues to put a spotlight with the united states government on it and i think it's a way of strongly encouraging countries to take steps they need to take to improve the human rights picture. if one of the reasons, by the way, that every year when we do this, i think it's incumbent upon me to go and present the report and i do that in front of our media in the state department briefing room just to make sure that people understand that this really comes from the secretary of

state on behalf of the president of the united states and it's something that we attach tremendous importance to. >> thank you. mr. secretary, thank you for your leadership, thank you for two hours of high energy and engaging testimony. i know you have another session in front of our authorizing committee and foreign relations committee later today. and i think most importantly you make a compelling case for the urgent national security base need to invest more robustly in our development, so i look forward to working with you together to see what we can move forward and pass this year and to the colleagues, i think we had a dozen senators to participate at different points this is a good and constructive hearing. >> senator haggerty had information vulcan case, seizure of a port and so ordered. and wednesday, march 29th open, and with that, this hearing is

adjourned. >> thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

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♪♪ >> health care, the environment, education, the economy, and gun violence, dominate the headlines and were the top issues addressed by students in this year's c-span student cam video documentary contest. almost 3,000 students from 40 states entered. for the first time in the history of the competition, students were asked to envision themselves in a position of power, sharing what their top priorities would be, if they were newly elected members of congress. our panel of c-span judges evaluated each entry based on presentation, research, and tangible solutions. >> if i were a newly elected of congress my first priority would be to implement support and counseling in schools across the nation. >> to connect patients with

health care providers. >> and with conservation efforts. >> we're happy to announce the first and grand prize winners in the middle school division is benjamin, a student at liberty middle school in ohio for his documentary, losing a generation, about an opioid crisis. the first prize winner in high school eastern division goes to theresa, who is a student at east chapel hill high school in chapel hill north carolina for documentary, money talks inside the inflation surge. and the high school central division sophia smith and jacob, students at janks high school in oklahoma about environmental concerns and the future of debt care in the united states. the first prize winner in western division, carson collins, home schooled students in austin, texas for his documentary, a perilous

purchase, chinese ownership of u.s. land and our $5,000 grand prize winner, 8th grade students at dr. martin luther king middle school. >> out of almost 3,000 students in the student cam competition you guys are this year's grand prize. [laughter] >> thank you so much. >> they won the top prize for their documentary, where is my data. data privacy and real world impact. >> if i were a newly elected member of congress my top priority that americans have control over their data, how it's used and who it's given to. >>, but we can't consider the internet inherently evil. every day millions of americans are benefitting from it, communicating with distant relatives on line all for free.

are these free? they are collects vast amounts of personal data. and they track precise locations, messages you send and purchases you make and plethora of data and they provide this to advertisers. >> this would be like someone following you every single day as you walk down the street, watching what you do, where you go, for how long, and with whom you're with. >> from all of us at c-span, we'd like to express our gratitude to the teachers, parents, and mentors who supported and encouraged those students throughout the competition. congratulations to all of the winners and be sure to stay tuned. the top 21 winning entries will air on c-span starting april 1st. watch every winning student cam documentary anytime online at

student cam.org. ♪♪ >> friday, 8 p.m. eastern, after words, by journalists and more on their latest books. exploring the origins of patriarchies, and she's interviewed by women and media center director. watch after words every friday at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government funded by these television companies and more, including wow. >> the world has changed. today the fast, reliable internet connection is something no one can live without. so, wow is there for our customers with speed,

reliability, value and choice. now, more than ever, it all starts with great internet. >> wow. >> wow supports c-span, as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> and the senate's back this morning to continue debate on a bill to repeat the authorization for use of military force against iraq. senators have already begun the process of considering aamendments and today they'll vote on another offer by utah senator mike lee that would impose a two year limit on use of military force. other votes are also possible. we take you live now to the senate floor. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, the reverend dr. barry black, will open the senate in prayer.