Transcripts For CSPAN Secretary 20240702

Those rent increases which some of you have mentioned this morning talking about the rent. We will reconvene. The chair recognizes mr. Keating. Thank you, esther chairman. I would like to think the secretary for his extraordinary efforts, the travel and the stress and everything that has been involved. Not just you but your staff and other members of the cabinet have been extraordinary. I want to center on ukraine for the focus of my attention. The war that begin in 2014, six years before joe biden became president of the United States. It was one that as the war escalated while he was president , he put together a coalition of 56 Different Countries dealing with the Defense Group working to in conjunction with all of our allies and the nato allies in particular. The 32 nato allies expanded under his watch as well. I would like to talk about, a few weeks ago i was in ukraine. I spoke with the ministry of defense there. I saw the impact of the six month delay that occurred in this congress. As grateful as we are that we finally have a vote on it, the speaker help this up for six months in spite of the fact that there were 311 members of congress and bipartisan fashion that voted for it. It did have an effect. Thats the one thing that became clear from that visit and became clear afterwards. That also is a concern that people had. Our allies that im in contact with all the time are concerned, not about the current president but the former president who in spite of the fact that about two thirds of nato countries and allies have reached their threshold has said that if all of them are not at that time including a country like luxembourg, they will be on their own. That is where the concern rest today. The war has taken a terrible toll and terrible concerns somewhere in the vicinity of 120,000 documented workers by russia. The kidnapping of children still remains a very difficult issue. Chemical weapons have been documented as being used as well. Attacks on the infrastructure are enormous. Particularly in a major city. Along those lines i just want to see what you can say in the open hearing. Some of those would be classified but if you could give us some indication even of openness and general discussion on the issue. When you look at what is happening in kharkiv, destroying the infrastructure of the second biggest city more of a clear message from the u. S. With these weapons that at least they can retaliate in a defensive position in that kind of proximity to go back to the source. Could you share with us what you can . Is there an openness to that discussion with the United States and with the coalition that we have so that could be more clear . President zelenskyy and other members that ive spoken with her worried they will feel to do that. First of all we are grateful that the supplemental was approved. Not only approved but the materials that are paid for are now getting there. I wish it had not taken six months. I was there a week or 10 days ago. I also want to applaud the chairman of the committee for the work that he did to make sure we got the supplemental through. We are determined to make sure that not only does ukraine have what it needs to defend itself but we also have to look at those needs are at any given moment and how they can most effectively do that. We are always open to conversations with our allies and partners. I will convey to you my feeling that they should be able to do that. I hope that discussion can occur quickly. Just quickly. I have a few seconds left and it is tough. I just wanted to deal with georgia, for instance. Theres a real concern about backsliding that is going on. The controversy about the Foreign Agent press bill in georgia. Could you just comment on efforts to deal with that issue . We are very concerned about that. I think it is right out of the moscow playbook. I think it clearly counters the desire the overwhelming majority of georgians to move toward eu integration. We are looking very hard at what we can do in response to that. I anticipate we will take action. The eu is looking at the impact on the process for georgia so i would anticipate that there will be things to come because of the impact this may have. Due to constraints of time i will have to followup with written questions. I yelled back. The chair recognizes mr. Wilson. Secretary blinken, earlier this week i was grateful to achieve a phone call with the dynamic and dedicated daughters of the late marge who was identified as having been murdered by the asad regime. The american psychologist was kidnapped by asad dictatorship in 2017 while visiting a family member. He was a devoted person to counseling people from extreme danger. He was a father of four children. He was a syrian american. Can you explain the refusal of the administration to say his name or condemn his murder at the hands of the asad regime . Will there be a criminal investigation into the murder . I am happy to pursue that with you. I need to make sure i know the full fact is. We will get them to you. He was a Great American who was flat out murdered. Additionally as so accurately exposed by chairman mike mccall, putin is attacking ukrainian citizens from russian territory just 30 miles to the second largest city of car keep with a population of 1. 4 million. I am grateful that our concern is bipartisan. We want you to do good. We want to succeed. War criminal putin is murdering civilians as we, sacrificing lives to satisfy the false escalation narrative that has repeatedly been seen as false. It is also immoral. When will the administration allow ukraine to use the equipment to end the war and save lives . This is important. To delay equipment could lead to the legacy of bidenblinken with the neverending more has been warned by the Washington Post even. Thank you. Every step along the way we have endeavored to make sure ukraine has what it is when it needs it to use and maintain effectively. As i said to congressman keating, we are always is listening to our partners and as necessary making adjustments. This is response to an illegal invasion. This should be to deter mass murder that is being conducted and to not allow the people of ukraine to respond properly is putting so many people at risk. Then we have dictators invading democracies with rule of law. Our enemies are clear. War criminal putin claims ukraine does not exist. The murderous regime in tehran and their puppets claim israel does not exist. The Chinese Communist party says taiwan does not exist. Sadly, taiwan has paid for weapons which are being delayed. There must be a deterrence to save millions of lives of the people of taiwan. It is crucial for antiship missiles, air defense and f16 advances. I particularly appreciate the people of chinese heritage. As the only son serving in congress of a world war ii flying tiger who liberated china. But now the people of taiwan are subject to a potential invasion. The way to deter that is to provide the equipment. They have paid for the equipment. What is your commitment to expedite the delivery to deter a murderous catastrophe . We have notified more than 6 billion in military sales during this administration. Another seven in 23. That is by far the largest single notifications that we have made of weapon sales took the challenge that we have in terms of moving forward is with our production timelines. We are doing everything we can for a variety of reasons including time want to make sure the production lines are moving more quickly, more efficiently to be able to deliver on the weapons we are providing to those who need them for selfdefense. We are committed to Taiwan Defense and committed to making sure it has what it needs to defend itself. The challenge that we have as many members of the committee know is with production and making sure that moves as quickly and efficiently as possible. Time is of the essence. It must be a deterrence to avoid evasion. It can be done if we provide equipment and with the equipment that we have around the world it should be expedited to the people of taiwan to avoid what will be the most catastrophic world incident after sadly the abandonment of the people of afghanistan with 13 dead americans. So whatever must be made to prevent an invasion. With that, i yelled back. The chair recognizes Ranking Member mr. Meeks for an Opening Statement and questions. Thank you for allowing me to make my Opening Statement. I will begin by welcoming secretary blinken to the House Foreign Affairs committee. I know there is much that has already been talking about. And much more that demands your attention all over the world. Mr. Secretary, i appreciate how generous you have always been with your time and how responsive the department has been to requests made by this committee. By my count this is your fifth appearance before this committee which is certainly way more than your immediate predecessor. Since you last testified, the geopolitical landscape has only grown in complexity plagued by continued conflict, backsliding and humanitarian catastrophes. The october 7 terror attack, the most terrific and brutal in israels history has prompted a war against hamas that has cost tens of thousands of lives in hitting innocent civilians, children, and women. The people of gaza now face famine like conditions which i command the ceasefire that would free the hostages which would include americans and allow humanitarian aid to reach the population. I appreciate the administrations efforts to caution is real against launching a largescale military operation in rafah without a plan for minimizing civilian casualties and stabilizing a postwar gaza. We look forward to hearing more from you, mr. Secretary, and the ongoing efforts to address this crisis. Gaza is one of many humanitarian crises around the world. I know that you are focused on alleviating human suffering in places like sudan where we see the largest number of people facing extreme Food Shortages in the world. The situation in haiti has only grown more dire with portau prince having involved into lawlessness resulted in horrific violence including systemic Sexual Violence perpetrated by gangs. I am grateful that the president from kenya is here in washington, d. C. This week. Kenya is not only vital for sustained u. S. Engagement with africa, it is also leading the Multinational Security support mission to haiti. That is key to promoting stability as haitians work to distort restore democratic governments in the country. We have also seen putins illegal war in ukraine enter a new deadly phase has Russian Forces pummel civilian infrastructure with warheads on a level not seen since the beginning of the war and pushed to once again take kharkiv. Ukraine has fought desperately to hold ground against russian advances amid shortages and ammunition and defense weapons, caused largely in part by the efforts of extreme maga republicans to block the president security supplemental. Hinckly democrats worked across the aisle to pass the supplemental package. I look forward to hearing more about the state department is working to build deliveries of those arm shipments so ukraine can replenish the stockpiles and continue its essential fight against moscow. It is clear that the atrocities of the world are correlating now more than ever to the challenge to Free Democratic world and undermined u. S. Interests in the International Rules based system that has for decades promoted peace and prosperity. Under President Biden and your leadership at the state department, we have strengthened american leadership, revitalized alliances as well as forged new cooperative agreements to promote u. S. National security particularly in the indo pacific this diplomacy is pivotal to remaining free, open and secure in the indo pacific particularly as beijing is increasing aggressive actions in the south and East China Sea and using economic coercion to advance its maligned interest. However, we cannot outcompete aging beijing diplomatically or economically if we are not willing to make serious investments in our diplomatic and development tools. That brings me to the reason you are here today, esther secretary. Complex challenges we face and start contrast to the America First isolationism of many of my colleagues across the aisle who continue pushing for drew county and cuts to the state departments budget. All the talk we hear from republican colleagues about the need to outcompete china, they seem unwilling to make the requisite investments into our state foreign operations and related programs. The budget that needs and meets the moment. I conclude with this, our diplomatic and Development Personnel in the state department need congress to do its job and authorize a budget that makes investment commiserate to their needs and modernize the state department to meet the challenges of the 21st century. We need to stand by the state department, we need state authorization bill passed on a regular basis, the heroes of the other state department, american men and women whose hand, i salute them as i salute our military, i salute them for courage, bravery, being the representative to the United States of america all over the world. With that, i yield back. Now i guess i can do my questioning, thank you. So, in the 3 1 2 years the administration has alliances with partnership in the indo pacific in ways we could not have foreseen a few years ago, before the Biden Administration, i cant even pronounce it, quadrilateral dialogue with japan. With japan, australia, and india, meet at the leaders level. You have japan, australia, india, did they ever meet at the leaders level . We are ready has the security ship with administration wants with uk and australia bennett game changer bolstering deterrence and keeping peace in the indo pacific . It is moving that direction. Regarding the trilateral ship with japan and korea, are we cooperating with our two northeastern asian allies in ways we had not before . That is correct. How many countries in the Pacific Island has the Biden Administration expanded our diplomatic footprint . With additional two entities that have open, looking at additional two more so we will have representation in more than half of the Pacific Island countries. Would you say this is building resiliency against the prc maligned influence in the Pacific Islands . , yes, i would. How has the relationship rebounded onto the Biden Administration . Extraordinary relationship developed over the last year, President Biden, president marcos working more closely together. That partnership, you mentioned that trilateral relationship with japan and korea, but trilateral relationship with the philippines and japan where we are doing Work Together. Does this cooperation across asia, does that help ensure free and open indo pacific . Absently, most dynamic Fastest Growing region in the world, more than 50 of global gdp in that region and the United States is a pacific power. Being able to align so many Different Countries to have all of us working together and the same direction, that multiplies the impact of diplomacy, the impact will advance in our interest. Is it undermine prcs ruling of order . Absolutely, the fact that we do it together makes the difference. Let me ask this, could the United States of america have achieved this Cooperation Without the state department . Admittedly i have a biased view on this but the answer would be no. Great job the state department and this administration is doing. Let me turn to the Current Situation in sudan. On may 14th, the ministration sanctioned two rsf forces commanders for perpetrating violence in darfur and threatening the peace and security of sudan. However, the rsf leader has not been sanctioned. The current fight against the rsf and Sudanese Armed forces for the city and belfour risk escalating humanitarian catastrophe, what is the state department doing to demand a kind ability in sudan . Focus on a few things, first, we have the senior envoy, tom triolo, who is out there everything all day trying to drive forward on getting an end to the war and civilian Transitional Government formed, unifying the professional armed forces, access to people who need it and return of the democratic transition sudan was on before it was disrupted by the generals. We think the best way forward is to resume the negotiations hosting with the key stakeholders, the saudis, the African Union and also, yes, as appropriate to impose costs on individuals, entities escalating the conflict and committing atrocities so we are looking at that as well. Thank you. Let me ask this, is it Critical Congress go to the Global Engagement center this year . Yes, in my judgment it is, i address that in my Opening Statement. This is one place in government we bring together all of our efforts to counter russian, chinese, other disinformation and misinformation and one of the most detective to effective tools ive seen. Giving other countries the capacity themselves to deal with it and take more effective collective action. As i mentioned with my Opening Statement, i very much hope it will be reauthorized because it sunsets later this year and it is a critical tool. If we take the tool away, we are disarming ourselves in the fight against disinformation coming from china and russia. My last question, is there any merit to the allegations sung from the far right that the gec is censoring conservative voices in the United States . No. We are always prepared to work with congress on any concerns we have when concerns are raised, try to make sure we provide all the information so that people have confidence and always continue to do that. Those questions have been answered and i believe this tool is essential for us in order to deal with, what really is a new front in the global competition, that is the information front. We have to fight effectively on that front. Thank you, mr. Secretary and the great work youre doing. Please say thank you to all of the employees of the state department. I yield back. The chair recognizes mr. Perry. Thank you, mr. Chairman and mr. Secretary for being here. Two of our allies have been attacked, unprovoked, ukraine by russia, israel by hamas and im trying to juxtapose the situation here. I can see according to reports, the president wants israel to outline what governance in gaza will look like after an invasion , how israel will reduce civilian arm harm in dense urban environments and how to free as many hostages as possible prior to sending capabilities to israel. On the other hand, ive got from the state department here, the integrated country strategy. I went through it, what i see here is that mission end goal objective is to end the war, nothing more i would like to see Vladimir Putin run out on a rail and worse. Restart sovereign territory. We have given ukraine over 100 billion and said to go fight russia, defeat russia, regain your territory. Fully supportive of ukraine and winning that war. At the same time, we established a set of conditions on israel. How about this condition, we have built at the cost of the American People, 320 million, a port, operation started on friday, halted on sunday because hamas attack report. Hamas attacks kerem shalom, the crossing that would allow aid from israel and the United States so israel has to pay for the aid of the people that attacked it and has to provide this information on a plan. Can you tell me what the difference is . What is the difference between ukraine and israel . In a sense there isnt, we made clear from the start, these are both close partners. Mr. Secretary, with all due respect, if there is no difference, why do we have these conditions . They have to come up with a plan of governance in the people that attacked them, they have to have a plan for the hostages. The russians have thousands of ukrainian hostages. Has the United States government, has President Biden restricted ukraines use of weapons in urban areas to reduce civilian casualties, has that happened . First of all, congressman, no one has done more, will do more i know you say that, look, im just reporting what im reading, going with the facts. You can say that all they want but the fact is, others have done more. And we are doing more right now for ukraine then we are for israel. President biden is doing more for ukraine than israel. We took roughly half of the money, or more, from the aid package pass for israel and gave it to hamas, who is taking it from the citizens in their country and using it to fight israel. While you say, please skip the narrative, and just tell me what the differences between ukraine and israel . How come conditions on one and no conditions on the other . These are not conditions, we get our close friends, best friends, best partners one of the obligation is to get the best possible advice we can. When it comes to dealing with hamas, we are committed to seeing that hamas cannot govern gaza again, cannot post the threat it did that led to the october 7th attack. We have been doing everything we can to support israels efforts to defend itself and make sure that cant happen. When it comes to rough up to the concern that we have had and expressed his friends do, obligation to do, the effort to go in, full force into rafah, to remove where the enemy is, just reported, as you know, mr. Secretary, 600 tunnels into egypt, into israel traversing weapons and military equipment to attack israel. When you say we are doing all we can, providing advice, with all due respect, sir, they need to win the war against hamas and eliminate them and anything we are doing that stands in their way of that is unacceptable, including supporting hamas. Which is what we are doing, at the same time youre saying that no one has done more. No one has done more for hamas either. To say the least, i dont follow that. Let me say this very quickly, one, we want to make sure that the defeat of hamas is an enduring defeat. Even if they go into rafah and remove the remaining, there will be thousands and thousands of arms hamas left. Absent a plan for what comes after, this is not a condition, simply our advice. What is ukraines plan for russia once they kick russia out of their country . I laid that out about a week ago in ukraine, im happy to share that with you. It is not in here, sir. I will share with you. There are two different standards, you must admit that. We in congress wonder why answer to the American People. Recognizing, im tired from the travel i do, focus on indo pacific Ranking Member that took a lot of my talking points, i want to emphasize the work of the administration from the early days of the administration, really focusing on a strong trilateral relationship between korea, japan, and the United States. The best place ive seen my 12 year so i want to applaud the administration from early state visits and the camp david accords. We are working on something very similar on a trilateral basis, Congress General assembly can also emphasize the importance of the trilateral with japan, the philippines, the United States that was unveiled last month, it is incredibly important. I think we will continue to see that prosper. The Ranking Member talked about the quad coalition, very important Strategic Coalition elevating that to the leaders level is extremely important. Aukus coming together in a very strategic way. With the goal in mind of maintaining peaceful, prosperous, stable indo pacific, i think the administration gets an a , it has done a remarkable job. We will continue to work on that from the congressional perspective. I recently had a chance, talk a little bit about the Pacific Islands and reestablishing diplomatic presence, led a delegation to fiji, tonga. When we were there, i think you are there previously as well, reestablishing a embassy, you could sense the excitement of the tonga individuals, great diplomatic staff, it is small but enthusiastic. Small investments like that go along ways. The one thing the tongans raised was the lack of getting visas. There is a large, vibrant tongan american administration, we did raise that with embassy staff, they got to fly to fiji, hopefully in the fy 25 budget, we can continue to expand services and do that. I also want to applaud opening emphases in the seychelles and maldives. Incredibly important areas. We can see in the maldives, large exclusive Economic Zone we are watching the tjte tjte between india and china. Our being there, having an embassy there ambassador there is incredibly important to my question would be if you could talk about the fy 25 budget request with regards to the Pacific Islands, also the indian ocean region. Embassies in tonga, the solomon islands, the seychelles, the maldives, and others. Thank you very much, appreciate. Your own engagement demonstrated this, when it comes to the Pacific Islands, they inhabit this vast stretch of ocean between the United States and our allies in asia so geographically, it is usually important. We, the present has hosted two white house summits with all of the leaders from the Pacific Islands for the first time coming to the white house and many of us have been there repeatedly. When it comes to the presence, our embassies are critical. We have embassies in eight of the 14 Pacific Islands, two more we hope and expect to open, looking at one the balance of this year and after that. We have the newly recognized cook islands which the embassy in wellington represents. Of course, we need the resources to make sure that not only do we establish these missions, the Human Resources can be there too. You mentioned we have small operations, small but mighty but we want to make sure that they are properly resourced because you have to cover a vast amount of territory. There is something is important that you mentioned, the collaboration that we built with key partners in the region, in particularly with japan, korea, australia, new zealand, that allows us to multiply our efforts and to cover even more territory than we would if we were doing it alone. The coordination there, the work we are doing together, for example, to bring undersea cables to the islands, doing that with japan, taiwan, and others to connect people. That is all vital as well. It also requires resources in order to do that, generate the private Sector Investment and partnerships we need, all of it is reflected in the budget. And i applaud that . When i was let in last month getting the japanese to drop tables is incredibly important. Thank you, mr. Secretary, i have more questions than time but hopefully we get through some of them quickly. We talked a little bit earlier, currently at my border, my 100 miles of the mexican border, we have a massive amount of immigrants coming, not from south or central america, but from disparate places. I will take one example, the people coming from china, over 20,000 last month, they flew typically to turkey, then to mexico, and then came into the United States. Turkey does not allow chinese to enter turkey without a visa, mexico does not allow people to enter, including chinese, without a visa. However, they are currently entering because they say, just let us off the plane and we will go to america. As our head diplomat with these two allies, one of them a nato ally, can you or will you attempt to tell them that under International Law, if they dont have a visa to the United States, you do not want them to come to make a claim they could have or should have made before they got to our border. In short, yes, i think identified very important problem. You mentioned the case of china, we have a record increase in the number of chinese seeking to get to the United States he presented themselves in one way or another and other nationalities far afield from our own hemisphere. I mentioned china mostly because we both know they will not take them back once they get here. You identified important problem and we have been acting on it. We are working with countries in the region to get requirements for visas so people cant family come to the centers without a visa and use that as a platform to come to the United States. We reached agreements in a variety of ways with colombia, ecuador, el salvador, guatemala, with mexico and panama. We continue to make sure, to the best of our ability, those countries put in place what is needed so people from far afield cannot avail themselves of the opportunity. Excellent, thank you, secretary. As i said, i have a bunch. Hopefully, what we passed out of the committee this morning, giving export controls for a. I. Will be a tool that will be used heavily out of commerce and will benefit our war against a number of countries. I will deal with one for a moment, when President Biden entered office, there were about 300,000 barrels a day leaving iran. Today, there are reported to be over 2 Million Barrels a day leaving iran. They had 70 ships and now 400 chips, they are called ghost ships. I know you do not run a military force, but as our chief diplomat and a member of the National Security council, couldnt or shouldnt we be able to essentially capture those ships on the high sea and take them out of commission to ultimately enforce sanctions . You are our number one sentient supporter, but your sanctions, not that they circumvented swift and other economic trades, have become somewhat muted. What should we do in combination with the other entities . I think there are a few things, congressman. First, we have sanctioned in the Oil Petroleum products sector, more than 200 iranian entities or individuals engage in that trade, we have been across multiple jurisdictions. Anyone with a role in the production, the sale, the shipment of the special chemicals mr. Secretary, limited time, can you get to the ships . We identified through our laws, 50 vessels we have determined our blocked property, people cant deal with them, they cant go to court, they cant get service and we will continue on the effort to identify those vessels, block them and looking to get countries deflagged so the vessels cannot move around and get the services they need. Dissensions we have imposed have made the smart expensive for the iranians as they try to evade them, getting around them, not getting the revenues they anticipate getting from massive efforts. Mr. Secretary, as i run out of time, let me ask one follow up on that, i believe if Ronald Reagan were president or someone like him, those ships would not be on the high sea. Do you have or would you accept the authority from congress if you dont have it to seize those clandestine ships. Whenever that Ronald Reagan sunk two iranian ships because of what they were doing. I believe strongly if you dont have the authority, the congress on a bipartisan basis, giving the authority to intervene, capture the ships, work with the flag nations to put all 400 out of commission. Would you commit to work with us on that effort . I think you mentioned or one of her colleagues mentioned, we dont have a military at the state department so that is not our business. Our focus is working with other countries and using our own authorities in the areas that we cant to go after anyone engaged in shipping, supply, transporting these products and that is what we will continue to do. Thank you mr. Secretary and mr. Chairman. The chair recognizes mr. Castro. Thank you, chairman and mr. Secretary for your testimony. Before i start my question, i wanted to say thank you so much for your work, but the work of director burns, our National Security advisor and others that worked hard to achieve a ceasefire in the israel palestine situation and also release of the hostages so thank you for your hard work on that i understand your position regarding jurisdiction and views on the recent announcement by the International Criminal Court Prosecutor to recommend warns for the rest of the israeli Prime Minister netanyahu and Israeli Defense minister gallant and hamas leaders. You have also been a long standing champion of the u. N. System and other international organizations. The United States has supported icc investigations of russian crimes in ukraine and crimes committed in sudan and Central African republic. I want to ask you, do you believe that independence of that International Criminal court should be respected . I have to tell you the decision the prosecutor made is both incredibly wrongheaded and in my judgment undermines the credibility of the court. You are right that we sought to find ways to work with the court, supported the efforts, including ukraine, sudan, other places. But to have gone forward with these warrants, the requests, to do it in the way it was done, first of all, the court itself, i had a long conversation you believe the court should maintain its independence . I think it should maintain its independence but act pursuant to its own mandate and chart and what is clear from the creation of the court is it is supposed to be a court of last resort to act were other countries cannot or will not. I think you will put out a strong statement. Israel has ongoing investigations of itself and it has demonstrated time and time again it will investigate alleged violations of the law. At the same time, secretary, let me ask you, you would agree there should not be intimidation or coercion of the icc . Not question of intimidating old or coercing but seeing a wrongheaded decision. This court will have to exist well beyond what is going on now, there will be other issues that takes up with other nations in the future. It will have to determine what it does and where it goes but in this instance, not only was it wrongheaded that there was a shameful equivalence. Let me ask you, as you know there previous admission try to coerce the icc by imposing sentence on it then prosecutor and staff. In april 2021, you rescinded dissensions and said that, quote, concerns about the cases would be better addressed with all stakeholders with the icc process rather than the imposition of sanctions. You continue to oppose sanctions on the icc as you did three years ago . When we lifted those sanctions, first and foremost to make sure we can do every thing possible to protect on Service Members including those that served in afghanistan and also to see if we could find a basis for supporting the courts efforts in critical places and we were able to do that. But the actions taken really call into question whether that is possible and certainly not possible in this instance. Let me get you one more question, last week israeli minister of israeli, no humanitarian aid should be provided to gaza until all hostages are returned. If they want food for the children of gaza, they should return the hostages. I fully believe the hamas kidnapping of children was a war crime and have said to repeatedly and publicly. They should be unconditionally returned to their families. I also believe withholding food from children cannot be the way to achieve that goal. Would you agree with that . I fully and absolutely agree, we are working every single day to make sure the children who so desperately need the food and assistance, the mothers, the fathers, everyone gets it. Holding anyone hostage in terms of food aid in the world is wrong. To the senior role of israeli ministers expressing these views, these are people very high up in the Prime Minister travis cabinet, can you categorically say relative authorities in the Israeli Government are not restricting humanitarian assistance to reach gaza . That is not the policy, as i said repeatedly. We have seen over seven or eight months you are a butcher im not resisting. Stand up to genocide and war. The meeting will suspend well Capitol Police restore order. Mr. Secretary, you can continue. Thank you. We are determined to do Everything Possible to make sure the people that desperately need this aid get that age. When it comes to the policies of the government, we are focused on those. When individuals make these statements, we have condemned them. Im out of time, i want to say again, thank you for the work and the hours and everything youre doing. The meeting will suspend, will the cabinet please restore order . The meeting will suspend. The gentleman yields, the chair recognizes ms. Wagner. I thank the chairman and i thank you, secretary blinken for your service i know it is tough times for all of us. Serve, this administration is waffling. First in afghanistan and today, shockingly to meet, in israel, has created instability on a massive scale. Secretary blinken, the world, as we have all discussed here, is on fire and conflicts have engulfed europe and the middle east, emboldening every single dictator from putin to president xi to alchemy, to attack u. S. Allies and interests. The Administration Decision to withhold weapons sales and deliveries to israel during a time of war, sir and just weeks after iran launched unprecedented missiles, upwards of 350 cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, drones, attacked on israel directly from iranian soil, is nothing less than a betrayal of our allies. It is Foreign Policy malpractice and i guarantee you iran and russia and china are watching the United States turn its back on its most important middle eastern ally. Secretary blinken, on may 7th, i sent you a letter asking for a full accounting of the weapon sales and deliveries to israel, the administration is delaying. I want to focus right now, very specifically, sir, in particular on the delay of the sale of 6500 j dams, and sure youre familiar, the high position gps oriented, the least amount of Collateral Damage in an area, we have sent out tons of them to israel and everywhere else, they happen to be made in the st. Louis metropolitan area, in st. Louis, my district. I have not received a response to the letter, let me ask you why this . Why has the administration failed to move forward with the notification process for the sale of 6500 jdam to israel and when will they do the process . I will respond to your question directly, first, when iran launched that unprecedented attack referred to on israel, for the first time ever, the United States actively participated so did jordan and the saudis, we know this, i dont need history, i need answers. Limited time, sir. There are a number of different sale proposals that are in different places at different points in the process. This has been months and months and we sent them in the past. Congress is reviewing jdam sale we sent forward. What issues remain outstanding for the review . We follow the process and have gone out of our way to pre notify congress. What bureau objects . It is not a matter of objecting. Sir, please, it has been months and months we commit to bringing personal engagement to ensure the process for this case moves expeditiously. Will make sure. This one has not. Have any divisions with state conducted Economic Analysis to the measure and impact of potential job losses and furloughs because of your decision to pause this pending arm sale . If not, why not . Do you know what, sir, my constituents in st. Louis greater metropolitan area, this whole region relies on these jobs to pay for mortgages, car payments, the day care cost and they can afford to lose their jobs to support this partisan stall tactic. They are sitting in a warehouse, 6500 of them to there is no pause. As i said in many cases, including this one, we have previewed with congress, which we are not obligated to do, sales that we were contemplating. You have not come to us to tell us is, we read about this in the wall street journal and cnn. Armed sales to trusted partners like israel, taiwan, and nato allies are critical component of our National Security. Are you concerned delaying sales to israel will diminish our credibility as the arsenal of democracy . Again, we are following the process. I invite you to look the process is taking to don long, theyve been sitting there for months and no one is explaining what is holding them up but you all. They are signed off on, the United States, sir, has obligations to our friends and allies including israel. Our unshakable commitment to israels security is clearly laid out in the 2016 m. O. You, congress has fully funded every year since it was signed. President biden was the one when we honor our obligation, the world is a safer place. When the United States fails to keep its promises and commitment to the u. S. Failing to keep his promise to israel, we are telling our enemies that we are unreliable and irresolute partners, that is incredibly damaging to Global Security and the Administration Needs to right the ship and fully restore u. S. Security assistance to israel. My time has expired and i yield back. The chair recognizes ms. Titus. Thank you, mr. Chairman and mr. Secretary. As you know, i represent las vegas and we have an economy that is uniquely dependent on tourism. Last year, we had 359,000 jobs in tourism, 20 million in wages, almost 80 million in Overall Economic input. But the excessive wait times for visas are really hurting communities like mine, the different u. S. Consular post around the world. To put this into perspective, the world cup is coming to the americas in 2026. It is expected to attract 8 Million International visitors, some that we think will come to las vegas from southern california. Tickets go on sale december 2025 in many countries, the wait time for getting a visa make it already too late. In mumbai, the next available interview is october 2025, two months before tickets go on sale in bogota, february 2026, nearly two months after they go on sale. In mexico city, it is already too late, available interview is august 2026, which is a month after the world cup is over. I know yall have been making progress lowering wait times, you have expanded interview Waiver Authority but what about the people who have not been here before . I think this problem is not only hurting us economically, it is part of our soft power and cultural diplomacy. Could you talk a little bit about how we can address this problem, if you need additional resources, but the situation is . I very much agree with you, we are intensely focused on the sun fy 23, we issued more nonimmigrant visas by over 20 then we did before the pandemic, which is when we started to have real challenges with visas outside of the country, passports inside the country and we have reduced interview times, the wait times back to prepandemic levels in every category except one and the one is first time visitors to the United States from non visa waiver countries so that is what we are intensely focused on now making sure the wait times come down along with every other wait time. The wait times that have come down, to prepandemic levels include the categories most impactful on the United States economy, students, temporary workers, maritime, et cetera. The focus is making sure those coming for the first and not coming from a visa waiver country that those times come down. Are you keeping in mind the world cup is coming rapidly . Very much so. We appreciate that area thank you very much. Global engagement center, republicans are confused about what that does or maybe more importantly, what it doesnt do. That has been made manifest in this flawed socalled investigation they are conduct income would you talk about that National Security consequences of failing to reauthorize the gec . Thank you. As i mentioned, the only part of the United States government singularly dedicated to directing and coordinating our efforts to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation abroad. I think if it were to be terminated, the sunset was allowed to happen without being reauthorized, we would have policy and operational incoherence, degraded public response to information manipulation by china, by russia, iran, other foreign actors and growing number of allies who rely on the gec to help them develop the tools to expose and deal with men misinformation. Also let down, we have seen time and again the effectiveness of this organization exposing that disinformation in other parts of the world. Could you give us an example so it is really clear what the gec does . For example, we have seen russian websites that were producing and disseminating disinformation, misinformation in the western hemisphere, in africa, they were exposed and removed. We reveal the campaign by russia targeting u. S. And western Health Initiatives in africa trying to undermine the credibility of those initiatives. They were exposed and we were able to do with that. We revealed a campaign to launder criminal disinformation to local media in the western hemisphere, trying to gin up arguments against ukraine, against nato in our own hemisphere exposed and we were able to more effectively deal with that. Similarly with china. We have seen chinese disinformation in their countries about elections, we have done opensource mapping through the gec of their efforts to use surveillance and Data Collection which we made available to people. A whole variety of ways, we have been able to not only expose this, but also working with countries, we now have 25 countries that use the gec platform. Hundreds of users to not only expose but also help develop the tools themselves to take action to remove and deal with misinformation. I want to emphasize it has nothing to do with the United States. Time has expired. Im sorry, you took a little more time. This country it is entirely about misinformation and disinformation abroad being perpetrated by adversaries. The gentle lady time has expired. The chair recognizes the gentleman from florida, mr. Mast for five minutes. I want to talk about spending, my colleague brought up the Global Engagement center, gec or state officially, or usaid or u. S. Agency for global media, the fact of the matter is, you guys put out solicitations, grants, sub grants to that agencies to the entities that get grants, ngos, you name it, dollars spread across the globe. This is the statement i believe should be a statement of policy, bipartisan late, between republicans, democrats in the house, those in the senate, until state, u. S. Aid, all of those agencies start having us notice of every one of those grants, sub grants to solicitations, start giving us notice of everything the one of them, we should not be giving you one more dollar. And i think the proof for why that is the case is in how far too many circumstances, youll really have no idea where the money is going. Im not saying it is easy to figure out where it is going in every circumstance but that cant be the situation. I will reference a few different places, we had a hearing a couple hours in this very room with discussing half Million Dollar grant to expand atheism in nepal, it was denied a couple hours until we held up the solicitation for the client and of course it was acknowledged it did take place. We got a call a couple weeks later, by the way, the agency we gave it to, they did not give us all the information on it, it is one example, i will not hash it out, it is one example of you all did not know where the money that you sent out from the u. S. Taxpayer was going. I was reading over the last 24 hours, the special investigation into Afghanistan Reconstruction, the report, looking at the amount of money that has gone to the taliban. It is not a mystery, it is not something to argue about, it is a fact money going directly to the taliban that has gone out through all of these agencies that state works with, specifically 144 partners were referenced in the report. Talks about the 144 partners and the questions are asked, of the partners, only 65 chose to answer to the Inspector General about where the dollars were going, the other 79 didnt even feel like they had to answer questions about where the u. S. Taxpayer dollars were being spent, we thought from the pentagon, the last day on this massive pier that was built, worked on by you all, that none of the aid has yet made it to the people of gaza it is sitting in a warehouse at other places. Again, just to the point there is not nearly enough accountability and we should be receiving every grant, every subgrant, every authority, every solicitation, that should be sent through this body for review, whether classified or unclassified setting. I do have a couple questions on that, i spoke about the 79 grantees in part that did not respond to the sigar report and i questioned them. Since that time, have you frozen Bank Accounts of those 79 entities . Congressman, we looked very hard at the sigar report, it is important to note the money does not go directly to the taliban, go to the u. N. , ngos, dedicated 2 billion. Your literally telling lies to the American People. These state dollars went directly to those that were solicited to do it, these implementing partners, as it is referred to, they paid direct money to the taliban, sometimes they labeled it taxes, sometimes value added taxes, sometimes they labeled it a host of Different Things but do not pretend that money did not go directly to the telegram. Did not go to the taliban. If youll give me one chance to lay this out very quickly. No, it went. Anybody can go out and read the sigar report. I invite them to do that. No, not looking for to filibuster the time for this. Have you frozen any of the Bank Accounts of the 79 entities that just chose to say, ticked off america, we dont feel like answering your questions. We just got the report and will work on any consequences that need to follow. No, nothing frozen yet. Any shuttered offices or de registration from lists of partners youre working with . Working with partners a few days ago, looking at it, working at it, to see what steps need to be taken to deal with it. Do look at that and work on that. One question, i will read a statement from the sigar , they asked this question to affirm that accuracy and completeness of respondent, requested to all implemented partners, responses were not altered and attempts were not made to influence the implementing partners and state refuse to answer, if that was the case, would you answer that . Uncertain not aware of that, im happy to look into it. Thank you. Time has expired. The chair recognizes the gentleman from minnesota, mr. Phillips for five minutes. Thank you very much, madam chair and mr. Secretary to let me start by defending you, the mud overcoming majority of us, americans, jews, muslims, christians, agnostics around the world, even israelis and palestinians, we are all disgusted. We all want peace, we dont want war, we want prosperity, not misery. To accuse any of us, including you of being butchers or ignorant is shameful. I want to remind those protesting, you have that right because this is america. But you cant make peace with terrorists. We probably cant make peace as long as Benjamin Netanyahu is the Prime Minister of israel. I think those two things can be true at once. I want to remind everyone here we are in this business to make peace, not war which is what i want to focus on. Not bombs but peace. And to say too, one child being murdered is too many, whether that is a school in the United States because of sickening gun violence, terrorist attack in tel aviv, or a bomb in gaza, one is too many. Mr. Secretary, where do we go from here . A lot of the questions retrospective about holds and bombs and missiles and support, would we go from here . You have one of the hardest jobs in the world, i know where your heart is, what happens next and what do we need to do to finally end this nonsense, identify a path to peace and prosperity and mutual security . I appreciate your comments, i think there is a clear path, the clear path goes with the following, one is there is an extraordinary opportunity for israel to achieve what it has sought from the date of its founding, acceptance by its neighbors. To have normal relations in the region starting with saudi arabia. We are working intensely on that normalization process and very close to being able to complete the agreements necessary between us and saudi arabia. But then it would require israel to make decisions about gaza and in the the conflict there, as well as creating a credible pathway to a palestinian state to if that happens, israel would get what it has longsought, which is acceptance into the region. It will have partners looking out for it, as we thought april 13th and april 14th, when countries in the region, because of United States came to its defense against unprecedented attack by iran, its number one threat and one that we face as well. Iran will be isolated. And of course, the resolution, finally, of the palestinian problem can be achieved in ways that guarantee israels security. The bottom line is, you have roughly 5 million palestinians between the west bank and gaza, roughly 7 million jews in israel, neither is going away. The palestinians are not going anywhere and jews are not going anywhere. There has to be accommodation, absent that accommodation, we are in for endless repeat of this cycle. We will always do everything we can to make sure that israel can defend itself and defend israel as necessary. This path forward is clear, it is compelling, and it answers israels most profound needs. I hope we can move down it. Is it fair to say based on your experience and basic human condition that when humans have something to protect, the act defensively, not offensively . Is one of the path to peace, israelis, americans, palestinians, the arab world should understand and recognize the gulf states, need something to protect . Yes, you something to protect, something you take pride in, of course. On the Ranking Member of the middle east subcommittee with my dear friend, chairman wilson, we travel to the middle east last august, a lot has changed since then, into turkey, saudi arabia, israel, twice. A lot has changed, my question is relative to the p. A. , why is it not more for focal point . We cannot make peace with hamas, what do we need to do, what does israel need to do, what can we do to at least identify potentially principled Leadership Group to represent palestinians at a table knowing absent there is no path . I agree with that and the category you cant be something with nothing. One of the answers to durably getting rid of hamas and making sure it can never come back again is to have a real alternative, one that can advance the interest of the Palestinian People and not destroy them as hamas has done. Quickly, is abu mohsen the man or other able competent next generation . Theres a new Prime Minister, government, program to get reformed to deal with corruption. We have engaged with the new Prime Minister, serious individual who is trying but he also needs the resources necessary so that p. A. Can do deliver more effectively for the people it represents. Thank you. The gentleman has yielded back, recognizing the gentleman from tennessee. Thank you, chair lady and mr. Secretary. What do you think of code pink . I think they are very passionate people who are expressing deep felt feelings, i may disagree with their views, i expect respect the right of people to make known their views, that is what this country is all about. Of course, to do it in a peaceful way, ways that dont disrupt the ability to have a conversation, an engagement. I know that people, for the most part, motivated by deep felt feelings, beliefs, and passions. I disagree with them when im crossing the street and a lady tells me they will kill my wife and daughter. I think yall need to rethink your supporter groups like that. Do you believe afghanistan withdrawal was a success . I believe the president did the right thing ending americas longest war. Staff Sergeant Ryan canal son, his family, a constituent of mine was killed there. We were given testimony, been told many times, the marine sniper had the suicide bomber in his sights twice, we are told leadership in the state department both canceled his ability to take out that suicide bomber and 13 brave americans the state department has nothing to do with that. We dont give orders to the military, i know that you advise the military . We dont advise or give orders. Are you in contact with the military . Yes, absolutely. Should we be paying taxes to the taliban . We dont pay taxes to the taliban, discussing mr. Secretary, the special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction found 10. 9 million of u. S. Taxpayer money paid to the taliban in the form of taxes since the withdrawal of 2021, are you saying they are not telling the truth . What happened was we provided lifesaving desperately needed assistance to ngos and United Nations spent in afghanistan, 2 billion, of that, 10 million or 0. 5 , yes. That may not be a lot to you, i guarantee to the people of tennessee, that is a heck of a lot of money. To brush it off as a minuscule amount shows how out of touch you are with the American People. That was a statement, not a question. You provided aid to gaza which was stolen by hamas. How many terrorist groups are refunding or supplying with aid . None. None . Youre here to tell me none of this money is flowing we are not funding them or supplying them. When it comes to United States assistance in gaza, there were instances hamas seized the assistance but it is not being done, as the israelis, in a systematic way the assistance is diverted. Typically, it is because people are so desperate they self distribute the convoys. Incidents where it is hamas. Self distribute meaning that hamas stops the convoy and desperate people and their leadership in qatar yes, that was israels policy for a decade. Let me ask you this, why are you allowing, i will be a jerk here, reclaim my time, thank you, brother. I appreciate that, why are you allowing iran to sell so much oil . We are working every day to cut that off, we sanctioned 200 entities and individuals. We blocked more than 50 ships, continue to look for others, working to deflag the ships. It is an effort we are making. President biden lessened the sections on iraq in february 2021, since then, estimated iran made additional 100 billion. They were a bankrupt country when you took over and they were literally rolling in it and exporting terrorism. If you look at the economic situation, it is not the fact that we have not lifted a single station against iran and continue to work to cut off the oil to petrochemicals. How can iran be selling more than 1 billion of oil per day than 2020 . They are determined to do whatever they can and we are determined to do what we can to deal with that. I appreciate that but the time for iranian appeasement is over. The policies for the middle east have made our allies in the middle east less safe but maybe u. S. Homeland less safe. Iran is far richer now than it was four years ago, no one can argue with that. You can say, all the statistics dont lie, the statisticians, i believe youre following in their footsteps. You are they are using the money to sponsor terrorism. Look around you, mr. Secretary, your plan is not working. I go back to my original statement about afghanistan, a young man lost his life, every day at my farm i drive out on the street named after the staff sergeant. His life was taken short, 13 brave americans should be here today by failure on youalls part. I yield back, lady chair. The german yield back, the ja morant recognizes the gentleman from virginia, mr. Connolly for five minutes. I like mr. Burchett, i dont think i heard such a radical alternative expression of reality in a long time. It is burchett. With respect to afghanistan, mr. Secretary, remind us who negotiated a deal with the taliban and excluded the Afghan Government from those negotiations and agreed to the release of 5000 taliban prisoners, many of whom took to the battlefield the lead to the fall of kabul . Would you remind us who negotiated that agreement and under his presidency that occurred . The Previous Administration. We have done this before, did the Previous Administration have a name . The Trump Administration area of the Trump Administration, thank you. With respect to gaza, the idea that hamas, i have for hamas, their terrorist organization that committed repugnant acts and atrocities on october 7th. With respect to the blockage of or interference with truckloads of food, fuel, medicine coming into gaza, who has blocked the entrances into gaza, was that hamas or was it the idf . I dont think either has blocked the entrances into gaza. The issue has been making sure there were more entrances so more aid could get in. Mr. Secretary, in the previous 10 days, 350 truckloads were allowed into gaza. That is 35 eight day, they need 600. It is the hamas or Palestinian Authority blocking the trucks, it is somebody else. I will give you an example, the last couple weeks, because of the operations around rafah, the rough gate, one of the essential gates was closed down. We want to see that reopened, as it happens right now, the egyptians are not moving forward, theres not assistance moving forward because they are concerned about the ability to distribute the aid once it is on the other side of the gate because of the combat operations. We are working to find a way to do that. Doing this in a combat environment is incredibly challenging. Yes. Speaking of that, we now have a floating port, that you promised, and it is now up and operable. But it was reported none of the food that was offloaded has been distributed to the palestinians in need. Can you enlighten us as to why not and what are we doing to correct that . Two things, that port designed to be a complement to, not substitute for land axis points. New and in the north, the critical ones in the south but they have been challenged by the recent operations. When it comes to the port, we began to move things through the dock, just a few days ago. There was initial attempt to deliver some of the things that had been coming through the port, trucks went out, as i mentioned in another conversation, desperate people went at the trucks in effort to get at the food before it could get to where it was supposed to go in order to be distributed. This is one of the reasons why it is so imperative that we search assistance because when people are so desperate, they believe that their only chance to get some food, maybe to go at that one truck that they see, that is what they will do. If you get a lot of assistance in, but dont have that worry anymore. Either way, theres a diaper at the assistance, steal it and resell it, that will not be a profitable business because the prices will come down if more assistances in. For the record, mr. Secretary, how would you. Dress communications between your office and the white house and the Israeli Government with respect to rafah and with respect to humanitarian aid . Virtually daily is how i would describe it. How would you characterize those communications . It is ongoing, constant discussion and that has been from day one. Our purpose has been to maximize the assistance that gets to people and thank you and thank you for doing that. Thank you, madam chair. The administration enabled exports to hit a fiveyear high and according to multiple reports the funding ballooned to 350 million in the months leading up to october 7. As the administration do you now admit that reversing the maximum Pressure Campaign and sanction relief was a mistake . There really hasnt been sanctions or the fear we have applied sanctions more than 600 times against iranian entities. Let me read from a report. You said there was no sanctions relief. I am quoting the article. The Biden Administration rescinded former president Donald Trumps restoration of un sanctions on iran. An announcement that could help washington moved towards rejoining the Nuclear Agreement aimed at reining in the nuclear program. Are you suggesting that was false . None of hours have been lifted. When it comes to the nuclear degree met it was one of the worst mistakes. I think that we can all see that a loving iran to renew exports was an error that helped finance this terrible attack against our key ally october 7. Led me new to the prosecutors decision to submit an arrest warrant for israels Prime Minister and defense minister. That is as absurd as it is outrageous. I credit the president for calling it outrageous. The problem that i have is that on may 12 you stated that the civilian casualty numbers reported by hamas make it reasonable to conclude that there are instances where israel has acted in ways that are not consistent with International Humanitarian law. Is that correct . That is what the reporter says. My concern is that your words may very well have contributed to the iccs attempt to prosecute Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Do you not see how your words could very well be used against our own policy . Now because it goes on to say those incidents which they acknowledge is actually investigated. The reason it is so wrong among other things is its engaging in a way it was not supposed to do, which is to be a last resort where another courtroom is not able to investigate itself. Making clear not only are we investigating instances but so is israel. Do you disavow hamass on statistics . Given the totality of the damage that has been done and the fact american weapons have been used its reasonable to assess their instances in which internationally law was not followed and indeed. Basis may byob are all holding arms from our ally that would enable them to finish the job as they did. You didnt put a hold on toms when the idf went into gaza city, correct . Gaza city is a dense urban environment just as you described rafah. What is the difference . We had concerns about the way these munitions have been used. I am concerned about the differences the political environment in the United States has changed. Withholding these weapons from israel is sending a terrible signal to our enemies. Is their view that the only acceptable response is air defense rather than preventing attacks before they happen . Absolutely not. We have a better way, and that is what we have been discussing for many weeks. They are facing threats from other terrorist proxies in the these weapons to deter further attacks. And we need to come to their defense and not accuse them of violating International Law. My time has expired, but i hope the administration will reverse course and get our ally everything they need to finally be radicalize gaza including rafah. Thank you for joining us. I want to go back to 80. The first post colonial black republic and what was once a beacon of selfdetermination and racial equality has unfortunately fallen into tragic times. What was once a proud country with the strength and determination to break free now remains in limbo. Political and economic turmoil compounded by natural disasters. I bring this up because from my constituents and the folks ever present we are seeing does also show up in our backyard. Since 2023 hour and four days have encountered migrants nearly 146,000 times on the borders seeking asylum. Homeland security has had to revise the app to include Haitian Creole since its launch to deal with the volume. I have seen this myself in our visits to the order. With the arrival of the president arriving ahead of their security support force effort can you share how you see that going . What is their mission . And can we support them as we continued to keep our other commitments . I think this is a Vital Mission because they are on a precipice of becoming a failed state. We have a council starting to enable to get them back on the democratic tractor to get to elections in which you will have a properly mandated government that we have seen the police which is outmanned by these gangs stand up in more effective ways including gaining control of the airport. But this is critical to get back Security Control away from the gangs. The police are trying but need more help. They have volunteered to provide static support to the Haitian National police to counter the gangs and create the conditions for elections and Development Assistance to actually get into haiti. It is focused on police and strengthening and bolstering the capacity to take this on for themselves, but they need some nearterm support. The funding is critical that we play a lead role but we have a number of other countries. Now we really need to make the decision to go forward. We also need some direct assistance that we are prepared to move forward with. We want to ask you about recent reports. Working to expand their operations in haiti. Can you discuss that in this setting . Let me come back to you on that. I have not seen myself reports. I am sure they are looking to take advantage of every spot where they can. We have seen reports of crime syndicates providing automatic weapons to the gangs that are now becoming more malicious in haiti. How can we counteract that and what are we doing to address that . Its critical in other parts of our hemisphere including mexico and we want to make sure that they do not get guns coming from the United States. That is why its important we have better authorities to get guns that are being illegally trafficked including to haiti. The more than challenging situation is the driver. Clearly in our interest to make sure we are doing what we can to give them a better way forward so we do not have that driver. I wanted to make sure that we understand we have a stake in what happens in haiti as well and our efforts benefit us and that this effort deserves our support and that we can do it consistent with our other commitments. Thank you very much for coming to our community today. I want to switch gears to the indo pacific. Last month ccp orchestrated the passage of article 23 legislation in hong kong that is a part of intensifying repression and could be applied outside of his borders at a part of chinas Ongoing Campaign transgenerational regression. Despite the determination and actions taken to impose visa restrictions there have been no hong kong officials sanctions since 2021 and should be noted in 2020 it to the administration only five weeks after the passage of the National Security law to issue sanctions. Article 23 is much worse by all accounts. Could you tell us why they havent sanctioned officials since 2021 despite intensifying repression in the last year . We designated seven officials for the actions that have been taken and we are imposing visa restrictions on hong kong for the actions they have taken to undermine freedom and autonomy. I want you to know that i have introduced hong kong sanctions at least 49 judges and prosecutors and officials playing a role in prosecuting them. If my office transmits a list of these individuals to you can you assure me that you will evaluate whether they can be sanctioned under existing authorities . Yes. I also want to ask if you have any plans to impose targeted sanctions based on article 23 that we talked about. We are looking at taking necessary actions against individuals who are undermining hong kongs basic autonomy and we will continue to do that, but i am happy to look at the list that you have. She was finally sworn in by the state Department Last october, but she was confirmed by the senate and it took months before she was finally sworn in by your department, so while i am pleased she is in the position carrying out the mandates as noted by the legislation that the past i am concerned that the special envoy office is not given the proper attention by the state department leadership. I have also heard concerns from outside stakeholders the office relies on staff that from the korea desk and other offices to carry out its mandates, so can you tell us what you are doing to ensure the special envoy and office in human rights in north korea is given all the tools they need to fulfill that mandate based on the legislation . I think as we speak they are in south korea right now working on this critical portfolio, and i will make sure she continues to have the resources that she needs. And all of our engagements does she have a separate staff dedicated to this . We want to make sure she has what she needs, but of course it would help if we were able to resource our department. And me talk to you about taiwan. A Critical Public Health partner to the u. S. And plays an Important Role in the Global Health community, and a passed legislation signed into law two years ago directing the administration to support taiwans observer status in the World Health Assembly. Convening next weekend as of today taiwan has not been invited to the the observer at the health assembly. What is the status of the state department and her plan to implement this legislation and ensure taiwan has a seat at the table . I fully agree with the legislation. We have been working to achieve results in the World Health Assembly as well as a whole host of others. Why is there still time to invite taiwan . We are going to work on it until the last second necessary. We have been trying to lobby of their countries and we have taken it to beijing directly. The benefits of the expertise and knowledge that taiwan has. Time and time again how reliable they have been i think its critically important that we do more to make sure they have a seat. My time is up. The china recognizes the gentleman from california for five minutes. Thank you. I want to start by talking about action you took that was very commendable. Eliminated the majority of ongoing basis or are eliminated all of them, so i want to say thank you for trusting employees and for taking the courageous action and for your leadership. I would like to ask questions about ukraine. Russia invaded ukraine for the second time in february 2022. You are one of the folks that in my view made a decision to win. You went out and tried to get our power to ukraine. Fighting to give fighter test to ukraine. Unfortunately the pentagon appeared to oppose that. It turned out you were right because now they are giving airpower to ukraine. I would like to know does in your view the pentagon supports ukraine pushing russia back to preinvasion lines of 2022 . Do they support that . Absolutely. The challenge is this, and it goes with every Weapon System that has come up for two years. Is not sufficient to provide an f16 or tank. We have to make sure they have the training they need to operate in the ability to maintain them. When the pentagon is looking at this it wants to make sure we can do it in a good way. There has to be pilots to fly them, so we engaged in a Training Program with other countries to make sure the pilots are there. We cannot look at these decisions just through the prism of and we provide a tank or a plane . We need to know they can be used with the proper training. I agree, but have they started earlier it would be far better. The actual he did not quite say that. They said f16s were unnecessary. I think they were just wrong on that. In terms of not allowing ukraine to strike russia with u. S. Weapons i have heard what other people have asked. I will not ask you to restate what you have already said. I listened carefully to what you said. What i am trying to understand is in the mix of weapons because the United Kingdom ukraine could use uk weapons to strike inside of russia. How much of these weapons are u. S. Supplied or other countries . I think it really depends on the category of weapons. You have to distinguish between munitions and missiles and tanks and armored vehicles. I could get you a breakdown. I want you personalty to get them to do what you did, which is make the decision to win but i would like to ask about an action within the state departments control. Trying to understand the reasons why it hasnt happened yet. Russia has supported terrorist groups , and they meet the technical definition. What is their policy reason or reasons or why that designation has not happened . First we have unprecedented and sanctions and you name it on rush up your war crimes and atrocities. I think that a friend there committed war crimes and atrocities is the most accurate one and using the authorities we have in those areas we think is most appropriate. Aggression is not terrorism. These are distinct things. The concern i think besides we do not think that it fits what russia is doing is it does run the risk of undercutting some of the multilateral cooperation we have had on sanctions. It to be extremely difficult to reverse if we ever got to a place they were peace negotiations and that was something you wanted to put in place to get over the goal line. The other real problem is it could interfere with the efforts we are making to make sure russia pays for the terrible damage on ukraine including the use of its sovereign assets because those could be tied up in litigation if we have a statesponsored terrorist designation. There are a number of practical reasons why we do not think its the best way to go forward pubic area the necessary authorities and we are using them. And we do not want to have unintended consequences. Effects that could make things more complicated. Thank you. I yield back. The chair now recognizes the lady from florida for five minutes. Thank you. Wonderful to have you here. What a Great Republic we have. The foreign minister of the most important country in the world. You have to come to talk to the representatives of the people and have to go through this process. I am sure that is agony for you, but with my constituents in miami we would love to have the foreign minister of venezuela or cuba or nicaragua in front of us sitting in the same chair you are, so thank you for being here. I just mentioned cuba. A week ago your state Department Took you about of a semi blacklist for countries that support terrorism. On monday cuban officials were at the Miami International airport that i represent reviewing how we do counterterrorism. Those facts are a clear indication that you have all the intentions in the world to take you bet out of the list of terrorist countries even though they support hamas and harbors american fugitives. Have you begun the sixmonth process required by the expert controlled law to remove the island from the list . First just to clear up a couple of things. We have an animal requirement to review the not fully cooperating this. We did that and there were circumstances including columbia was no longer seeking extradition of the members in cuba. That is an excuse. They have fugitives from the United States. They support hamas. They do. Will you take them off the main black list, which is the terror business for sponsor terrorism . In the near term there is no intention to do that. You have to review until july 21 according to the law. Are you planning to do that . I do not see anything happening before then. Will you commit like last year not to remove it this time from now until november election time . Right now all i can tell you is that right now in terms of july that isnt happening. Columbia. The person threaten to change the constitution without going through the colombian congress. Similar to 25 years ago. Last month he broke relations with israel, and you know that President Biden love that president. My question to you is this. If he dares to break the colombian constitution just like chavez did do you think that President Biden will change the perception he has on him . I cannot comment on President Bidens. Will you change what you think of columbia . Lets see what actions are taken. We do with any country. The president has said that he is going to change the constitution. He said it himself. If he were to take the action of changing the constitution and becoming another chaz as. I am not expert enough in column b as constitution or laws to know what he is contemplating. Staying in power for ever and ever. Presumably that would be something we would object to. By your answer you are giving him a green light to do that. At least send a message so they know we know what they are doing. I celine dion in the white house for having reimposed Oil Sanctions on the regime. We both want democracy in venezuela. What can we do from this chair to help you . I think actually doing what you have been doing, which is to keep the pressure on to make clear that the things that venezuela and others may want they cannot and he cannot achieve absent moving down the path to free and Fair Elections in doing what is necessary. The platform reached an agreement. We have looked at to see whether that is being implemented and in critical aspects it is not. Lets go to argentina. The most for american president in the history of argentina. Supports your agenda. Ukraine and israel and anti china. Open markets. I sent a letter asking for argentina to be asked to be put into it. Would you consider putting them in the signature economic plan from latin america . In short, yes. I was in president a couple of months ago. I am happy to look at your letter and consider that. Thank you for testifying today. I first want to talk about sedan where conditions are getting more horrific by the day. They continue to encircle were over 1. 8 million displaced people are trapped and what has been described as torture on earth and at risk of famine. The uae has continued to fuel goodbye providing support despite repeating urgings from the Biden Administration including your own treaties. Its time in my opinion to take stronger action, which is what i am introducing legislation to prohibit the transfer of arms to the uae until the president can certify to congress theyre no longer transferring arms to the rss. I want to return to israel. The attack october 7 was disposable and inexcusable. I have also been horrified by the israeli militarys response which has killed over 30,000 palestinians. Allies for President Bidens paws on the bomb sales i was disappointed by a report that data compelling evidence for violations but stop short of making a conclusive determination. We are seeing in recent reporting the idf has intensified airstrikes and appoint Ground Troops and close the border crossing. Reporting over 500 civilians of already been killed in 450,000 palestinians displaced. President biden and rightly drew a red line for support on a fullscale invasion but its unclear to the public the difference between what we are seeing now and what would be crossing the line. And splitting the difference to us please . What we are seeing now is in operation designed to take control of the border area or parts between egypt and gaza in order that the smuggling tunnels that are there are taken out of action. I understand that objective. At the same time because it is around rafah it has disrupted operations at the crossing, which is critical. Also disrupted operations elsewhere that have resumed pure we are working with israel and egypt right now to try to get rafah up and running again so more can get in. Its more challenging in a combat environment. Thank you for that. I hope we hold that. I am the Ranking Member of the subcommittee. Are frequently travel to the continent and talk about human rights issues, and i have been hearing a lot from our african partners the u. S. Is not consistent in living up to our values and do not feel we are a good partner because they perceive we are now Holding Israel to the same standards we are holding them to. In the report our own community assessed israel could do more to avoid civilian harm. Could you talk about specifically what we are urging israel to do to mitigate and avoid civilian harm that they are already doing . There are very detailed processes and procedures and lawyers who engage in the targeting decisions. We have looked at it over many months at the details of what on paper they are doing, but you see a gap between the stated intent of the policy and the actual results. Is also a fact that is not always recognized they are dealing in an environment and terrain that is almost unique because you have an enemy that hides behind and underneath civilians and apartment buildings and hospitals and schools, and that makes what they are doing incredibly challenging. From our perspective we think its imperative a priority be placed on civilian protection and making every possible effort to try to ensure even in that usually challenging environment civilians are not harmed and relatedly get the assistance they need to survive. I would hope the department is leveraging the intel communitys assessment to urge them to do more because not only human lives about our International Reputation depends on it. And the reporter said they did not reach an affirmative conclusion about their use of weapons because the failure to share complete information. How are we addressing this lack of transparency . One goes to the use of any weapons provided by the United States. There is the report noted. Its reasonable to assess that in some instances they acted in ways that were inconsistent with humanitarian law. Those are all under investigation bios and also critically by israel itself. It has been important to get as much cooperation as possible on getting more access. Thank you. Appreciate you being here. I do have to express some deep concerns. You and the administration are Holding Ministers hostage from our ally and what many believe is an effort to score a few political points in swing states like mine back home. Meanwhile as an actual hostages being held some of them are american and documented to be americans that would be perceived by many of us as a complete slap in the face to those hostages who are yet being left behind. Meanwhile oil profits and iran have skyrocketed under your and the biden tenure due to a lacks of sanctions enforcement. I sit on the Financial Services committee. I am a part of those sanctions. In 2020 iran was exporting 400,000 Barrels Per Day of oil. 2023 that has reached 2 Million Barrels per day. What has changed is they decided to flip the switch under the Biden Administration is something that many of us have been concerned about and expressing it. Meanwhile we have a situation where the president went down in a Helicopter Crash in one of your deputies at the un and your self expressed condolences over this. Is the world a safer place because of your efforts to offer perspective to a leader who murdered and exterminated thousands of iranians has been behind every proxy war that we have been involved in, which is responsible for american deaths. How is that bringing any respect or advancing your agenda on the world stage . Our views of the horrific actions he took as a judge and a president and repressing his own people and policies towards iran including working to impose sanctions on over 600 individual entities. 200 and dissector. None of that has changed or will change. Why would he offer condolences to somebody who has murdered our troops . When the leader of another country dies in the past this has often been the case, but it does not go to our feelings about that person. I wonder what my friend from miami would think about offering condolences to those leaders we were just talking about. In the meantime i introduced a resolution condemning this decision by your department and urge all of my colleagues to sign on to that. I will transition to nato for a couple of minutes. Last week i did something that is rarely done in the u. S. Congress. I united foreign diplomats and a few members of the committee or in a bit of an upper when i dared to mentor in certain countries are not pulling their weight by meeting the 2 defense spending benchmark in the nato alliance. It was certainly i think fair game on my end. Seemed unexpected from them especially when we see some countries heading in the wrong direction that the defense spending that are really going backwards in this who do you believe your efforts will get the remaining eight nations across the 2 threshold by the agreedupon 2024 timeline . I think by the end of the year we will probably have 20 or 21 of the 32 allies across the threshold. The others it should have clear plans to achieve that. What about the nations offering no real timetable and instead of going backwards . We want to see them offer a timetable. How are you getting those conversations moving . We are engaged with them on a constant basis to get that done but we have made significant progress. We want to make sure we have clear plans from the others to do it. Im still my hearing what you are doing to make sure those plans are being made are you demanding or requesting those plans . We are certainly requesting. Will you share that . When we get information that is Public Information we will make it known. America is not safer abroad right now whether it is the southern border or the middle east. We have to make sure we have a strong front on that. And with that i yield back. Thank you for your dedicated service to our country and your tireless efforts to find a path forward in the middle east. What in the world happened with the ceasefire negotiations between israel and hamas in egypt. First we were told they put a very good offer on the table with the approval of the u. S. Next they claim they accepted that offer and blamed israel for walking away. And then we recently met with the egyptian ambassador who blamed the failure of the talks on israel. Today we heard reports the egyptians actually changed the terms of the offer before relaying that offer to hamas for we have fostered families desperate to see their loved ones and no proof of life for the majority of hostages. American families desperate for an agreement that would release their loved ones. Now we learn that egypt who is a country be given millions of dollars every year failed to honestly convey a good cease fire offer and then put the blame on israel when the talks failed. What is really going on . First of all, like you, i have met with many of the hostage families repeatedly and i am determined to be continue to do everything we can to get them home with their loved ones. I know these people, and it is personal. Beyond about what i can tell you is this. Both egypt and qatar have been involved in the efforts to get a ceasefire hostage agreement. The last proposal was before. It was a strong proposal by israel. Hamas said they agreed, but hamas made changes to the agreement that were unacceptable. The egyptians did not make changes to the agreement . All i can tell you is they have been an important partner in this effort and we are continuing to try to get this agreement. I think it is the fastest way to get people home and to change the equation. But the is rives did not walk away . No. And hamas is responsible again. It should not have taken a negotiation to get to this point. They should have given up hostages and put down their weapons and surrendered and all of this would have been over on day one. I heard the u. S. Wants to ensure october 7 never happens again and we will do everything necessary to make sure israel can defend itself. That is the term i keep hearing over and over. Do you consider that to be a defensive work . Yes in the sense in is to ensure hamas cannot do what they did october 7 again. Do you consider their fight against hezbollah to be defensive . In terms of making sure people have been forced from their homes and their lost sovereignty over their own territory because theyre forced from their homes dealing with that threat is important. In contrast to my colleague i was surprised the report clearly stated there was no direct evidence israel has violated International Law and yet the report suggests the high number of casualties reported by hamas are akin to the circumstantial evidence of violations and i was surprised by that because our own military experts have described gaza as the most difficult battle space and he military has faced in modern warfare. Isnt it reasonable to assume that is a significant factor for the high level of casualties . Certainly. The report makes that very clear. We also have to hold ourselves to the highest possible standards when it comes to preventing it. There was no clear evidence of violation found. Many of the instances are being reviewed. And by the israelis. I was recently in israel. I visited the site of the hamas massacre at the music festival. Last night i saw the important film created documenting once again the horrific Sexual Violence that was used as a weapon of war against israeli women and girls of all ages. Do you have any reason to doubt that hamas used to Sexual Violence against israelis as a weapon of war . No. What you think so Many International organizations have been so slow to condemn that violence in so many people continue to deny that took place . It is a good question i do not have an answer to. Could it be antisemitism . That is a good question. Thank you. I have a simple question for you. Is the world safer under your tenure . I think the world is an incredibly dangerous place, but we are able to deal with it with our alliances. How is our alliance with our afghan partners . The many that we have brought to the United States since withdrawing from afghanistan. Putin was prevented. Should the invasion have happened . Deterrents failed. We had threatened sanctions and isolation. At the end of the day he still invaded. He did indeed. Has deterrents failed iran supporting terrorism . Unfortunately they have supported terrorism for decades. I have the disastrous withdrawal. The invasion of ukraine. Houthi attacking international shipping. Hostages in gaza. The reemergence now. Increased chinese aggression. And the collapse of our influence in central africa. We get five minutes with the Million People who were present in a Public People and you are going to tell them that with this list they are safer. Lets go down the list. The russian invasion of ukraine. We got the ukrainians what they need to make sure they could not be erased from the map. At some point you have to take a step back and look and say our policies are failing. Deterrence is crumbling. The American People do not feel safer around the world. Let me ask you this. Do you agree with the National Security adviser Jake Sullivan who said publicly at october 2023 the middle east is quieter than it has been for decades. In that moment it was. He stated it again except he stated a few months later i would argue we have not seen the situation as dangerous as the one we are facing across the region. What did he get wrong . First of all, in that moment that it was an accurate statement. Did you have your head in the sand . Literally. To say the region. A braggadocios moment. Pretty amazing when you have to retract your own treaties and Foreign Affairs and change the language after the entire region blows up your bed is a little embarrassing. On the contrary we have seen an effective effort to stop it from spreading. But it is spreading. Tell that to the families. To the iranian government offer condolences to our families on their death . I doubt it. But we offer it to the man behind the murder. Let me ask you one more that is near and dear to my heart. I engaged you privately and publicly. I asked you about a particular siv that is literally hiding day in and day out being hunted by the taliban in. I have gotten no response. That man is being hunted down as we speak who stood and fought with us. And i come back to you on that . Please. Because i am begging for you in public because i am waiting for the moment. More broadly your department has testified their processing 1000 a month. At that rate with the 125,000 we are looking at we are looking at 12 years. Is that acceptable as these people are being hunted down by the taliban . The issued 45,000. Is 12 years acceptable . No. We should be able to do it faster. Of course we want to make sure. I would like to do it tomorrow. It is the ability to get them out. Exhausting their own savings as they receive portions of our aid. For these veteran troops. Still trying to get these people out. What expectation can we give them . We are working every single day to do that. I hope the program gets extended because we desperately need it. Thank you so much for being here. I have a few questions about haydee. The heard a lot of conversation about Holding Back Funds. Partisan stalling tactics. As we see now the u. S. Has pledged over 300 million of which 8 million or 80 million is being repelled by republicans sitting on the committee right now. Its unfortunate i have not heard of anyone actually mentioning what is going on. Over 1. 4 Million People actually facing a famine. Close to 400,000 displaced. Gross acts of violence against people every single day. My question comes down to what is going to be the cause of the impact of the delay of funding to haitis program . The delay of the funding would mean potentially be program cannot go forward. We have a very important opportunity to turn things around by giving the Haitian National police the support they need to fully and finally regain control of the capital city and deal more effectively with the gangs and to allow democracy to move forward and humanitarian assistance in Development Aid to move forward because in the absence of having control over the basic transportation hubs and infrastructure none of that can happen. We have countries that have stood up that are willing to take on the mission in a time limited fashion starting with kenya, and he is here right now. If we do not have the funding we wont be able to support the program. This is not america policing the world because we do not have americans on the ground doing this but we have others that stepped up, but we have to give them the support they need. I spoke to him today and he spoke about kenyas commitment to health in haiti and making sure the canyon forces and other forces have everything they need, which brings me to my next observation. When i speak to the leaders of other countries who have pledged their dollars they are questioning our commitment to haiti who is our ally which is another concern i have. No one on the republican side talked about our commitment and responsibility to haiti which is our backyard and who is actually our ally also and how we are making their actions by Holding Back Funds is actually putting us in a position of weakness. We see this playing out. Have you had concerns from other countries about them releasing the funds . I do not think they turned about parties, but they are concerned with the ability to comport with the funds we committed to the effort because we have a good number of countries who have come forward to make their own pledges. Close to 100 million. If they see we are not moving forward on hours they could pull back on theres. Is it clear what they are asking for . Yes. They would make sure the funds be committed with congress have they made clear what they are looking for before they actually release the funds . I do not want to speak for anyone else, but we have had many briefings and conversations going over the plans. It is totally appropriate for congress to want to make sure it is sees and understands the plans and what the program is, when we have brought for that information. We have had over 80 briefings on the situation and what is going to happen has outlined the safeguards. That sounds right. Do you think that is enough to be competent . I would hope so. Would you have for the real reason they are holding back is because of political gain . I do not want to infer that. I am going to recognize one more member of congress before reresays very briefly be we might be able to get two in and then we will reassess for a few short votes. We can hopefully get back by 5 20. We have 15 or more members that are really waiting a year to talk to you. I am hoping you can accommodate those willing to come back. I want to do everything i can, but as i told the chairman coming in i have a hard stop at 5 30 per whatever we can do. I know you have commitments to vote. Thank you for taking the time to be with us today. During your recent visit to ukraine you said we have not encouraged or enabled strikes out the side ukraine but ultimately ukraine has made decisions for itself about how its going to conduct this war. When i met with president zelenskyy in the capital last year and ukraine earlier this year a couple of weak backs on a bipartisan trip that i led in both instances and throughout this entire war the president has been pushing for longer range attack and for the repo act and every single time the button administration in these instances and many others delayed and did not support those endeavors. I agree with you that they had a right to conduct the war as they see fit. They wont be able to do so if they are worried this administration publicly rebuked them afterwards as you did when ukraine had russian Oil Refineries earlier this year. They must know they support the need to fight this war as they see fit. Will they explicitly allow ukraine to strike targets in russian territory and Russian Airspace . I was just there about 10 days ago. Spent a lot of time with the president and other leaders and i am determined to make sure they have what they need to effectively defend themselves. We have an ongoing conversation about what that requires at any given time. We have today not endorsed or enabled strikes out the side of ukrainian territory. We are always open to conversations to see what they need in the decisions that they make what we can do to some port them throughout this more than two years now. We work to get them what they need and to be effective as possible. This administration has delayed the weapons that the president has needed and timely fashion to actually accomplish the mission of defeating putins invasion of ukraine. I urge you to reverse this dangerous policy. Says fought this war with the gloves off since day one and we cannot continue to tie ukraines hands. Has the administration indicated to israel any limitations on its use of u. S. Origin weapons against hezbollah . They have made it clear they do not want them to decisively win the war against hamas. The question is whether that will be effective. We believe we have a better way to deal with a problem. What is the administrations current policy regarding the acceptable end state that is the evil that is hamas at the end of this war if you do not support that operation . The do not want to see them representing an ongoing threat to israel. The ability to repeat what happened october 7. We are united in the article. The question is how to achieve it in a way that is enduring. By delaying israel the weaponry necessary to defeat the evil threat that is hamas you are hurting the situation and not helping it. I yield back. Thank you. Sides of the border. There are incredible opportunities before us. Mexico recently overtook china to become americas largest trading partner, as congressional leaders worked to bring advanced manufacturing back to the u. S. , latin america becomes all the more critical, particularly, for National Security. Secretary blinken i have a few questions about the outcome of mexican elections and how they might impact the u. S. mexico relationship, and i ask you to keep your answers brief or timeliness. First, a Record Number of migrants crossing the u. S. mexico border has severely strained Arizona State and local resources. We have to reestablish operational control of the southern border and mexico needs to do a lot more to manage u. S. Migration. Mr. Secretary, how does the department intend to work with the new Mexican Government to limit migrants transiting for the country . Im already working intensely but the current government. That will continue with the next government, whatever it is. We have seen a decrease in migrant encounters from mexico since december going down from 11 or 12,000 to 4000 or 5000. We want to do even more. By the way, but bill before congress would be an important step in that direction. We hope that bill gets a hearing on our side of the capital. Fentanyl has devastated our communities, almost all of it produced by mexican drug cartels. In fact, the current president of mexico has repeatedly refused to acknowledge tough diplomacy, brought china back to the negotiating table last year on this critical issue. How will the Department Work with the incoming Mexican Administration to halt the import of chinese precursor chemicals . Again, we are working intensely but the current Mexican Government on that. We have seen increased collaboration, in terms of trying to bust up the enterprises on the mexican side of the border. We have seen enhancements to the border itself, in terms of screening technology, to catch the fentanyl before it gets across the border. We have a whole of government approach. We are not only engaging mexican Law Enforcement authorities, but regulatory and others to make sure that their own comedies are not engaged in the illicit diversion of these chemical precursors. The cooperation has increased significantly, and we want to do more and that will continue. That needs to continue, irrespective of the new government. A secure Global Semiconductor supply chain is essential to the success of domestic investments made under the chips act. I have introduced the bipartisan Semi Conductor supply Chain Security and diversification act to produce an ecosystem in latin america. There are ample opportunities for the United States and other Foreign Companies to near shore up operations in mexico, particularly in the semiconductor supply chain, however, i have heard from ceos of major corporations concerned about the threat of violence and extortion for mexican drug cartels, which president Lopez Obrador has not confronted. How will the state department encourage the new Mexican Administration to counter the drug cartels, and reassure american businesses evaluating the viability of mexico as a near shoring destination . We have made exactly that argument to the current government, which is, there is a tremendous opportunity exactly as you have described, to have mexico be a critical part of the supply chain, but the Business Environment itself, including the regulatory environment, and making sure that the private sector can do what it needs to is critical. Yes, the security environment is critical as well. Water security is critical to the Desert Southwest and mexico has been a key partner on the colorado river. While mexicos recent commitment to Water Conservation is helpful, we simply cannot solve this crisis without a longterm solution that ensures cuts are shared among all basin users, including our friends in mexico. Mr. Secretary, what steps is the u. S. Taking to make sure that mexico will share in the pain and conserve the water necessary to protect the system in the long term . I fully agree with you on that. They are not meeting their water delivery commitments to the United States under the 1944 treaty that we have. Delivering, right now, the amount of water at the five year commitment is way below where it needs to be and its unlikely they can do what they need to do by the end of the five years. We have engaged intensely on this, including recently with president Lopez Obrador. With the foreign minister, i saw her a couple weeks ago on this. The officials, the state officials, we want to see this get done. Its imperative that it happened. Also, i think they have told us that their own elections may be what is an impediment to getting this done to the election is on june 2nd, so lets see where we are after june 2nd. The gentlemans time has expired. I never think as myself or five minutes. Mr. Secretary, do you agree with senator schumers call for regime change in israel . No. Let me say this. Im not sure what call you are referring to. Senator schumer stood on the senate floor, im sure you saw the speech, and demanded regime change in israel. Do you agree with senator schumer . Its not for us to decide who israels government is. That is not what i heard him say. Regardless, its not for us to decide. You agree with nancy pelosi that Prime Minister netanyahu should resign . Again, that is not for us to say. These are decisions for the israelis to make. Do you agree with the Hamas Ministry of death Health Death Toll . We cant estimate the General Number of the dead and wounded and injured. We know the toll is terrible. The israelis acknowledge that themselves. We dont have an actual count . A precise number . No, its almost impossible to get a precise number in the midst of a war. On the decisions the administration has made with respect to providing israel lethal aid, what are you using as a metric to make that determination . We have our evaluations and assessments. They are not simply what the Hamas Ministry is putting out some of our own intelligence, information from a variety of sources. You reject the Hamas Ministry of Health Numbers . In terms of the precision, i cant validate those numbers, but generally speaking, is the position of the state department that they are not accurate . Again, are they accurate to the person . Of course, we cant validate that. Its impossible to do that. The United Nations recently revised down the death toll by almost 50 . Do you believe that to be accurate . Again, without absolute precision, we cannot say. If its 14,000 children or 7000 children, that is still 7000 children too many. Do you blame israel or hamas for that . I believe hamas has created the crossfire that so many of these people are caught up in. You agree that they use their own innocent civilians as human shields . I do, and i believe that israel should maximize every possible effort to protect civilians. Did the state department put out a report that says they are . We put out a report in some detail, including the use of weapons. What did the report find . Is israel using maximum care or no . Based on the totality of damage that has been done, its reasonable to assess that in some instances, israel has acted in ways that are not in accordance with International Law. Those instances are under review and investigation by us, but also by israel. That is an important point as well. It has the ability to self police and we have to hold ourselves, whether its israel, the United States, or any other democracy, to the highest possible standards in war, even when the war was brought to them by a vicious terrorist group, and one that engages in practices like hiding behind civilians. Even there, they and we have an obligation to do Everything Possible to make sure to the best of our abilities that civilians are not harmed. You think they are doing that . I think there is a gap between the intent stated to do that and some of the results we have seen, and we want to make sure the gap is closed. You believe that israel is committing a genocide . No. Why did the state department mourn the death of president raisi . We have offered official condolences in the past when countries lose their leaders. That does not change in any way the fact that mr. Raisi horrifically repressed his own people as a judge, and as president of the country. You agree iran is the greatest state sponsor of terror . It is not number one, but near the top of the list. Do you agree that they fund hamas with about 93 of the budget . Hamas has been significantly funded by iran. Of course, hamas has also been funded by other sources. Do you believe that iran and its proxies, hamas, want to wipe israel off the face of the earth . I do. That is their stated goal. If you know that is their stated goal, number one, why would we recognize the death of the butcher of tehran . Number two, why are you withholding weapons and making it harder for israel to defend itself, knowing full well, as you just testified, that iran and hamas want to wipe israel off the face of the earth . We have done everything we can do to make sure that israel has the means to deal effectively with hamas, including making sure october 7th never happens again. The question is, what is the best way to get an enduring resolution to the problem of hamas . The best way to do it is for hamas to surrender and release the hostages, is it not . Yes, absolutely. This administration has been an abject disaster when it comes to iran. Since joe biden took office, Iranian Petroleum sales are up 88 billion. Thats why i fought my bill. Are you prepared to enact these into law as part of the administration . What steps have been taken since his bill was passed weeks ago to start in acting enacting the ship act . More than 50 ships, we will continue to identify others. We are working to deflect ships so that they cant move and get services from port to port to get out the fleet that is conducting the Illicit Trade in oil and petrochemical products. You believe that china is the biggest purchaser . China is at the top of the list or near it. Thank you, my time has expired. I now recognize madeline dean for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and secretary blinken, for years of faithful service, for your testimony, and your budget request that i support. I wanted to start with ukraine. So much of the focus has been on the needs of today. What does ukraine need today . I was just there in february with other members, but i want to clear up something by way of a simple comparison. There has been a lot of criticism today about israel and the pause by the administration on the single shipment, 1800 2000 pound bombs. Does that pause put israel at any risk of not being able to defend itself . A being short of the military equipment it requires . No, it does not. Not at all . Not all. Israel has what it needs . Yes. I went to ukraine in february. Right after we passed the supplemental, i could see in president zelenskyys eyes, in the generals and military members eyes, that look of, we are off the edge of desperation. Did the majority six month waiting to get the supplemental across, did that jeopardize ukraines ability to defend itself . I think, for whatever the reason, the six month delay in getting the supplemental did have real consequences on the battlefield in terms of creating an environment in which russia could do more damage to ukraine. Happily, the supplemental is there. It was approved on an overwhelming bipartisan basis. Thats a very good thing and we are working every single day to move that assistance out to the ukrainians that need it. Absolutely, and i thank you for your leadership, and chairman mccall for his leadership in pushing the supplemental across. I would like to look to the future. You from day one, have said, for example, in ukraine, what does the future look like in rebuilding . President zelenskyy in our meeting thank us for the repo act, for the freezing of russian assets with the future of using those assets for rebuilding. We met with the american chamber. They see the extraordinary need and opportunity. You said in your remarks in kyiv last week, there is one more crucial step we can take, making russia pay for ukraines recovery and reconstruction. What Vladimir Putin destroyed, russia must rebuild. Its what International Law demands. Its what the ukrainian people demand. Our congress has given us the power to seize russian assets in the United States. We intend to use it. What steps has the state of armor taken toward making russia pay for reconstruction in ukraine . What plans does state have to use those authorities granted to it . How are you working with partner nations to unlock more money, and the president spoke directly about this, we are a model in use of the repo act, in that we have five or 6 billion, whereas europe is sitting on hundreds of billions. First of all, i applaud the repo act and apply the leadership in getting that done. Second, we have been using that and using our diplomacy to rally other countries, particularly, the countries where these assets are located. They are the ones that ultimately have to agree to this to enable their use. We have had one important step forward a couple of days ago. The European Union has agreed that the interest generated by the sovereign assets in europe can be used and given to ukraine to support and rebuild, but what we would like to see happen now is to find a way to, in one way or another, in effect, use the principal. One of the things were looking at, and i hope by the g7 meeting that the president will attend, that we can make progress on that. It is to use the principal as collateral for a loan, a bond that would generate significant money now for ukraine, to help you get started on the rebuild. I hope so also. The principal must be used. Russia must pay for the rebuilding of ukraine. And, i know my colleague ms. Manning asked you about the hostages. I wear this, it was given to me by a hostage family. We all have met with many of the hostage families. I think of them every single day. I cant understand how the world has not come around and said, hamas, you must release all of the hostages, living and dead. What is the clearest statement of where we stand with the hostage negotiations now . Like you, i am determined every single day to get them back home, to get them with their families, and i know the families. I have met with the many to times, as has President Biden. We have come close to reaching agreements that would get a ceasefire in the hostages release, and starts a process that moves towards a more enduring peace for israel. But in the most recent go around on this, hamas did not say yes to what i thought was a very generous and appropriate proposal coming from israel. We continue to be at it. Cia director bill burns, myself, other white house officials working on this, working with qatar and egypt, we have officials talking about this and we will continue to make the hardest possible run at it, but in this moment, unfortunately, we do not have an agreement. I thank you for your work. Godspeed. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, i never recognize myself for five minutes. Mr. Secretary want to pick up where mr. Waltz left off. Im going to focus on different parts of the world. America is less free, more safe, more burdened by debt under your leadership. This is unfortunately, the macro trend since the end of the cold war. We have not managed it well, and part of the reason is, china has responded to the end of the cold war just fine. They are focused on chinas National Security and their managed to be at peace. The United States has focused everywhere else in the world but china. A lot of my other colleagues have addressed this, but i want to focus on our own hemisphere. Do you still believe that the Monroe Doctrine has any relevance for the direction of security in our own hemisphere . I will have to come back to you on that, in terms of refreshing my memory on the details of the Monroe Doctrine. What i can tell you is, two things. In terms of china, we are in a much stronger position. Let me focus on our own hemisphere. Here are the cliffs notes, should we pay more attention to our own hemisphere that other parts of the world . Does the border with the United States and mexico matter . Does the border with guatemala and mexico matter . Does chinas expansion into south america matter to the United States . We used to care when other countries came in to this sphere more than we cared where they went over in their own parts of the world. We have been more focused on this hemisphere than any Previous Administration i can think of, including administrations i have participated in. I will commend you on using fishing rights off of ecuador to push china out of that region. Hey, there has been a win. Maybe not much more than that, but we havent done much to counter chinas influence all over this hemisphere, and notably, with cartels, is there any illicit finance going into mexico . Certainly, yes. What are we doing about it . We are engaged with the mexicans virtually every single have you sanctioned any institutions . We have sanctioned people and we have worked to give mexico the assets and the capacities they need to help take down these cartels, to disrupt the financing. How is that turning out . Are we taking down the cartels . Weve seen significant progress over the last three years. Yes, disrupting the drug supply, seizing more fentanyl the last couple of years. Here is the thing, the cartels under the Trump Administration were trafficking humans across the border. The New York Times said that the Trump Administration was making around 500 million a year. 1. 5 years in, that is at the midway point from a year back, the Biden Administration, they said that the cartels are making over 13 billion a year smuggling people across the border. Is that helping rain in the cartels, what you are doing to stop the cartels . Why wouldnt you reverse the remain in mexico policy . Again, i would recommend to congress the bill that is before it. That does not reverse the policy. That funds more illegals everywhere in the country and put the cap on the future ministries and for getting them out. Let me turn to the influence that is going on in guatemala. You were recently there, and just before your visit, members of the Guatemalan Congress were threatened by our embassy there, that they would lose their u. S. Visas and the kids, who are studying here would lose their visas to study in america, if they did not support removal of guatemalas attorney general. Do you think the United States should be manipulating members of a foreign congress in this matter . Its not a question of manipulating members of a foreign congress. In the recent election in one of mullah, there was a strong attempt made to prevent the democratically elected president from taking office, there was an attempt to disrupt the inauguration of that president , and we have to stand for democracy everywhere, including in guatemala. Is a state Department Opposition to the attorney general related to investigations to determine if the by demonstration is complicit in the trafficking of children into the United States . Nothing to do with that . Correlation, not causation . That is absurd. Good to hear. One question about nato. Nato is front and center for the war in ukraine. Back when cia director burns said this in february 2008, ukrainian entry into nato is the brightest of all redlines for the russian elite, not just putin. In my more than 2. 5 years with key russian players, to putins sharpest liberal critics, i have yet to find anyone who views ukraine and nato as anything other than a direct challenge to russias interest. Todays russia will respond. Do you believe mr. Burns assessment was correct . What year was that . 2008. It may have been at the time. Everything we have seen since from russia and mr. Putin argues in the other direction. It says its really important to them. They, literally, invaded you left afghanistan on august 31st of 2021. On september 1st, you entered into a Strategic Partnership with ukraine to support their membership in nato, and that you continue to escalate and Vladimir Putin invaded. That does not excuse his invasion, but its clearly a redline. I wish i had more time. I give my time back and now recognize the gentleman, mr. Costa, for five minutes. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. I dont want to retread ground we have already covered, although, i do find it somewhat hypocritical to be monday morning quarterbacking our situation in ukraine, when in fact, a majority of our colleagues on the other side delayed for five months that assistance that ukraine could have used at the time that wouldve prevented the current offensive that we see from russia. Since you just came back from ukraine, i would like you to highlight in the next six months, i think, we have done, to be fair, micromanaging in the west wing that was unnecessary. We pushed a lot of things, whether they be the f16s, only to see the administration finally agree, but months later. We cant continue that. What is your assessment of what we will be able to do in the next six months, in terms of f 16 pilots the most recent request today by president zelenskyy to move this in an expeditious way. Thank you. All along, we have been working to make sure that the ukrainians have what they need when they need it and can use it effectively. The challenge with any given weapons system is not only that they get the weapons, but they have people trained that know how to use it, that they have the ability to maintain it. The ukrainians are macgyver. Lets be clear about that. They are, but we want to make sure they have the training to do that. They are there and are having an effect. In terms of the south offense , its nonsense to believe they are attacking from russian soil, and that we can prevent that, in terms of defensive means to protect these people. Putin is a war criminal. Hes bombing hospital, hospitals, kidnapping children. We have to allow the ukrainians to defend themselves. Again, ukraine is going to make the decisions it needs to make to defend themselves. I want to make sure they have everything they need to do that. The selfdefense protection for cities like kharkiv and odessa, batteries arrived that have been identified. Are we doing everything we can to provide them with that support . Im looking under every couch cushion to help find patriot systems, other air Defense Systems to get to the ukrainians, and we continue to do that every day. We need more air defense. There is no question about that. I want to continue to work on that effort. Let me move to another part of the neighborhood. Armenia. What azerbaijan has done is unconscionable with weve increased the humanitarian assistance to 65 million, but i think that armenia has requested another 200 million in assistance, and the congressional armenian caucus has sent you a letter to that effect. Where are we on . We are looking at a series of requests from armenia to see what we can do to strengthen even more our support and cooperation with armenia. I met with the Prime Minister just a few weeks ago in brussels, with the head of the european commission. Precisely, to look at what more we and the eu can do to support armenia and we will be moving forward on a number of different areas. The Prime Minister has done an extra ordinary job leading his country in very difficult times. I dont think we have used our leverage with azerbaijan. When they violated so many of their agreements with armenia. I think it is reprehensible what azerbaijan has done. I think the best thing that can happen is, they have made progress, armenia and azerbaijan on a peace agreement. If that agreement can be reached, i think that is the thing that stands, mr. Secretary, you and i differ on this. I dont trust azerbaijan. Is someone once said, trust, but verify. Let me close. I think in terms of americas challenges that we face in the world, this is a seminal moment we are living in in world history. It has been for the last several years. The decisions that we make today , historians will look back 20 years from now. Hopefully, we make more good decisions than poor decisions. What are your priorities, in terms of the decisions we are making in the next six months to make sure that we make more good ones than poor ones during this moment with the challenges of russia and china and this difficult world were living in . We want to make sure that we can continue what is been very successful, in terms of dealing with the challenges both by china, and that is making the necessary investments in ourselves, aligning even more closely with allies and partners, because the combined weight that we bring to dealing with challenges when we are together is much greater than any one of us doing it alone. We need to continue doing that. We need to continue the support for ukraine so we can deal effectively with the aggression, from russia, as well as set ukraine up for success, longterm success, to win, and win also means having a successful country, one that is militarily, economically and democratically strong and that can resist further aggression. I might add, we ed to Work Together on a bipartisan fashion. We would welcome that. Thank you. I think the secretary for your valuable testimony and members for your questions. Members of the committee, particularly those who could not stay, may have additional questions for the secretary. We ask you to respond to these in writing. All members may have five days to submit statements, questions, and extraneous materials for the record, subject to the length and limitations. Without objection, the committee stands adjourned. Onday, we show highlights from the evening including the canyon presids arrival. 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