[House Hearing, 114 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
EVEREST TREMBLED: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE NEPAL EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MAY 20, 2015
__________
Serial No. 114-48
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
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U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida BRAD SHERMAN, California
DANA ROHRABACHER, California GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
TED POE, Texas BRIAN HIGGINS, New York
MATT SALMON, Arizona KAREN BASS, California
DARRELL E. ISSA, California WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina ALAN GRAYSON, Florida
MO BROOKS, Alabama AMI BERA, California
PAUL COOK, California ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas GRACE MENG, New York
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
RON DeSANTIS, Florida TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
TED S. YOHO, Florida ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
CURT CLAWSON, Florida BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania
SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee
REID J. RIBBLE, Wisconsin
DAVID A. TROTT, Michigan
LEE M. ZELDIN, New York
DANIEL DONOVAN, New York
Amy Porter, Chief of Staff Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director
Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director
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Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific
MATT SALMON, Arizona Chairman
DANA ROHRABACHER, California BRAD SHERMAN, California
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio AMI BERA, California
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
MO BROOKS, Alabama GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania GRACE MENG, New York
SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee
C O N T E N T S
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Page
WITNESSES
The Honorable Nisha Desai Biswal, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of
South and Central Asian Affairs, U.S. Department of State...... 6
Mr. Thomas H. Staal, Acting Assistant Administrator, Bureau for
Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, U.S. Agency
for International Development.................................. 18
The Honorable Jonathan Stivers, Assistant Administrator, Bureau
for Asia, U.S. Agency for International Development............ 20
Ms. Anne A. Witkowsky, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense,
Stability and Humanitarian Affairs, U.S. Department of Defense. 30
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
The Honorable Nisha Desai Biswal: Prepared statement............. 10
Mr. Thomas H. Staal and the Honorable Jonathan Stivers: Prepared
statement...................................................... 22
Ms. Anne A. Witkowsky: Prepared statement........................ 32
APPENDIX
Hearing notice................................................... 46
Hearing minutes.................................................. 47
The Honorable Gerald E. Connolly, a Representative in Congress
from the Commonwealth of Virginia: Prepared statement.......... 48
EVEREST TREMBLED: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE NEPAL EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE
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WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:30 p.m., in
room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Matt Salmon
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Salmon. As I mentioned during markup, Nepal was hit
with a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake on April 25,
followed by another 7.3 magnitude earthquake on May 12,
claiming the lives of over 8,000 people and leaving millions
affected and at risk.
Some have argued that the disaster in Nepal was partially
mitigated by advanced preparation of USAID and others through
its 60-year presence in Nepal engaging in disaster risk
reduction.
Today, we will discuss the U.S. Government efforts to
alleviate the circumstances of disaster in Nepal. We expect our
distinguished witnesses to highlight successful, effective
preplanning efforts. But I also expect an honest assessment of
the long-term implications and challenges for rebuilding and
protecting vulnerable communities. I would also like to hear
about what we can do to make our foreign aid efforts more
efficient.
The United States has committed nearly $47 million for
response and recovery efforts in Nepal. We are working with a
dozen other nations in cooperation with the United Nations, as
well as thousands of foreign personnel on the ground in Nepal
assisting with our relief projects. Our efforts have been
particularly concentrated on search and rescue, shelter, water,
and sanitation. But we have been involved in nearly every
aspect of the response to some degree.
As far as USAID is concerned, they deployed a Disaster
Assistance Response, or DART team the day of the event, sending
over 120 people, search and rescue dogs to Nepal aboard
military aircraft within hours. The team's urban search and
rescue personnel, some based in nearby Fairfax, Virginia, as
was referenced, spent weeks working miracles, pulling survivors
out of the rubble in Kathmandu and elsewhere, while other DART
personnel investigated the safety of damaged structures.
I look forward to hearing more about their heroic
activities and how preparations such as the DART's readiness
and prestaged supplies helped in Nepal.
The State Department helped to connect thousands of
American citizens with their loved ones in Nepal during the
earthquake. I have also heard that the U.S. bilateral
connections are playing an important role in the crisis
response. Our partner nations in the region are leveraging U.S.
capabilities to help shoulder more of the burden.
I would like Assistant Secretary Biswal to inform the
committee on whether this may be an indication that future
disaster responses in the region might be less reliant on U.S.
agencies.
The Department of Defense supported these efforts by
providing airlift and other support at USAID's request. Though
DOD does not take the lead in comprehensive disaster support
such as this, without their support such efforts would be
impossible.
Our military is also our country's most significant
strategic presence in Asia, and we rely so heavily on their
capabilities both to support our existing partners and to
develop new ones through military cooperation. I look forward
to hearing about the military's engagement during the crisis
and how their support of operations in Nepal will inform their
strategies in the future.
Enduring needs and increased risks for Nepal. Despite these
incredible efforts for our country and many others, the crisis
is far from over in Nepal. The coming months and years will be
the true test of our response capabilities. Monsoon season is
fast approaching. Large numbers of homeless people exposed to
the elements during this time would be a dire enough problem in
and of itself.
The earthquakes have also changed the water tables in
Nepal, reducing water quality, creating large amounts of
displaced earth, and increasing the risk of flooding. Nepal
faces enormous water and sanitation dangers.
Food shortages are also a major concern. I understand the
crisis hit just before the planting season and that there were
efforts to help farmers get their crops in the ground.
Additionally, I am concerned by reports that U.S. food
assistance, including food that has been prepositioned in Sri
Lanka in order to reduce delivery times, will take up to 45
days to arrive in Nepal. I would appreciate a report on this
delay and any idea of Nepal's longer-term food outlook.
These and other challenges will disproportionately affect
the vulnerable populations among Nepal's displaced peoples,
including women and children. Given the history of trafficking-
in-persons issues in Nepal, support of these vulnerable
populations will be of the utmost importance, and I would like
our administration witnesses to discuss how we are working to
ensure their safety.
As we consider these horrific enduring challenges, however,
we should not forget that the response to the Nepal crisis
highlighted just how effective some of our disaster response
mechanisms really are and reduced some of the earthquake's
devastating impact. I have heard that safer building techniques
meant that we suffered zero U.S. Embassy or local personnel
fatalities and that prestaged supplies in Nepal are helping us
get people shelter faster. It is also very exciting to hear
that some of our partner nations are using U.S.-built
capabilities to contribute to that response.
I am interested to hear our witnesses' insight on what this
means regarding the efficacy of these investments in the
region, whether U.S. capacity building in the region is
increasing regional disaster response effectiveness, and how
these type of investments can reduce the cost of disaster
response operations for the United States in the long term.
It is under extremely unfortunate circumstances that we
discuss these efforts, but this is precisely what we have many
of these organizations for. Discussing the challenges we face
in the region is necessary to prepare for future potential
disasters and working toward minimizing the loss of life, as
well as depleting limited resources associated with relief
efforts.
I give my sincere thanks to our colleagues and our
witnesses for joining us in this conversation today. And I
yield to the ranking member, Mr. Connolly.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome to our
panel.
The United States has demonstrated a longstanding
commitment to assistance in disaster readiness in Nepal. For
over 60 years we have had a presence in Nepal in the form of
our bilateral aid program. And we have been focused, as you
indicated, Mr. Chairman, on strengthening the country's
disaster response capabilities for the last two decades.
U.S. efforts include the establishment of a disaster risk
reduction office to coordinate government investments that make
the country more resilient in the face of natural disasters,
implementation of the program for the enhancement of emergency
response to train Nepali first responders and medical
personnel, and publication of a disaster risk reduction
strategic framework for the country.
We obviously will be very interested in hearing how some
things worked and some things didn't in the face of this
natural disaster.
As part of the U.S. response to a 7.8 magnitude earthquake
that occurred on April 25, the U.S. Agency for International
Development Office of Disaster Assistance deployed, as it often
does, a Disaster Assistance Response Team, or DART, that
included elite urban search and rescue teams from my home
county, Fairfax, Virginia, and Los Angeles, California.
Physicians, K-9 handlers, structural engineers, technical
search and rescue specialists, paramedics, and other personnel
volunteer to serve on these teams and deploy abroad on a
moment's notice, and we have done it all over the world for
decades. And it makes one's heart feel better on television
watching the backs saying LA team, Fairfax team, because you
know Americans are putting themselves at risk to try to save
fellow human beings they have never met in a faraway place.
Once in country, the team quickly begins to facilitate
relief efforts. This time, that task was immense. The team
found a dire situation in the region most heavily affected by
the earthquake which killed more than 8,000 people and injured
at least 16,000 more. The seismic impact left over 750,000
homes damaged or destroyed and 1.5 million people displaced,
even without access to clean water.
Team members helped Nepali personnel assess whether
structures were safe to inhabit and provided technical guidance
on how to shore up buildings that needed to reinforced.
Miraculously, the U.S. search and rescue teams also helped to
pull a 15-year-old boy from the rubble of a building 5 days
after the earthquake had struck. Additionally, after
experiencing a 7.3 magnitude aftershock, the team quickly went
back to work and rescued a 41-year-old woman who had been
trapped in a four-story building.
U.S. assistance efforts are not cost-free endeavors,
however, and they certainly are not without risk. Tragically,
six of our marines were killed in a UH Huey helicopter crash
while on a humanitarian mission in response to this earthquake.
The dangerous nature of these deployments on behalf of
vulnerable populations abroad further demonstrates the resolve
of U.S. foreign assistance operations. We should honor the men
and women who stepped forward to put themselves in harm's way
on behalf of this mission.
Disaster response tests the limits of domestic
institutions, as well as international assistance and
cooperation. I certainly look forward to hearing from our
witnesses about the performance of the U.S. team in Nepal,
lessons learned, and how we can further improve our
coordination with Nepal, and prospectively other international
partners, when the need for such disaster relief effort arises
again, as we know inevitably it will.
I welcome recommendations on how we can promote the
democratic transition in Nepal and put a decade of civil war
firmly in the rear-view mirror. It is only through strengthened
governance and civil society institutions that Nepal will be
able to develop fully its own disaster response capabilities,
resilient enough for this disaster-prone region in the world.
And with that, I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Salmon. Thank you.
Does anybody else wish to be recognized?
Mr. Chabot.
Mr. Chabot. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for calling this
important hearing.
The devastating earthquake that hit Nepal on April 25 was
heartbreaking. The incredible loss of life is tragic beyond
words, and the loss of thousands of years of history places an
enormous gap in the historical record of Nepal's people.
Picking up will not be easy, and unfortunately, Nepal will
never be able to get back all that it has lost.
The international response to the quake, however, has been
considerable. And in particular, the U.S. Government's response
efforts from the State Department, USAID, and the Department of
Defense, its immediacy and rapid-fire response made a
difference and saved many lives. You are to be commended and
thanked for your considerable effort there.
The dedicated U.S. team that joined the response effort
deserves our gratitude. As you already mentioned, Mr. Chairman,
and the ranking member mentioned, six of our marines paid the
ultimate price to help the Nepalese people, and they will
forever be missed, and we should remember them.
Three years ago, I happened to visit Nepal, and as soon as
I heard this, I remembered it like it was yesterday: The
Ambassador voicing his concern to us as we drove about the
stone buildings and the brick buildings and the vulnerability
to the quake when the big one hit, which ultimately it would.
The thing that is particularly frightening, is that this
apparently wasn't the big one. There is probably one even
bigger coming. Hopefully, that can be considered in the
efforts, not just the rescue efforts and the recovery effort,
everything that has happened right now, but long-term
preventing more people from losing their lives down the road
and how we can assist in that effort.
So, again, thank all of you for everything you have done to
help.
And thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing.
Yield back.
Mr. Salmon. Ms. Meng, would you like to make an opening
statement?
Ms. Meng. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Sherman,
and our witnesses for being here of course.
New York City is home to thousands of Nepalese Americans,
and we have Nepalese community centers in our districts and
throughout the borough of Queens. So this earthquake has
affected my constituents in a very personal way.
I want to thank all of your departments for the immediate
response to the crisis and your ongoing efforts. In a tragedy
like this one, every minute and every hour is important and can
mean the difference between a life saved and a life lost.
This has been a humanitarian crisis of immense proportions.
As of May 13, the Government of Nepal estimates that more than
8,200 people have been killed and over 17,900 injured. From
what I understand, an earthquake in Nepal was considered one of
the worst-case scenarios as far as potential environmental
disasters in Asia. I would like to hear from you on how your
preparations helped facilitate appropriate aid in this crisis
and what more needs to be done to prepare for future disasters.
Thank you, and I yield back.
Mr. Salmon. Thank you.
Mr. Brooks, did you have an opening statement?
Mr. Brooks. No, sir.
Mr. Salmon. Well, thank you.
We are proud and very appreciative today to speak with a
panel of some of the administration's most knowledgeable and
senior figures handling this crisis. Appearing before the
subcommittee once again is Nisha Biswal--great to see you
again, I am glad to have you here--Assistant Secretary of State
for South and Central Asian Affairs. Assistant Secretary Biswal
has just returned from Nepal. And we are very much looking
forward to hearing about your findings there.
We are also very grateful to hear from Thomas Staal,
USAID's Acting Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for
Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance. Also joining
us, again from USAID, is Jonathan Stivers--great to have you
here again, Jonathan--Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for
Asia. This is Mr. Stivers' third time before the subcommittee.
I am getting to see more of you than my family members. So
it is great. And we are very glad that you keep coming back,
that we haven't scared you away. That is good.
And finally we have Anne Witkowsky.
Did I say that right?
Ms. Witkowsky. Yes, you did.
Mr. Salmon. I hate it when people mispronounce my name, so
I want to make sure I get it right. The Deputy Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Stability and Humanitarian Affairs.
The subcommittee gives sincere thanks to the panel for
their insights this afternoon. And I am going to start with Ms.
Biswal. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE NISHA DESAI BISWAL, ASSISTANT
SECRETARY, BUREAU OF SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIAN AFFAIRS, U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Ms. Biswal. Mr. Chairman, thank you so much for this
important and timely hearing on Nepal. Ranking Member Connolly
and members of the committee, it is tragic that the earthquake
in Nepal is what brings us together here, but I want to thank
you for your very comprehensive and very heartfelt statements
and for the very strong support of the United States Congress
in the relief efforts from the United States and really from
around the world for the people of Nepal at this time.
I am particularly proud to be appearing at this hearing
with my colleagues from USAID and the Department of Defense,
which is a really true indication of the spirit of civil and
military cooperation in the United States when it comes to
issues of humanitarian response.
In the interest of time, and because we have such detailed
expertise at the dais, I want to ask that my full statement be
entered into the record, and I will just summarize a few key
points here.
Mr. Chairman, the outpouring of concern from the U.S.
Congress in the days and weeks following the earthquake, and
the surge in contributions to relief organizations, is a real
testament to the generosity of the American people and a true
indicator of the common values that unite us during difficult
times.
As you noted, the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal took
over 8,600 lives and injured over 17,000 people. Last week, I
traveled to Nepal and witnessed firsthand the devastating
losses suffered by the Nepalese people, but also the triumph of
the human spirit, the resiliency of the affected communities,
and the courage and the commitment of the relief workers as
they all came together to help Nepal recover from this
devastating earthquake. I saw the grit and determination in the
faces of those who had lost their homes and their family
members, but who had not lost their hope.
It was heartbreaking news, as I arrived in Nepal, that the
American UH-1 helicopter had crashed with no survivors. And
that news reached our team in Kathmandu, as we had kept our
search efforts and our hopes alive for 4 days in search of that
helicopter. We salute those brave military professionals,
Americans and Nepalese, who perished in their Nation's service
while helping those in need.
I also want to take a moment to express our extreme
gratitude to the strong support of the Indian and Nepalese
forces who joined us in that extensive search for our missing
helicopter. As General Wissler, the lieutenant general task
force commander of Joint Task Force 505, noted to me, the
Nepalese and Indian forces joined in that search as if it was
one of their own that had gone missing.
The U.S. civilian responders, led by the AID DART team and
the Embassy team, and our search and rescue teams from Fairfax
and Los Angeles, all worked tirelessly to save lives and bring
assistance. They are heroes that embody the best of American
values.
Mr. Chairman, Nepal is a nation of tremendous strength and
bravery. It was just on the verge of emerging from a 10-year
civil war and moving toward strengthening its democracy and
moving down a path of development. It is now a country that is
recovering from a major tragedy and focusing on the most
immediate needs of shelter, of food, and of health.
If we are to help Nepal not only recover from this
earthquake, but also continue down that path of political
transition and progress, it is going to require the considered
effort of the United States and the international community,
and most importantly, of Nepal itself.
Our immediate focus, Mr. Chairman, is on beating the clock,
as the monsoon rains that are expected in about a month's time
threaten to bring a new onset of disaster. We are racing
against time to provide shelter, to help people get crops in
the field, and to move toward a post-monsoon recovery phase.
When I was in Nepal, I had a chance to visit a town of
Sankhu, about an hour outside of Kathmandu, where I saw
devastation which was heartrending, with 50 to 60 to 70 percent
of the buildings and structures destroyed or damaged beyond
habitation. Yet at the same time, we saw perseverance in the
faces of the Nepalese people who were already undertaking the
task of trying to put their lives and their homes back
together.
The U.S. Government has already committed nearly $47
million in assistance. But, Mr. Chairman, I want to note that
some of the most important lifesaving assistance that the
United States provided happened before the earthquake struck,
as you noted. And because of the strong support of the United
States and the American people and the investments we have made
over the years, the Nepalese Government and the Nepalese
military, which had been training with our military, was in a
much better capacity to respond to this earthquake.
Our Embassy staff, under the leadership of Ambassador Peter
Bodde and our Deputy Chief of Mission, John Carwile, who is
actually with us today at this hearing, the Embassy staff
performed above and beyond the call of duty in the recent
weeks. After undergoing that tragic earthquake, they were up
and ready to assist within hours.
And that team, because of the investments that the American
Congress has supported over the last 5 years, did not lose a
single life on the Embassy staff. We had put everybody into
earthquake-resilient housing and we had done drills in
preparation that proved to be extremely lifesaving in this
important moment, and they were able to go about the business
of rendering assistance to others in need because their own
needs and their own families had been taken care of.
We learned important lessons in that process, and we will
be looking at the best practices of what we did in Nepal in
terms of our Embassies and people in other seismically prone
areas.
The Embassy has been open since the time of the earthquake,
providing services to American citizens and others in need.
Over 800 U.S. citizens and third-country nationals were
sheltering at the Embassy for a number of days in the immediate
aftermath of the earthquake. Over 50 U.S. and third-country
nationals were rescued by the efforts of the Embassy team by
chartering private aircraft before the U.S. military assets
arrived on the ground. And they continue to work to provide
assistance to American citizens in need across Nepal, as well
as third-country nationals as necessary.
Mr. Chairman, I want to talk a little bit about the
regional responses to this earthquake. We have seen a
remarkable response by the neighboring countries. Certainly the
Indian Government and the Indian military, but also assistance
was mobilized by Bangladesh, by Sri Lanka, by China, by Japan,
by Thailand. And it has been just a tremendous outpouring of
effort from within the region and across Asia, and it has been
a really important indicator of the increasing capabilities
throughout Asia to respond to humanitarian disasters.
A lot of that is work that has been done by the United
States working with our partners across Asia to build capacity.
Both our Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and our military
have invested a tremendous amount of effort over the past
decades in building disaster response capabilities, and that
was on full display during this recent tragedy.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, as I noted, that as we are still in
the midst of relief we are already talking about and focusing
on the longer-term recovery, and we are working together with
the international community, with the World Bank, the United
Nations, the Asian Development Bank, the European Union, and
bilateral donors to come together around a common framework of
needs. There will be a post-disaster needs assessment that will
be led by the World Bank and the U.N., under which the
Government of Nepal and all of the donor community are working
together to have a common assessment of need. And based on
that, we will work together to ascertain the assistance pledges
from within Asia and around the international community.
We do expect that a lot of the recovery will be Asian led,
but the United States will have a very important role to play
if we are to help Nepal not only recover from this earthquake,
but build back better. We will have more on that as we
progress, but Mr. Chairman, I want to pledge to you and to the
ranking member that we will work very closely with Congress as
we determine those needs and as we move forward.
It is also a time of political delicacy as we continue to
strengthen Nepal's efforts for political reconciliation, for
constitutional drafting, and for strengthening its democracy
moving forward. And we will seek to work through the relief and
recovery phase in ways that build political consensus and unity
and help strengthen the democratic process in Nepal.
Finally, there are particular vulnerable groups within
Nepal that are more affected by this earthquake, and we are
very mindful of the needs of women and children, particularly
the vulnerability to trafficking at a time when so much of the
law enforcement capabilities are focused on earthquake relief.
This is an area that we are already surging technical expertise
and assistance to address, and we are working not only with the
law enforcement authorities of Nepal, but also of neighboring
countries, especially India, to ensure that we are addressing
the needs of these most vulnerable victims of the earthquake so
that they do not also become victims of trafficking.
We are also working to ensure that minority populations and
refugee communities within Nepal, who have long found refuge by
the Government of Nepal, are also addressed in terms of the
impact of the earthquake on Tibetan, Bhutanese, and other
communities.
Finally, as we are looking at the long term impacts, let us
not forget the impact on Nepal's cultural heritage. The
beautiful and ancient architecture of Nepal took a severe blow.
I had a chance to walk through Durbar Square, and it was just a
deeply moving sight to see some of these beautiful ancient
buildings reduced to rubble. And it will take an effort from
not just Nepal, but from the world to preserve this heritage,
which is not just Nepal's heritage, but it is the world's
heritage.
So with that, Mr. Chairman, let me just thank you again for
the leadership of this committee and of this Congress and the
support that you have provided to the people of Nepal and to
the U.S. Government's response to this tragic earthquake. I
look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Biswal follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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Mr. Salmon. Thank you.
Mr. Staal.
STATEMENT OF MR. THOMAS H. STAAL, ACTING ASSISTANT
ADMINISTRATOR, BUREAU FOR DEMOCRACY, CONFLICT AND HUMANITARIAN
ASSISTANCE, U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Mr. Staal. Chairman Salmon, Ranking Member Connolly, and
members of the subcommittee, thank you very much for inviting
us, for USAID especially, to testify regarding the humanitarian
response to the Nepal earthquake. And of course thank you for
your continuing support to our efforts.
And of course we would like to express our deepest
condolences to all of those who lost their lives and to the
loved ones in this tragedy, including the families of the six
U.S. marines and the two Nepalese soldiers who died. We are
very grateful to our military, urban search and rescue teams,
partners, and staff who are taking risks every day to save
lives in Nepal.
As you mentioned, the earthquake on April 25 and the
aftershocks that followed caused huge, widespread damage across
Nepal, and especially in the rural areas. But preparedness
measures that USAID has supported over the years have helped
save lives and mitigate damage.
Today, I want to provide quickly an overview of our
humanitarian response, and then I also want to share how we
have leveraged investments in disaster risk reduction over the
years to ensure the most effective and efficient response. And
then I will turn it over to my colleague, John Stivers, who
just returned from Nepal, to provide an overview of the next
steps and initial plans for recovery.
As you mentioned, to date the U.S. Government has provided
nearly $47 million in humanitarian assistance. The funding is
being used to address priorities, including emergency shelter--
we have got some plastic sheeting right here--safe drinking
water, food, improved hygiene, protection of survivors,
especially women and children, so quite a broad spectrum of
assistance.
Within hours after the earthquake hit we deployed a
Disaster Assistance Response Team, as you mentioned. This
included 20 USAID disaster experts, plus the search and rescue
teams from Fairfax and from Los Angeles, and their famous now
12 rescue K-9s. I think we have a picture of that that we can
show too. Here is a photo of two of the USAR members, Teresa
MacPherson and her K-9 Port, from Fairfax. I think we have got
it there somewhere. There you go.
We have learned from previous disaster responses the value
of strong interagency coordination. Based on initial disaster
assessments, we promptly requested assistance from our
colleagues in the Department of Defense to provide airlift and
logistical support. So that since May 4 we have now worked with
the military to transport more than 109 tons of relief supplies
to remote areas. The coordination has been exceptional.
And our DART urban search and rescue, the USAR specialists,
played a critical role in this response. In fact, I have got
another photo here that many of you have seen, where they
helped to identify and then pull a 15-year-old boy out of the
rubble in Kathmandu 5 days after the earthquake hit. The yellow
hats are the search and rescue folks in there. And then of
course you have got Nepalis as well.
And then, as you mentioned, they also rescued a 41-year-old
woman after the May 12 aftershock. And they worked with the
U.S. military to set up triage centers at the airport and
treated more than 50 people using medical supplies purchased
and airlifted out there by USAID.
The USAR teams are home now, but our disaster experts
remain to direct the U.S. response in coordination with the
Government of Nepal and other donors. With the monsoon season
fast approaching, as my colleague said, we are focusing on
providing emergency shelter, improving water, sanitation and
hygiene to hard-hit communities. We have airlifted so far 6,200
rolls of this heavy duty plastic sheeting. We have got a
picture of that being distributed. This can help 310,000 people
build temporary shelters, protect their homes from damage and
rain. And the last cargo flight with sheeting just landed this
morning.
And not only for homes, but you can use that plastic
sheeting for other purposes. I think the next photo we have got
showing that the Nepal Red Cross is using it as temporary
classrooms and safe spaces for children to play. And that is
another way of protecting women and children.
Before I turn it over to John, I want to just briefly
identify some insights on response from previous investments.
Over two decades, we have partnered with the Government of
Nepal to bolster its disaster management and emergency response
capability. For example, we supported the Nepal Red Cross
Society to preposition water treatment plants and stock
warehouses with emergency supplies out in the rural areas, and
these were distributed to 3,000 families within hours of the
earthquake happening.
We worked with the International Organization of Migration
to identify, prepare, and preserve more than 80 open spaces
throughout Kathmandu Valley, about half of which are now being
used to shelter displaced. We retrofitted 50 schools to make
them more earthquake resistant. And through our USAR teams, we
checked these schools. Only six had damage, and very minor
damage.
And also, thanks to support for hospital preparedness, the
hospitals were able to stay open and quickly provide support to
earthquake survivors. One hospital has treated 700 survivors
and performed 300 surgeries.
So the impact of the quake could have been a lot worse
without these preparedness efforts. And none of these
investments of course would have been possible without your
continued support. So thank you very much.
And now I would like to turn to John to lay out some of the
plans for the recovery phase. Thank you.
Mr. Salmon. Mr. Stivers.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE JONATHAN STIVERS, ASSISTANT
ADMINISTRATOR, BUREAU FOR ASIA, U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
Mr. Stivers. Thank you. Chairman Salmon, members of the
subcommittee, thank you for scheduling this important hearing.
It is always an honor for me to testify before this
subcommittee. Thank you for your continued support for USAID's
humanitarian and development initiatives, which save lives and
put people on a path toward democracy, resilience, and
prosperity.
I join with this committee and my colleagues in expressing
their deepest condolences to all who have lost their lives in
this tragedy, including the six marines and two Nepalese
soldiers who died.
I was in Nepal shortly after the earthquake, and I can
attest to the expertise, determination, and bravery of our
personnel who are saving lives and mitigating the damage of
this terrible earthquake. I can also attest to the resilience
of the people of Nepal, who are determined to put their lives
back together and move forward stronger than before.
Building on the remarks of my colleagues, I will focus
first on the context of the earthquake, including the U.S. role
in Nepal's development in recent years, then second on our
efforts to protect vulnerable people, especially women and
girls, from trafficking and exploitation, and third some early
thoughts on Nepal's long-term recovery.
So first, in regards to development, Nepal is one of the
poorest countries in the world and continues to cope with the
effects of a decade-long insurgency that ended in 2006. Prior
to the earthquake, Nepal had made significant development
gains, including with support from President Obama's Feed the
Future initiative and Global Health and Global Climate Change
initiatives.
Three development accomplishments that we can be proud of.
First, we have helped Nepal cut its extreme poverty rate in
half, to 25 percent, in recent years. Second, we have helped
significantly decrease maternal and infant mortality, putting
Nepal on track to meet its Millennium Development Goals and
giving mothers and children a better future. And third, since
the conflict ended in 2006, we have supported Nepal in carrying
out two free and fair elections, with high voter turnout, due
to our voter registration efforts and support for their
Election Commission.
Despite these achievements, Nepal has significant
challenges ahead. The combination of weak democratic governance
institutions and a natural disaster threaten the stability of
this fragile democracy and the gains that have been made over
the last decade.
In regards to gender-based violence, prior to the
earthquake human trafficking was a prevalent problem, and the
current disaster puts women and girls at great risk. USAID is
leveraging its anti-human trafficking program to respond to
these heightened protection needs. For example, our partner,
the Asia Foundation, is identifying those in need and providing
support to help vulnerable people cope with the trauma of loss
and make decisions that do not put them at risk of trafficking,
sexual abuse, and exploitation. USAID is expanding on those
efforts to five more earthquake-affected districts, building on
our ongoing legal counseling to survivors of trafficking and
training of justice sector officials to effectively investigate
and prosecute trafficking cases.
Thank you to the members of this committee for really
keeping this issue front and center for U.S. priorities in Asia
and around the world.
In regards to the long-term recovery, time and again we
have seen the value of initiating recovery efforts even as a
disaster response is underway. In the coming weeks and months,
we will work with the Government of Nepal and the international
community and local civil society to advance the long-term
recovery effort. USAID is working closely on a World Bank-led
post-disaster needs assessment, PDNA, that should provide a
framework for a donors conference to consider the long-term
construction needs.
While that assessment will not be completed until mid-June,
we anticipate that shelter and infrastructure will be the
greatest need. We have learned from past disasters that
recovery in other areas is contingent on people having a safe
place to live.
Shortly after the earthquake, I had the opportunity to
participate in an aerial survey and observe the distribution of
relief supplies in Sinhupalchowk, one of the worst-hit
districts in the mountains north of Kathmandu. In this
district, it is estimated that 70 percent of the structures
were destroyed, and 40 percent of the deaths occurred here.
The remoteness of these hardest-hit towns makes delivering
relief supplies before monsoon season next month extremely
difficult, and assessing the full scope of the reconstruction
effort is a major challenge based on this terrain. But we know
that the recovery will need to focus on livelihoods and food
security, health and hygiene, water and sanitation, education,
protection of vulnerable people, and disaster risk management.
Efforts to strengthen governance systems will also be
critical to ensure that recovery investments are transparent,
accountable, and responsive to local needs. We look forward to
working with the U.S. Congress to determine the appropriate
U.S. Role in Nepal's long-term recovery.
Nepal will not walk this road alone. The U.S. Was one of
the first countries to enter Nepal in 1951 when the government
opened its borders to the outside world. We are Nepal's
longest-standing development partner, and we will work
alongside the Nepalese people on the front lines of this
response and recovery.
Thank you for the congressional support of our disaster
response and development efforts in Nepal and around the world,
and I look forward to answering any questions. Thank you.
[The joint statement of Mr. Staal and Mr. Stivers follows:]
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Mr. Salmon. Thank you.
Ms. Witkowsky.
STATEMENT OF MS. ANNE A. WITKOWSKY, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY
OF DEFENSE, STABILITY AND HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT
OF DEFENSE
Ms. Witkowsky. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member
Sherman and distinguished members of the committee, thank you
for the opportunity to testify today.
Mr. Connolly. For the record, I am not Ranking Member
Sherman.
Ms. Witkowsky. I am sorry. Ranking Member Connolly.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you.
Ms. Witkowsky. I apologize.
Mr. Connolly. Apparently we look a lot alike. Just teasing.
Ms. Witkowsky. May I try again?
Ranking Member Connolly and distinguished members of the
committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today
regarding the Department of Defense role in the U.S. Response
to the April 25 Nepal earthquake and May 12 aftershock.
First, I would like to express my deep sadness and offer my
condolences to the families of the six marines and their
Nepalese counterparts lost in a helicopter accident supporting
the relief effort. This tragedy is a reminder of the vital role
that U.S. Servicemembers play in delivering humanitarian
assistance and disaster relief, but one that is not without
risk.
The Department has a long history of military-to-military
engagement in Nepal and the Pacific region. This engagement has
focused on several areas most relevant to today's hearing,
increasing Nepal's humanitarian assistance and disaster
response capabilities.
In recent years, through U.S. Pacific Command, DOD has
worked with the Nepalese Government on initiatives designed
specifically to mitigate the impact of a disaster such as this
one. These efforts include construction of Deep Tube Wells to
provide water in the event of an earthquake or landslide,
establishment of an earthquake-resistant central blood bank,
construction of earthquake-resistant emergency facilities at
Nepal's main airport, training on rapid repair of runways,
establishment of emergency operation centers, and the
construction of multiple disaster material warehouses.
In addition, we have engaged in disaster-reduction
exercises and exchanges, including an earthquake scenario field
training exercise in 2013 and a regional disaster preparedness
summit hosted in Bangladesh in 2014. Another round of exchange
training is scheduled for later this year.
Such efforts, along with other steady-state DOD
humanitarian assistance projects, help to deepen our
cooperation with our Nepalese partners and appear to have
mitigated some of the impacts of the earthquake and facilitate
its subsequent response efforts. For example, the DOD-funded
Deep Tube Well Project is currently being used to provide water
and power to more than 5,500 internally displaced persons, as
well as local villagers and Nepalese police in the Kathmandu
Valley.
On April 25, just hours after the quake, Secretary Carter
directed that the Department provide support to the Government
of Nepal-led relief effort, responding to USAID's request for
assistance. The Commander of U.S. Pacific Command ordered two
special forces teams already in Nepal for training to assist
the Embassy team with immediate lifesaving relief and medical
support.
Additionally, U.S. Transportation Command provided two C-17
aircraft to airlift the previously mentioned USAID Disaster
Assistance Response Team, the DART, as well as the two urban
search and rescue teams from Fairfax County, Virginia, and Los
Angeles County, California. These teams launched in the hours
after the initial earthquake and arrived in Kathmandu on April
28.
U.S. Pacific Command also deployed a 20-person Joint
Humanitarian Assessment Support team, commanded by Marine
Brigadier General Paul Kennedy, to provide subject matter
expertise to the DART leader and better frame military
requirements.
As the Disaster Assistance Response Team and the Joint
Humanitarian Assessment Support Team came to understand the
scale of the disaster, it became clear that more military
support would be required. Rotary wing airlift and airfield
management specialists in particular were needed to help
increase throughput of the increasingly backlogged
international airport.
The U.S. Military response, named Operation Sahayogi Haat,
Nepali for Helping Hand, is under the control of Joint Task
Force 505, commanded by Marine Lieutenant John Wissler. The JTF
has had more than 900 total personnel in Nepal, Thailand, and
Japan. Up to 300 of those personnel have been forward staged to
Nepal with Brigadier General Kennedy.
To date, Joint Task Force 505 has provided airlift,
airfield services, search and rescue support, and other support
to the USAID-led response.
As of May 19, the joint task force has flown 290 relief
flights, airlifted 1488 passengers, and airlifted more than 728
tons of material, including relief supplies.
In conclusion, the Department of Defense, in support of our
USAID and Department of State partners, has responded swiftly
to assist the Government of Nepal. The relief efforts to date
highlight the unique capabilities the Department can bring to
bear in the U.S. Government response to natural disasters and
humanitarian crises.
Thank you again for this opportunity to highlight the great
work that the men and women of the Department of Defense are
doing alongside our partners in USAID and the State Department,
and I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Witkowsky follows:]
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----------
Mr. Salmon. Thank you.
I understand Mr. Connolly has another function or another
scheduling issue, so I am going to let you ask the first
question.
Mr. Connolly. Mr. Chairman, thank you. You are most
gracious. I really appreciate it.
And, again, welcome to our panel.
I am particularly interested as a long-time supporter of
and participant in USAID programs lessons learned. What worked?
What didn't? We have been in Nepal since 1951. We have done a
lot of training and spent a lot of money on emergency
preparedness, knowing this is a high-risk area to begin with.
You are between two tectonic plates that created the Himalayas,
so I mean, this is real stuff.
What worked? What worked well, Mr. Staal, in your opinion,
and what disappointed us that we have to beef up and improve?
Mr. Staal. Thank you, Congressmen Connolly. It is a very
important question and something that we take very seriously.
In fact, every time we do a humanitarian response like this, we
do an after-action. So that will be coming out as well.
But even early on, I think we can already see that a number
of things worked well. Certainly, our coordination with the
military. And not just that it worked well now, but the fact
that we had already developed good relationships, good working
relationships. In fact, Paul Kennedy that Ms. Witkowsky
mentioned, also helped us on the Haiyan response.
Mr. Connolly. You are talking about our military?
Mr. Staal. Our military, exactly.
Mr. Connolly. Yeah.
Mr. Staal. So we lashed up really well, and that is an
important thing, that we continue to build that.
And also our relationship on the ground, training of search
and rescue teams within Nepal, first responders there, both in
the government and even volunteers. I mean, that made a huge
difference. Prepositioning supplies around the country, both
from us and from the military side, made a huge difference. It
is hard to measure the negative, but I think that made a huge
difference.
Coordination is still an ongoing challenge, and certainly
in any disaster this big, especially in a disaster in a country
that has governance challenges. So certainly the government is
leading the effort, but we have had to provide quite a bit of
support to that in a number of ways. The U.N. System quickly
set up what they call a cluster system where you have sectoral
groups, health cluster, a logistics cluster, a protection
cluster, and so on, so that all different agency who are
providing humanitarian assistance can work together, and that
helped the government in terms of their leadership.
And even one of the issues we noticed was that at the
airport the ability of the Nepalese Government to manage all
the supplies that were coming in was inadequate. So, again, we
called on our friends from DOD to come in, and they helped to
provide a very important part of that kind of commodity
management at the airport.
There is still weakness in a rural area where you have got
the majority of the problem way out in the countryside in a
very difficult terrain. They have building codes that they have
developed, again with our support, and we have done a lot of
training for the government on implementing those building
codes, but it still needs a lot of work, and especially as you
get out of Kathmandu.
In Kathmandu, 90 percent of the buildings were basically
undamaged. And it was any kind of new buildings are pretty
untouched. It is really the older buildings, some of the ones
with a heritage, unfortunately, where----
Mr. Connolly. Temples.
Mr. Staal. Temples and things like that.
And then when you get out into the small villages on the
hillsides, frankly, they don't know about building codes, and
that is a bigger challenge that we still, I think, have to
figure out how we are going to address that in a very rural
setting like that.
Mr. Connolly. Just real briefly, anyone else want to take a
crack at sort of lessons learned, things we thought worked
well, things we have got work to do still?
Ms. Biswal.
Ms. Biswal. Congressman Connolly, after the devastating
Gujarat earthquake of 2000--I think it was 2001--Congress
appropriated and USAID implemented over a number of years a
partnership between the Government of India and the United
States on creating a national disaster management agency. We
provided some of the technical expertise.
That capability in India today is quite sophisticated,
quite advanced. The recent super-cyclone that hit Orrisa was a
tremendous reflection of India's capabilities, because the loss
of life was minimal in a category 5 super-cyclone. That
capability was on display in Nepal as part of India's response
to the earthquake, and the United States can feel proud for the
role that it has played around the region in investing in
disaster response capabilities.
There is more to be done in trying to foster more regional
coordination and advanced planning of regional responses, but
the fact that there is so much capability in the region today,
and the experiences of many of these countries in their own
earthquakes, is something that we have a direct hand.
Mr. Connolly. Very heartening to here.
Thank you all so much.
And, Mr. Chairman, thank you so much for your graciousness.
I really appreciate it.
Mr. Salmon. Thank you very much.
I just want to start out with, it is a little bit of a
statement, and I wanted to direct it to you, Ms. Witkowsky,
regarding a conversation I had with the Hug family, whose son
Jake died in that tragic crash.
They were, obviously, upset by his passing, but they were
further upset because in some dialogue that they had with the
bereavement folks that they are working with within the
Department of Navy, they were told off the record that, well,
if their son had been killed in combat that they would be
afforded the opportunity and the full support of our country to
go to the Dover ceremony and the funding that goes along with
that, so that his parents could go to that extremely important
vigil. But they were told that there is kind of a double
standard. If you are killed in a mission like this, a search-
and-rescue mission, it is not considered combat, and that they
wouldn't be covered to go.
Now, I first reached out to Mac Thornberry, the chairman of
Armed Services. He was pretty upset by that. I don't think the
American people would understand that at all, much less the
family of the hero. But I know that we have reached out to the
Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, and I believe in my heart he
will do the right thing.
So would you please pass that on, that we are expecting
good things?
Ms. Witkowsky. I will absolutely do that, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Mr. Salmon. Thank you very much.
A question I have is regarding getting the actual food and
different emergency provisions to the people of Nepal. I
understand there are some complications, and I am told that it
is regarding the rules of cargo preferences and that 50 percent
of the U.S. Government cargo has got to be transported on U.S.
flagged vessels. Is that the reason that the estimates in
taking this prepositioned food ship from Colombo to Calcutta
and then overland to Nepal, that it could take 45 to 60 days,
is that why this is happening? And if so, are there some
concessions we can make to speed that up?
Mr. Staal.
Mr. Staal. Thank you, Chairman Salmon. That is an important
question.
Let me clarify. First of all, what we were able to do,
there was food prepositioned already in Nepal.
Mr. Salmon. Right.
Mr. Staal. So that got things out. That was obviously
quick. And then also we were able to use IDA funds with the
flexibility provided us by Congress to allow WFP to buy food
locally, like within northern India and nearby, to get some
food going very quickly.
So the food that is coming in from Sri Lanka, it doesn't
need to be there within days. It is okay that the timing will
then sort of refill the pipeline and provide for needs over the
next few months. So it didn't delay any of our food aid. I want
to clarify that to begin with.
And secondly, regarding the cargo preference, I mean, that
is a more complicated question. But in the case of a really
dire emergency like that, the cargo preference rule is a little
more generic. We do have the 50 percent, but it is not just on
every individual shipment. It can be generalized. So that
doesn't really hold us up on this particular issue.
Mr. Salmon. Okay. So we can look for every effort to
expedite this?
Mr. Staal. Absolutely. Yes, for sure.
Mr. Salmon. Great.
Another question I have is regarding the local government,
the Nepalese Government, and their reaction. Obviously, they
have got to take a leading role in the response efforts.
Could you please discuss the role of the Government of
Nepal in leading the response to this disaster and describe the
structure of its disaster response mechanism, and how would you
assess the strengths and their weaknesses of the response? And
with some of the fears regarding government corruption, what,
if any, measures are in place to address corruption with the
relief effort underway?
Ms. Biswal.
Ms. Biswal. Thank you. Let me provide some initial comments
and then invite my colleague, John Stivers, as well if he wants
to weigh in.
Clearly, there is an issue in terms of the capacity of the
Government of Nepal on the bigger challenge of long-term relief
and recovery. In the initial relief phase, the Nepalese
military has played a critical role in deploying their forces
across all of the affected districts and in coordinating and
assisting in the delivery of relief. And I think that they have
performed admirably. They have interfaced extremely well with
our military and our civilian forces, and we have had little
complaint in terms of the efficacy of this effort in light of
the magnitude of the disaster that we were facing.
There is an issue in terms of how the longer-term effort
will be coordinated. Nepal has a National Planning Commission,
and we are working with the Planning Commission, we are working
with the Home Ministry, and with the Finance Ministry.
It is a time when the picture is still evolving in terms of
what is going to be the most effective way for Nepal to
coordinate the longer-term efforts, and they are thinking
through that. There is a team that is in Kathmandu from India's
National Disaster Management Agency to provide technical
assistance.
We have also worked with our Pakistani colleagues, because
General Nadeem, who oversaw the Pakistan earthquake response
and reconstruction, and who has been very lauded globally for
the transparency and the efficacy of the response that he
oversaw, has also been brought in under USAID's leadership to
come in and help provide some assessment and some assistance in
terms of how Nepal can think about managing its relief going
forward.
This is a country that is still coalescing in terms of its
democratic institutions and institutions of government. So it
is going to require the persistence and the partnership of the
international community in supporting them in their efforts to
manage a recovery effort. We want them to succeed. We don't
want to take it over from them, but we want them to succeed,
and there will be an element of partnership over the coming
months in helping them get this right.
Mr. Salmon. Mr. Stivers.
Mr. Stivers. Thank you.
There is no question that government is a major challenge
in Nepal. Institutionally, it is difficult for the government
to deliver basic services, enforce building codes, et cetera.
The parties haven't come together in terms of a constitution.
They haven't had local elections yet, which is a major
challenge when it comes to the relief and long-term recovery
effort.
We continue to help them try to work together on all of
these issues, and we need to make sure, the international
community needs to make sure that the long-term recovery takes
into account how we can build Nepal's capacity not only to
better withstand natural disasters, but also to move forward
and come out of their fragile democratic stage to consolidate
their democracy.
Mr. Salmon. Thank you very much.
Ms. Meng.
Ms. Meng. Thank you.
I wanted to follow up on Assistant Secretary Biswal's
comments about helping vulnerable populations in light of
potential human trafficking increase, specifically, with women
and girls that often have unique needs that may be overlooked
during crises. After food, water, and shelter are in place,
there is rarely a budget left for basic health and hygiene
needs for girls and women, like prenatal care and safe
childbirth delivery services for expectant women and sanitary
provisions for women during menstruation.
How is the U.S. Supporting providing support for these
specific needs? Oftentimes women are too ashamed to ask for
help.
Ms. Biswal. Let me give you some initial comments, and then
I will also, again, turn to Mr. Stivers on some of the work
that AID is already doing in Nepal with respect to women and
girls, and particularly focusing on health and hygiene.
But you are correct to say that this is a time of extreme
vulnerability. And over the years, we have learned that it is
in times of crisis and times of disaster response that
particular attention has to be paid to issues of protection and
issues of addressing the particular needs of vulnerable groups
and vulnerable populations.
And so I think, not only in terms of the U.S. Government's
response, but really, what I am hearing in terms of the
awareness of the civil society in Nepal. When I was in India 2
days after the earthquake, the civil society organizations in
India were themselves coming up to me and raising with me the
need to focus on these groups. So there is an extreme attention
to the issue.
I was in New York just a couple of days before heading to
Nepal, meeting with the United Nations, with the OCHA and UNDP
teams who are also looking at their earthquake response, and,
again, the issue of particularly addressing the needs of women
and girls, addressing the needs of children, and addressing
particularly the health needs were something that the U.N.
System was putting an integrated team in place so that UNICEF,
the World Health Organization, OCHA, UNDP were all coordinated,
and the World Food Programme, on making sure that there was an
integrated and comprehensive response.
Mr. Stivers. Well, in terms of before the earthquake, we
have had, in terms of the successes in decreasing child and
maternal mortality, is something we are very proud of having a
role in. We know that saving the life of the mother not only
transforms the health of her family, but the strength of a
country and the profound impact that has.
We have scaled up the use Chlorhexidine, which is a gel
applied to the umbilical cord, which aids in reducing newborn
mortality, that we have scaled up in Nepal, which has been very
successful at that.
In terms of the earthquake, the numbers are staggering. I
think 2.8 million children have been affected, and 40,000 women
are at immediate risk of gender-based violence. So the
situation, the problem is so significant, and thank you to this
committee and to Members of Congress for really putting that
forward in terms of the resolution that I saw from the
committee.
USAID, in the short term, we are expanding our Combating
Trafficking in Persons project that works with NGOs and the
government to prevent trafficking, protect victims, and
prosecute those responsible. That program has strengthened the
justice sector on human trafficking, leading to a 63
convictions recently. And in the long term, protection of
vulnerable populations has got to be a key point in the longer-
term recovery. It is a high priority certainly now in the
relief effort, and in the longer-term recovery we have to keep
our eye on the ball. So thank you for your leadership and for
that question.
Ms. Meng. I know I am running out of time, but I, again,
want to thank the administration for contributing to these
urgent relief efforts.
Another significant way I believe that we can help limit
the strain on that country's resources is by designating Nepal
for TPS, temporary protected status. In a very similar
circumstance, after Haiti's massive earthquake, the Secretary
of Homeland Security acted very quickly to designate Haiti for
TPS.
I know that the new Ambassador met with Secretary Kerry
last week, and my understanding is that the Government of Nepal
has requested TPS. While it is ultimately a DHS determination,
I know that DHS heavily relies on the State Department's
recommendation. I just want to ask what the status of the State
Department's recommendation and this request is.
Ms. Biswal. Thank you for that question, Congresswoman. I
know that this is an issue of great importance and
prioritization not only in the U.S. Congress with the Nepali
Government, but also within the State Department. We do think
that the provision of temporary protected status is an
important way to provide some relief to Nepalese citizens who
are in the United States and who need to stay here for some
time until the situation in Nepal becomes more stabilized.
The Secretary has sent his recommendation to the Department
of Homeland Security, and the decision is now with the
Department of Homeland Security. So we will be awaiting their
determination.
Ms. Meng. Okay. Thank you.
I yield back.
Mr. Salmon. Thank you.
This concludes the questions. I would like just to make
another brief comment, that we are second to none, I think, in
the world when it comes to disaster relief. I think that that
is one of the things that the United States does exceptionally
well. And I want to commend all of you for the amazing job that
you do in balancing our priorities overseas.
I have been all over the world in my capacity, both in the
private sector as well as in my capacity of my ninth year on
Foreign Affairs, and I am always so very proud when I go to the
Embassy. I meet with the USAID people, I see our defense folks.
They are the brightest and the best in the world, and I am so
proud of the job that you all do, so very proud. And you have
done your country proud today in your testimony, and we
appreciate you for coming here and doing that.
Without objection, member statements will be allowed to be
inserted for the record.
And there is no further business, this committee is now
adjourned.
Mr. Stivers. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 3:40 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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