Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She answered questions on the administration's foreign policy priorities and discussed her department's $51.6 billion budget.
Topics discussed included the recent announcement that North Korea will suspend its nuclear weapons program, humanitarian concerns in Syria and Iran’s nuclear weapons aspirations.
The president is requesting $51.6 billion, a 1.6 % increase over 2012. This includes $8.2 billion for civilian-led operations in war zones and other overseas operations.
According to the White House, 58% percent of the federal budget is spent on mandatory programs like Social Security. 22% percent supports discretionary national security programs and 13% percent goes to discretionary non-security programs. 6% percent pays the interest on the U.S. federal debt and lastly 1% percent pays for the State and USAID agency.