Do not lower the standards. Eden not get an answer to your specific question on the sequestration. You as whether or not there any force is coming into play. Do you have a sense that sequestration is likely to have been . Senator durban, and the number two debbie 0 democrat in the senate has just appointed that he is becoming the top defense appropriators. He had said very recently that he did not think sequester would be averted. It does not look currently where these parties are that they are close to any kind of a deal. They may try to find a way to kick the can down the road where they bought themselves 60 days. It does not look particularly good right now. Very few people seem to be confronting that. It shall take a lot to pull this off. The pentagon has started to take steps to prepare itself for the sequestration and planning that has not taken place until now. They are laying off temporary employees. It is starting to happen. Senator inhofe has been critical about not planning earlier. The there is a little brinkmanship going. I do believe there was a time and when each everybody said we are all against it so how can have them . There never was a path that the two sides could find that would lead them to averting it. The center was critical of the president in the stance of his overall military and mention three ways the president has worked for cuts, and delays, and additions to the military budget. When you talk to officers of line, and you find them as critical of the administration that what is on average is very dramatic. This represents a huge threat to the United States. There are others that would argue it is more a regional. The ability to react is clearly limited. When you look at individual things, there are concernes. Afghanistan is another issue. Watched newsmakers with senator james inhofe today at 6 00 p. M. Eastern. Next on cspan, secretary of state Hillary Clinton on the benghazi attack in president obamas second inaugural address followed by reaction to president obamas speech from Mitch Mcconnell and Lamar Alexander. Now testimony from Hillary Clinton on the attack on the u. S. Consulate in benghazi. Secretary clinton took responsibility for the deaths of four americans including ambassador Chris Stevens. This is one of her last hearings before she steps down. John kerry is the nomination to replace her. From the Foreign Relations committee, this is to 0. 5 hours. 2. 5 hours. Let me begin by welcoming the new members to the committee. Since the false and that has not passed the Committee Resolution of official late seating members, i want to ask consent to allow our prospective members to participate in todays hearing. Let me welcome me and thank you for honoring your commitment to come before the committee after the review boards findings. You said you would after the findings were completed. You have a bit of an intervening challenge. We are thrilled to see you here today doing well. And to take time out of your schedule to discuss the tragic events from the causing from benghazi to learn. In your tenure as secretary, youve always been up front and energetic and defending our Foreign Service officer and their needs. I commend you for it. The tragic event in benghazi are a sad reminder of the risks that come with diplomatic engagement and parts of the world but are struggling to build new governments. It underscores the real courage of the unsung women who put their lives at risk. I respect what you have done. This is a reflection of your leadership as well as your patriotism. Your candor has been a trademark of your service as secretary of state. I believe every member has welcomed your openness and cooperation. Your letter of december 18 was appreciated by members of both sides as another example of the openness. We share your mission here today. We look forward to a constructive dialogue to learn from the events that occurred in benghazi and to design policies that better protect the women serving in d. C. They lost their lives on september 11, 2012 during terrorist attacks on a special mission. We honor their service to our nation. We grieve with their families. The result to take specific actions to prevent future incidents as. We not be able to prevent every single attack in the future. We must make sure our employees are capable of standing up such an attack. They have embraced this. We will hear more of the progress they have made on the implementation of many of the recommendations. I would add that congress is not without responsibility. We have an obligation to do our part to comply. It is my ability to better protect our employees. When it the easiest things we can do is to ensure that the contrasting roles allow for sufficient flexibility where the on aity is at risk and best value basis to ensure were not just attacking this, this has a 3 march. By you should be a priority in all locations. Were looking at where sole source contacting me be appropriate. We also support expanding the Marine Security guard program, hiring more Diplomatic Security personnel and authorizing full funding for the embassy construction, capital costs program. The program was created in the aftermath of the 1988 bombing that resulted in 224 deaths, including a 1100 american citizens. It funded the construction of 13 new facilities in the first year, followed by 11 in 2006. Nearly every year since, fewer have been built than the previously year due to funding constraints. At the current anticipated funding rate for fiscal year 2013, we will be able to construct just three new facilities, despite the fact there are a couple dozen posts designated as highrisk, high threat posts. The lessons of benghazi are not only about Adequate Security operations. It is also our foreign at facilities, within the department itself, and between the department and congress. The department should be assessing and regularly designating which post is high threat or high risk. Using that information to drive decisions about security. The administrative review board also made clear they were failures in benghazi that resulted in inadequacy, and the responsibility is shared by washington, and by the inexact status. It is left unclear what the security was or should be. Clearly, that needs to change. There are two other crucial points made that deserve attention on a larger scale. First, the emphasis on the growing challenge faced by all american officials operating overseas, how to remain active in high threat environment. How to get out beyond the walls of our facilities. How do we remain successful in the private sector while still securing our embassies and protecting our people in these environments . The review board correctly points out the department has been resourcechallenged for many years. This has constrained our mission, and restricting the use of resources even for security has become a conditioned response. Decisions about the Security Resources being made more on costs than value. The approach fails to recognize the diplomacy and foreign aid put down payments in terms of good will, open borders for the export of american products, protection of intellectual property, and, most importantly, cooperation on security and counterterrorism. There is a lot to discuss. Welcome again. We appreciate your time. On a personal note, since this is likely to be your last hearing before this committee and your leadership will be missed, i speak for many when i say you have been an outstanding secretary of state. You have changed the face of america abroad, and extended the hospitable reach of our nation to ordinary citizens in addition to world leaders. During your tenure, changes in asia, a momentous transition in libya, and a trend toward global strength based on economics rather than arms. I personally appreciate the fact you use your office to aggressively find sections to iran. You supported the voice of those individuals who do not live in the limelight, women, children, religious minorities, and the lgbt community. I look forward to working closely with you in the future. We thank you for your service here in the senate. As secretary of state, we welcome you back any time to talk about the issues of the day, recognizing you may not care to spend more time in that chair then you already have. We appreciate your incredible service. Let me turn to my friend and colleague, the new Ranking Member of the committee. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. And also for following through to have this hearing today. I want to welcome the new committee members. There will be time for us to talk a little bit about the committee moving forward in many ways. This is closing out business from before. I thank you very much for having this hearing. I want to thank you, also. We have had a number of conversations over the last several weeks and the last four years. I want to thank you for coming in today and honoring the commitment you made some time ago. I know you have had Health Issues still undergoing and you are hill you are here today. We do respect the tremendous amount of hard work you put forth over the last four years. You trot you probably traveled more than any secretary of state in history. You can add your job with hard work and diligence. We all appreciate the transparency with which you talk to all of us. I do want to say benghazi represents a lot of Different Things. In some ways, the aftermath in particular of what we saw represents the very worst of washington. The most bizarre briefing i think i ever attended was on september 20, where the Intelligence Community said more than nothing and it was a bizarre briefing, at best. Happened in the middle of a Political Campaign and there was a lot of spin from the white house and a lot of comments made on both sides of the aisle, which heightened a lot of the focus on benghazi. I think it also represented a department that made decisions that were not based on what was best for those in the field. I think it represented in many ways the denial of the world as it really is today. After reading the arb, it represented a committee that has never done its work, never done the kind of oversight this committee ought to do. It also represents an awakening. I know you have known this, and especially many of the members on this committee have known this. The spiking of the ball and thinking when Osama Bin Laden was gone, that was the end of al qaeda, we know nothing could be further from the truth. The arab spring is ushered in a time where al qaeda is on the rise. The world, in many ways, is even more dangerous as we lack a Central Command and instead have these nodes scattered throughout north africa and other places. This creates an opportunity for us to address the world as it really is today. Thirdly, i know it was a great personal loss to you that Chris Stevens died in the way he did and his three colleagues died the way they did. I know you have experienced this and some other members have, but look at the faces of those on the ground in libya in a state of shock, people we send there, doing expeditionary diplomacy, who felt they were on a tether and did not have the support from washington they needed, to do the things they needed to do. I think this is an opportunity for us to examine the failures. I know you will be as transparent as you have always been. This is a great opportunity for the incoming secretary to learn from what has happened. Many times, political appointees have great difficulties with the bureaucracy that exists within a the department where people think they can wait you out. This is an opportunity for us also to develop a Foreign Policy that reflects, again, the dynamics of the region as they really are today. Lastly, i think this is an opportunity for the committee to finally do the work that it should have been doing for years. When you read the record and realize we have never done an authorization of the state department in the six years i have been here, we have never looked at how foreign aid has been spent. We have never done a top to bottom review. It is something people like you come to this position, look at as something that is healthy. There was mention of cost. I was disappointed with the arb when the first thing that came out of the mouths of people i respect was money, money, money. This committee would have no idea whether the appropriate amount of money is being spent or if that could have prevented what was happening what happened because we have never had an authorization. I want to close again by thanking you for your service, thanking you for your friendship, thanking you for your transparency, and i certainly look forward to your testimony. I know it will be presented in a way that will be constructive and helpful for us in the future. Thank you. We welcome your remarks. Thank you. Members of the committee, older and new, i am grateful for the opportunity and thank you for your patience. As both the chairman and the Ranking Member have said, the terrorist attacks in benghazi in 2012 that claimed the lives of four brave americans, Chris Stevens, glen doherty, sean smith, and tyrone woods, are part of a broader strategic challenge to the United States and our partners in north africa. I want to offer context, share what we have learned, and where we can Work Together to not only honor our fallen colleagues, but continue to champion american interests and values. Any cleareyed examination of this matter must begin with a sobering fact. Since 1988, there have been 19 review boards investigating attacks on american diplomats and their facilities. Benghazi joins a long list of tragedies for our department, other agencies, and america. Our embassy in 1983, counsel and staff murdered in 2004, the coast attack in 2009, and too many others. Since 1977, 65 american diplomatic personnel have been killed by terrorists. The list of lives saved is even longer. We should never forget our Security Professionals get it right more than 99 of the time against difficult odds all over the world. That is why, like my predecessors, i trust them with my life. Administrations of both parties and partnerships with congress have made good faith efforts to learn from these attacks. To implement recommendations from the review boards, to seek the necessary resources, and to do better to protect people from constantly evolving threats. That is the least the men and women who served this country deserve. I have no higher priority and no greater responsibility. As i have said many times, i take responsibility and nobody is more committed to getting this right. I am determined to leave our country safer, stronger, and more secure. Taking responsibility meant moving quickly in those first uncertain hours and days to respond to crisis, but also to further protect our people in high threat areas across the world. It meant launching an independent investigation to determine exactly what happened in benghazi and recommend steps for improvement, and it meant intensifying efforts to combat terrorism and figure out effective ways to support the emerging democracies. Let me share some of the lessons we have learned, the steps we have taken, and what we continue to do. Lets start on september 11 and those difficult early days. I have stayed in close contact with officials across our government and the Libyan Government. I saw firsthand what is called timely and exceptional coordination. No delays in Decision Making. No denials of support from washington or our military. I want to echo the review boards praise for the valor and courage of the people on the ground, especially the Security Professionals in benghazi and tripoli. American lives were saved in real time. The next morning, i told the American People that heavily armed militants assaulted our compand. I vowed to bring them to justice. I stood with president obama as he spoke about an act of terror. It is important to recall in that same time period, we were seeing Violent Attacks in cairo, as well as large protests outside many other posts, where thousands of our diplomats served. So i immediately ordered a review of our Security Posture around the world, with particular scrutiny for high threat posts. And i asked the department of defense to join interagency security assessment teams and to dispatch hundreds of additional Marine Security guards. I named the first Deputy Assistant secretary of state for high threat posts so missions in dangerous places get the attention they need. And we reached out to congress to help address physical vulnerabilities, including risks from fire, and to hire additional Diplomatic Security personnel and Marine Security guards. Second, even as we took these steps, i hurried to appoint the accountability review board so we could understand what was wrong, how do we fix it. I have accepted every one of their recommendations. I asked our deputy secretary for management and resources, deputy tom nides, who appeared before this Committee Last month, is leading a task force to ensure all 29 are implemented quickly and completely, as well as pursuing additional steps above and beyond the recommendations. I pledged in my letter to you last month that implementation would begin and it has. 85 are on track to be completed by the end of march, with a number completed already. But we are also taking a topto bottom look to rethink how we make decisions on where, when and whether our people should operate in highthreat areas, and how we respond to threats and crises. We are initiating an annual high threat post review chaired by the secretary of state, and ongoing reviews by the deputy secretaries, to ensure that pivotal questions about securit