Of the administration. He has been a little bit more aggressive, little bit more outspoken in the past and i think thats more his character to be more pointed and to be more pointed i guess. Martha roby has been very stick to the facts and i think im hitting everybody but a mix of folks that are hoping to represent the full crosssection of the house and also there was some controversy and there were some criticism from people like therell issa who is a relatively controversial member of the house says none to be in sparring contest with the administration. There was pushed back from him that he was shut out of we thought would be as committee after he was the former chairman of the oversight committee. So there was an effort clearly made here from the republican side while certainly aggressive and active not overly partisan and not overly controversial. Host lets look at the democrats. Four of the five democratic members are also Ranking Members of other committees and clearly the democrats looking for more leaders and their party on the house side. Lets start with Elijah Cummings who is the Ranking Member of the Benghazi Committee. Tell us about him and his background. Guest the Ranking Member of the Benghazi Benghazi committee as you know and currently the Ranking Member of the House Oversight committee and hes been there for a while. He is there right now and he was previously there went therell issa was the chairman said so hes had a fairly long experience being minority democrats on the committee that is going after them probing the obama administration. He has had to kind of have a set back stiff upper lip and has been somewhat of a fighter and theirs is Bear Mountain speculation that he may end up running for the senate in maryland. He says its not making any Firm Commitments so after this hearing was secretary clinton but recent polling said that he wanted to do that option would be there for him and he could jump into the fray and would probably do well in the open senate seat in maryland after senator mikulski steps down the end of next year. So he is a highprofile and certainly gained a lot of recognition because of this committee and might take that to the upper chamber. Host we have adam schiff, Linda Sanchez tammy duckworth. And if those names stick out as someone who was especially qualified to serve on this committee . Guest mr. Schiff for instance the Ranking Member on the Intelligence Committee and ms. Duckworth running for the senate so this is another opportunity for her to boost her profile. Shes taking on senator mark kirk in illinois to elevate her profile a little bit there. Mr. Smith is a member of the Armed Services committee and so there are some serious names and some serious people for the democrats hope would bring a serious here and none of them have been critical of the gop select committee especially mr. Schiff has suggested that maybe democrats might not stick with it. He floated the opportunity that democrats should pull out of the committee entirely which was some of the early speculation before this committee was named a lot of talk whether democrats should participate at all given me see this as a partisan witchhunt. Ultimately they decided to stick with it because they figured its better to have someone in the room but not in the room but there has been a lot of reluctance and skepticism among democrats that this would be a ferric investigation Affair Committee and to a person right now all of those democrats say the committee has been a partisan exercise and thats been there could position for last year and a half. Host Julian Hattem from the hill thanks for joining us and giving us background on the houston gauzy committee. You can read julian at the hill. Com anice also on twitter jm had him. Thanks for joining us. Guest thank you. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton is set to testify before the House Select Committee on benghazi. The committee that was created in may of 2014 to investigate the attacks that left four americans dead including u. S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. Well have live coverage starting thursday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time on cspan3, cspan radio and cspan. Org and of course you can hear the hearing in its entirety without interruption. Coming up is a look at events leading up to thursdays hearing greatly began with secretary clintons january 2013 appearance before the Senate ForeignRelations Committee where she takes questions about the lack of security and benghazi. The administrations response to the attack and how to prevent future attacks. We will then show you two news conferences Hillary Clinton conducted this year focusing on her private email server is topic that is likely to be discussed during thursdays hearing. Our presentation wraps up with clinton aides huma abedin in the committees Ranking Member of Elijah Cummings followed by Julian Hattem at the hill. Youll join us to talk about the members of the Benghazi Committee itself. Now if the Senate ForeignRelations Committee from january 2013. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] good morning. The committee will come to order. Let me begin by welcoming the new members to the Committee Senators kaine and murphy, senator johnson, mccain flake and paul. Since the full senate has not passed the Committee Resolution officially ceding members i want to ask unanimous consent returning members to allow our prospective members to participate in todays hearing. And if there is no objection, so ordered. Madam secretary let me welcome you and thank you for honoring your commitment to calm before the committee after the administrative review boards findings. You said you would after the findings were completed and of course you had a bit of an intervening challenge and we are thrilled to see you here today doing well and to take time out of your schedule in these final days to discuss the tragic events that occurred in benghazi on september 11 and the lessons we need to learn from that event to ensure that all american personnel are fully protected and our embassies fully secured wherever they are. In your tenure as secretary of state and your appearances before this committee you have always been upfront, forthright and energetic in defending our Foreign Service officers and i for one commend you for it. Unfortunately the tragic events in benghazi are a sad reminder of the inherent risks that come with diplomatic engagement in parts of the world that are struggling to build new governments from what has often been a chaotic situation and underscore the very real courage of the unsung men and women who put their lives at risk to serve this nations interest in those areas. Let me say i respect what youve you have done during your tenure as secretary of state in representing not only this nation that all of those in our Foreign Service to run the diplomatic frontline and turbulent and dangerous parts of the globe. The reflection of your leadership as well as your patriotism and your abiding belief in the power of our policies to move it toward world towards democracy and preservation of human rights. Your candor prefer this committee has been a trademark of your service as secretary of state and i believe every member has welcomed your openness and your cooperation. Your letter of december 182 chairman kerry was appreciated by members of both sides and an example of that open a simple operation. Let me say we share your mission here today and we look forward to constructive dialogue today to learn from the events that occurred in benghazi and to devise policies to better protect nearly 70,000 men and women serving in d. C. And more than 275 posts around the world. Ambassador Chris Stevens sean smith taiwan would send Glenn Dougherty lost their lives on september 11, 2012 during terrorist attacks on the special mission in benghazi. As a committee we honor their service to our nation and we grieve with their families but we also resolved to take specific actions to present future prevent future incidents. We may not be able to prevent every single terratec in the future but we can and we must make sure that our embassies and employees starting with highrisk high threat posts are capable of withstanding such an attack. To that end secretary clinton the department have agreed to implement all 29 of the administrative review board recommendations and today we would hear more about the progress of the department is made towards implementation of many of the recommendations. I would add that congress is not without responsibility here. We also have an application to do our part to comply with the administrator for a few porch recommendations. It is my intention to work with the members of the committee and the department in the coming months on legislation that will improve security and better protect our employees. One of the first and easiest things we can do is to ensure that the departments contracting rules allow for sufficient flexibility to allow them to quickly make decisions and to hire local guards not only on the basis of vague lowestpriced technically acceptable but a best value basis to ensure we are not just checking when it comes to securing our buildings and securing her people. The state has authority through march for afghanistanpakistan and iraq as a part in all locations particularly highrisk environment. Were also looking at solesource contracting may be appropriate to respond to certain security related contacts. The ministry the review board supports expanding demering Security Guard or from hiring and equipping more Diplomatic Security personnel and the critical importance authorizing full funding for the Embassy Capital costsharing program. Capital costsharing program for Embassy Construction was created in the aftermath of the 1990 honoring of the u. S. Embassies in nairobi that resulted in 224 deaths including 11 american citizens. In its first year and for the construction of 13 new facilities followed by 11 in 2006, nine and 2005. Nearly every year since fewer facilities have been built than the Previous Year due to funding decreases in the fact that the allocations to be counted never been indexed to inflation. The cost of the construction and and Industry Worldwide has risen dramatically. At the current funding rate for fy2013 the department estimates it will be able to construct three new facilities despite the fact that they are are a couple of dozen posts that have now been designated as highrisk, high threat posed the need for placing right now. The lessons of benghazi are not only that i believe were sourcing security operations. Its also about the flow of information between the department and our foreign facilities within the department itself among all the agencies engage in International Work in between the departments and congress. The department should be assessing and regularly designating which posts it considers to be high threat and highrisk using that information to drive decisions about security and reporting to congress on security conditions at these posts. That resulted in an Adequate Security and that responsibility for these failures was shared by washington, u. S. Embassy in tripoli, and by the nonstatus special mission. This left it clear with the requirements were or should be. Clearly, that needs to change. There are two other crucial points made by the immense trait of review board that i think deserve attention on a larger scale of this committee. First, the emphasis on the growing challenge faced by the growing challenge of how to remain active in high threat environments and get out to conduct direct, local interaction required for effective diplomacy, remaining effective in the private sector while securing our embassies and protecting our people in these environments. Second, the administrative review board correctly points out that the department has been resource challenged for many years which has constrained our mission and led to the husbanding of resources to such a degree that restricting the use of resources has become a conditioned response. This is to say decisions being made more on cost than need and value. The answer cannot be to cut more from other Foreign Affairs accounts. That fails to recognize diplomacy and foreign aid about down payments that yield dividends in terms of goodwill, open borders for the export of american products, protection of intellectual property and cooperation on security and counterterrorism. There is a lot to discuss. Welcome. We appreciate your time. On a personal note, i speak fori speak for many when i say you have been an outstanding secretary of state, and exemplary representative of American Foreign policy and values an interest to every leader around the world. You change the face of america abroad and extended the hospital for each of our nation to ordinary citizens in addition to world leaders. During your tenure you steer tester economic crisis in europe, changing relations and asia, and momentous transition in libya, and the trend toward global strength based on economics rather than arms. I appreciate the fact that you used your office to aggressively implement sanctions. Fact that you use your office to aggressively implement sanctions against iran. I think are the most traveled secretary in history. You supported and met with those individuals who do not live in the limelight, women, children, women, children, the Lgbt Community and religious. You made a difference in the personal lives of so many people and for that you have thanks of a grateful natio we thank you for your service. We think you for your service here in the senate and a secretary of state, we welcome you back anytime to talk about the issues of the day, recognizing that you may not care to spend anymore time in in the chair than you already have. We certainly appreciate your incredible service. With that, let me turn to my friend and colleague, the new Ranking Member of the community. Think mr. Chairman. Thank you for your comments and also first following through as we have all discussed to have this hearing today. Want to welcome the new Community Members and i know therell be a time to talk about Committee Going forward. In many ways this is closing up business from before. I think you very much for having this hearing and look forward to working with everybody on the committee. Mme. Sec. , i want to thank you also. We have. We have had a number of conversations over the last several weeks and over 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 some Health Issues and still undergoing and yet you are here today, i think we all respect the tremendous amount of hard work you put forth over the last four years. You probably traveled more than any other secretary of state in history. You came at your job in a way that we all thought you would with hard work, diligence, i know all of us appreciate the transparency for which you talk to all of us. I do want to say that benghazi, 12 us represents a lot of different things. In some ways, the aftermath in particular what we saw represents the very worst of washington. The most bizarre briefing i have ever attended was a briefing we had on september 20 where the Intelligence Community said more than nothing and it was a bizarre briefing at that. I happened in the middle of a Political Campaign and there is a lot of spin from the white house, a lot of comments made on both sides of the aisle which heightened the focus on benghazi. It also represented a department that in many weight 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 is today. I think after reading the arb it also represented, to me a committee that has never done its work, or at least in the six years i have been here has never done the kind of oversight that this committee ought to do. I think it also represents an awakening. I know you have known this and especially many of the members of this committee have known this, the spiking of the b the arab spring has ushered in a time where al qaeda is on the rise. The world is in many ways more dangerous as we lack a Central Command and instead have these notes that are scattered which creates an opportunity to develop policy that really addresses the world as it really yesterday. And thirdly, mdm. Thirdly, madam secretary, i know that it was a great personal loss to you that Chris Stevens died in a way that he did and his colleagues died in the way that they did. I was on the ground in libya immediately after this. I know you have experienced this, but to look at the faces of those on the ground in libya