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National Security & Foreign Policy Priorities in the FY 2013 International Affairs Budget
Testimony
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of StateTestimony Before the Senate Foreign Relations CommitteeWashington, DCFebruary 28, 2012
Thank you very much, and I greatly appreciate Chairman Kerry, Ranking Member Lugar, members of the committee to be here once again to have this opportunity. And I want thank you for the support that this committee has given to the State Department and USAID over the last three quite consequential and unpredictable years. And I especially am grateful for the very kind words about our diplomats and development experts who are serving around the world, some in very difficult circumstances.You have seen the world transforming right before your eyes, from Arab revolutions to the rise of new economic powers to a more dispersed but still dangerous al-Qaida and terrorist network. And in this time, only the United States of America has the reach, resources, and relationships to anchor a more peaceful and prosperous world. The State Department and USAID budget we discuss today is a proven investment in our national and economic security, but it is also something more. It is a down payment on America’s leadership.
When I took this job, I saw a world that needed America, but also one that questioned our focus and our staying power. So we have worked together to put American leadership on a firm foundation for the decades ahead. We have ended one war and are winding down another. We have cemented our place as a Pacific power. We have also maintained our alliance across the Atlantic. We have elevated the role of economics within our diplomacy, and we have reached beyond governments to engage directly with people with a special focus on women and girls.
We are updating diplomacy and development for the 21st century and finding ways to work smarter and more efficiently. And after the first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, we created two new bureaus, taking the work we were already doing on counterterrorism and combining it with other assets within the State Department to create a much more focused effort on counterterrorism and on energy. And I really commend Senator Lugar, because it was his idea. It was his talking with me when I was visiting with him prior to my confirmation that made me determined that we would actually accomplish this. And we have reorganized our assets into a bureau focused on fragile states.
Now, like many Americans in these tough economic times, we have certainly made difficult tradeoffs and painful cuts. We have requested 18 percent less for Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia, preserving our most essential programs and using the savings for more urgent needs elsewhere. We are scaling back construction of our embassies and consulates, improving procurement to save money, and taking steps across the board to lower costs.
Our request of 51.6 billion represents an increase of less than the rate of inflation and just over 1 percent of the federal budget, and this is coming at the very same time that our responsibilities are multiplying around the world.
Today, I want briefly to highlight five priorities.
First, our request allows us to sustain our vital national security missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and reflects the temporary extraordinary costs of operating on the front lines. As President Obama has said, the tide of war is receding, but as troops come home, thankfully, civilians remain to carry out the critical missions of diplomacy and development.
In Iraq, civilians are now in the lead, helping that country emerge as a stable, sovereign, democratic power. This increases our civilian budget, but State and USAID are asking for only one-tenth of the $48 billion the U.S. Government spent on Iraq as recently as 2011. The 2013 U.S. Government-wide request for Iraq, including defense spending, is now $40 billion less than it was just two years ago. So we are doing what must be done to try to normalize our relationship at a far lower cost than what we have been expending.
Over time, despite the tragic violence of this past week, we expect to see similar government-wide savings in Afghanistan. This year’s request will support the ongoing transition, helping Afghans take responsibility for their own security and their own future, and ensuring that this country is never again a safe haven for terrorists.
We remain committed to working on issues of joint interest with Pakistan, including counterterrorism, economic stability, and regional cooperation.
Second, in the Asia Pacific, the Administration is making an unprecedented effort to build a strong network of relationships and institutions, because we believe, in the century ahead, no region will be more consequential to our economic and security future. As we tighten our belts around the world, we are investing the diplomatic attention necessary to do more with less. In Asia, we are pursuing what I call forward-deployed diplomacy – strengthening our alliances, launching new strategic dialogues and economic initiatives, creating and joining important multilateral institutions, even pursuing a possible opening with Burma – all of which underscores America will remain a Pacific power.
Third, we are focused on the wave of change sweeping the Arab world. As the nation transforms, so must our engagement. Alongside our bilateral and security support, we are proposing a $770 million Middle East and North Africa Incentive Fund. This fund will support credible proposals validated by rigorous analysis and by Congress from countries that make a meaningful commitment to democratic change, effective institutions, and broad-based economic growth. In an unpredictable time, it lets us respond to unanticipated needs in a way that reflects both our agility and our leadership in the region.
This budget request would also allow us to help the Syrian people survive a brutal assault and plan for a future without Assad. It continues our assistance for civil society and Arab partners in Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and elsewhere. It provides a record level of support for our ally Israel and it makes possible our diplomacy at the UN and around the world, which has now put in place, with your help, the toughest sanctions that I think any country has ever faced against Iran.
The fourth priority is what I call economic statecraft; in particular, how we use diplomacy and development to create American jobs. We’ve more than 1,000 State Department economic officers working to help American businesses connect to new markets and consumers. We are pushing back every day against corruption, red tape, favoritism, distorted currencies, and intellectual property theft.
Our investment in development also helps us create the trading partners of the future. We have worked closely on three trade agreements that we believe will create tens of thousands of jobs in America, and we hope to work with Congress to ensure that as Russia enters the WTO, foreign competitors do not have an advantage over American businesses.
And finally, we are elevating development alongside diplomacy and defense. Poverty, disease, hunger, climate change can destabilize societies and sow the seeds for future conflicts. We think we need to make strategic investments today in order that we can meet our traditional foreign policy goals in the future. Through the Global Health Initiative, through our Feed the Future Initiative, we are consolidating programs, increasing our partners’ capacity, shifting responsibilities to host countries, and making an impact in areas of health and hunger that will be a real credit to our country going forward.
And as we transform development, we really have to deliver measurable results. Our long-term objective must be to empower people to create and seize their own futures.
These five priorities are each crucial to American leadership, and they rely on the work of some of the most capable, hardest working, and bravest people I’ve ever met: the men and women of State and USAID. Working with them is one of the greatest honors I’ve had in public life.
With so much on the line, from the Arab world to the Asia Pacific, we simply cannot pull back. Investments in American leadership did not cause our fiscal challenges, and retreating from the world will not solve them.
Let me end on a personal note. American leadership means a great deal to me personally. It is my job everywhere I go. And after three years, 95 countries, and over 700,000 miles, I know very well what it means to land in a plane that says the United States of America on the side. People look to us to protect our allies; stand by our principles; serve as an honest broker in making peace; to fight hunger, poverty, and disease; to stand up to bullies and tyrants everywhere. American leadership is not just respected. It is required. And it takes more than just resolve. It takes resources.
This country is an unparalleled force for good in the world, and we all want to make sure it stays that way. So I would urge you to work with us to make this investment in strong American leadership and the more peaceful and prosperous future that I believe will result. Thank you.
I know, I know – I have zero objectivity when it comes to Hillary, but can you think of any other SOS who was able to articulate clearly and succinctly such a coherent mission? Nobody does it better.
Mr President, put her on the ticket. You need her. It should alarm you that if the election were held today, you’d be in a dead heat with Romney in the popular vote, and in trouble in key swing states.
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ALL zero objectivity re: HRC is absolved on this site. I confess my bias on a regular basis. I have NEVER seen an SOS like this! My memory goes back (vaguely because I was young) to John Foster Dulles. I have never seen anyone do it the way she does. “Obama
As far as the ticket goes, early ads on the Facebook sidebar just said “Obama.” Now they say “Obama * Biden.” I doubt that substitution will happen.
Until Romney won both primaries tonight I thought the GOP would scramble for a dark horse (Jeb Bush – I figured). Looks like it will be Romney, and it will be very close.
All that aside, she said this week that all procedures have been unsuccessful at removing politics from her blood. She’s gonna be up to something! Her condition is chronic and incurable!
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I’m going to wait and see who the VP nominee is before counting out a switch.
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I honestly don;t think that switch is going to happen. World Bank, either.
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If she is still interested in US politics working in the world Bank is akin to being shipped off to Siberia.
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As is SCOTUS and all the other nonsense they come up with. (I am waiting for that one to resurface.)
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I think she’s far more likely to get involved running Vital Voices or some other women-centric charity.
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I am not betting on ANYTHING!
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Except that Rick Sanctimonium would be more comfortable in 1220 as opposed to 2012? 😉
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Oh there is a need for that Hot Tub Time Machine!
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I am CC the following to Madame Secretary Hillary Clinton for serious consideration. Please forward.
Dear Senator Snowe,
Thank you for your honesty about the climate in Washington. I can truly understand how you would feel that you can do more outside of the Senate or for that matter the House of Representatives then in side either of those bodies.
Our media, social dialogue and now congress are all about radical right and left with each being more unworkable and outrageous for their 15 min media bite. They have gotten themselves elected by a minor base that won’t allow for reasonable government work to occur.
I feel such a loss that another moderate is walking away from Washington. Which is why I am asking you to do something for the American people? Would you please declare you candidacy for the Presidency and ask Hillary Clinton to be the Vice Presidential running mate? Not through your respective parties but through Americans Elect.org online selection process. If you do not want to be the Presidential part of the ticket then switch it or at least give the message that you’re open to the idea because a working government with workable people is the important goal here. That is the message that needs to catch on with the public. A message that says we do not have to be bullied by these radicals anymore because we now have available a process that can by passes parties who are taken over by these minority special interest with narrow selfish agendas.
If you would declare right away and campaign in earnest the amount of press coverage you would get could change so much for the better in this country. Even if you did not team up with Hillary to start or even ever but just say something like I would love to have Hillary as a running mate, you know someone with that kind of work ethic that has a long history of a real working commitment to public service. A moderate Democrat with a different perspective then my own but still understands it is about building consensus and getting things done for the good of Americans and America.
I honestly believe that the two of you can bring hope and inspire the silent majority of Americans and America so much that it will bring on sweeping change for not only Washington but in our media as well. You two together using Americanselect.org really could give courage to all those Americans who now feel shut out. I also feel that the two of you as a team would actually really and truly win. You both have a huge national support base of moderates and together it is way bigger than any current candidates running narrow radical base.
If only you as this team would catch the vision of what the two of you could change not only within our election process but the facts of the matter are that you would start a whole new non party-party of moderates working together in Washington. This should cause even the Democratic and Republican Parties and their respective media supporters to step back from the unworkable radical elements within their own parties. Please consider this matter seriously, thank you.
Sincerely & Respectfully,
Roger Ryan
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It will always break my heart that Hillary is not our current president. I’m just hoping against hope that after much needed rest she decides to throw her hat in the ring in 2016.
It’s more than past the time to have a woman president, and not just any woman, but the best all around person: Hillary Clinton.
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Amen to THAT!
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There is a fair amount of non-fangirl credibility to the part of that comment you highlighted. On the off chance that retirement doesn’t agree with Secretary Clinton and she does decide to run for president again she may then be the most qualified candidate in modern memory – a successful lawyer and the spouse of a former two-term president who served for seven years in the US Senate before being appointed Secretary of State and serving there for four years. The fact that she would be the first woman to hold the office would pale in comparison to that resumé.
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More and more the threads are braiding into something that does not spell retirement. Watch Chelsea, Huma, Karen Finney. And of course ALWAYS watch and listen to the Country Squire. (He is the most transparent.)
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He’s backing that blasted pipeline, albeit with some changes. He so wishes he could run again.
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He says what she cannot. I wouldn’t use that adjective. There may be a way for that pipeline to be safe and productive,
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I apologize for my phrasing, and you are most likely correct, but I’m still very leary of putting a underground pipeline under the grain belt and through a major aquifer.
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Yes, which is why I am saying there may be a safe way. I take back the “he speaks for her” remark.
We should remember the times in the debates in 2008 when Obama was debating an imaginary WJC on the stage and HRC would say, “Well he’s not standing here right now.” Perhaps they truly disagree on this. I believe there could be a safe way, and I also think she was right – there was not sufficient time to study all the potentialities.
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