Sen. John Kerry Holds a Hearing On Foreign Policy Priorities in the President's Fy2010 International Affairs Budget

Political Transcript Wire › September 30, 2009

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Sen. John Kerry Holds a Hearing On Foreign Policy Priorities in the President's Fy2010 International Affairs Budget

SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS HOLDS A HEARING ON FOREIGN POLICY PRIORITIES IN THE PRESIDENT'S F.Y. 2010 INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS BUDGET

MAY 20, 2009

SPEAKERS: SEN. JOHN KERRY, D-MASS. CHAIRMAN SEN. CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, D-CONN. SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD, D-WIS. SEN. BARBARA BOXER, D-CALIF. SEN. ROBERT MENENDEZ, D-N.J. SEN. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, D-MD. SEN. BOB CASEY, D-PA. SEN. JIM WEBB, D-VA. SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN, D-N.H. SEN. EDWARD E. "TED" KAUFMAN, D-DEL. SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, D-N.Y.

SEN. RICHARD G. LUGAR, R-IND. RANKING MEMBER SEN. BOB CORKER, R-TENN. SEN. JIM DEMINT, R-S.C. SEN. JOHNNY ISAKSON, R-GA. SEN. JOHN BARRASSO, R-WYO. SEN. JIM RISCH, R-IDAHO SEN. ROGER WICKER, R-MISS.

WITNESSES: SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON

[*] KERRY: Well, this hearing will come to order. And we have seven senators present.

Madam Secretary, we're delighted, obviously, to welcome you here, but we are going to try to have a business meeting and get two of your folks out of here as fast as we can. So I know you won't object to that if we interrupt, but we do need 10 senators here to do it. So we'll wait until we get the requisite number.

Meanwhile, let me just say how pleased we are to have you up here. This is the first time that you've testified before the Senate since your confirmation hearing. And it's obvious to everybody here that you've been enormously busy from that moment on.

I read just the other day that at the end of last month you traveled 74,107 miles, logged over 157 hours in the air, visited some 22 countries. So we're really happy for you to have a very short trip for you today to come up here from Foggy Bottom and testify on the budget.

It's only been four months, but for every member of this committee and the Congress, and, I think, for the country it's been heartening to see diplomacy restored to its rightful place: at the forefront of American foreign policy.

This administration with the president's and your leadership has quickly turned the rhetoric of engagement into some promising new realities on the ground. The dialogue that you have offered to Iran and that we hope will occur, and Syria; the resetting of relations with Russia; reaching out to Latin America and China; reviving the Middle East peace process; recommitting to Afghanistan and Pakistan; really there isn't a corner of the globe that's been untouched by the administration's diplomatic initiatives, and there certainly isn't a vexing challenge that you haven't tackled head on.

As we all know, if we're going to realize the promise of these opening days, there's a lot of work yet to do. In a globalized world, it's become trite, but nevertheless it is important to remember how interconnected all of our problems are, and ultimately, therefore, our security.

And that's why we do need a new level of commitment to diplomacy and development, and the budget you've come here to testify on today, we believe, I believe helps to move us in that direction.

We obviously have to address weak and failed states, as well as strong states. And we need to reach new understandings with China and India and the developing world to avert catastrophic climate change and put low carbon technologies into the hands of billions of people.

We need to find ways to bolster vulnerable allies in places like the West Bank, Pakistan and Afghanistan. And we need to find new ways to speak to disenfranchised populations and to address the conditions that empower extremists.

So it's clear that even as we confront an economic crisis here at home, we can't delay the task of strengthening our diplomatic and development capacity. We can't afford to come up short on the promises that have been made to allies and to vulnerable populations, and to the world.

I know you are determined, and we want to help you seize this opportunity to make significant strides toward restoring America's leadership role. And we believe that in doing so we will make the world safer and we will make us safer.

The president's fiscal year 2010 request of $53.8 billion for International Affairs recognizes these realities and begins to marshal the resources to address them.

It starts the process of rebuilding our diplomatic and development operations and significantly increases the size of the Foreign Service, providing 800 additional officers to the State Department and 350 additional Foreign Service officers to USAID.

It puts the United States on a path to double foreign assistance by 2015. It vastly increases our civilian assistance to Pakistan and sets us on a course toward redefining our relationship with the people of Pakistan -- something that Senator Lugar an...

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