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Comments that have been made already by this committee, and by you, that this is action that we need to get moving on immediately, because we still have people at risk around the world, and we need to take the action that is going to insure their security. so, i would certainly urge the chairman and the ranking member to move the committee to do everything we can to make this happen. i want to go back to something that secretary nied said at the hearing on september 20th. because i asked him about the cooperation between the department of defense and what the situation was on the ground before the benghazi attack, in terms of the placement of our military in the region. he talked about the unprecedented cooperation between state and defense in response to benghazi. but i wonder if you could talk ....
Risen tremendously. at the current anticipated funding rate for fy-2013 the department estimates it will be able to construct just three new facilities despite the fact that there are a couple of dozen posts that now have been designated high-risk, high threat posts that need replacing right now. but the lessons of benghazi are not only about inadequately resourcing our security operations. it is also about the flow of information between the department and our foreign facilities. within the department itself among all the agencies engaged in international work and between the department and congress. the department should be assessing and regularly designating which posts it considers to be high threat and high-risk. using that information to drive decisions about security and reporting to congress on security conditions at these posts. the ad membership straight tiff review board also makes clear there were failures in benghazi that resulted in an inadequate security posture and that ....
Has recommended an increase in facilities funding to 2.2 billion per year to restore the construction levels called for in the 1998 arb report. the only other one that was ever public. and i would go back to something the chairman said because this was a point made in the arb. consistent shortfalls have required the department to prioritize available funding out of security accounts. and i will be the first to say that the prioritization process was at times imperfect but as the arb said the funds provided were inadequate. so we need to work together to overcome that. we are asking for funding for, for more marine security guards. for refilling the capital account so we can begin to do the kind of upgrades and construction that s needed. deputy secretary nides briefed house and senate appropriations and authorizing staff. we sent letters to the hours and understand leadership to ask for transfer authority ....
Security and i m just wondering if you might mention one reform that would be helpful, so that you would have known of the needs there of security that went undone? well, obviously i have thought about this almost constantly since that date, senator, because, you know, i do feel responsibility. i feel responsible for the nearly 70,000 people who work for the state department. i take it very seriously but the specific security requests pertaining to gauze dpauz benghazi, were handled by the security professionals in the department. i didn t see those requests. they didn t come to me. i didn t approve them. i didn t deny them. that s obviously one of the findings that ambassador pickering and admiral mullen made. these requests don t ordinarily come from the secretary of state. if we could, i respect you tremendously. ....
The other members of the committee have but to look at faces of those on the ground in libya, in a state of shock, people that we sent there, doing expeditionary diplomacy, who felt like they were on a tether and candidly did not have the support from washington they needed to do the things that they needed to do. so i think this is an opportunity for us to examine the systemic failures. i know that you re going to be, as per our conversation last night, as transparent as you have always been. i think this is a great opportunity for the incoming secretary to learn prowhat has happened. and i know that many times political appointees have great difficulties with the bureaucracy that exists within a department or sometimes people feel they can wait you out until the next person comes along. so i think this is an opportunity to for us to look at those failures. ....