[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6729-6730]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                BENGHAZI

  Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I wish to be heard on the issue of 
Benghazi. I wrote an op-ed piece on this because I absolutely cannot 
believe what is happening with our Republican friends on this issue.
  As a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, I can say I 
sat through the entire testimony of then-Secretary of State Hillary 
Clinton. Not only did she sit for hours, not only was she straight from 
the heart and straight from the shoulder, she took full responsibility 
for what went on, and she ordered an independent investigation which 
was launched by Admiral Mullen and Ambassador Pickering. They did an 
exhaustive study. What they found is that, unfortunately, we did not 
have enough security at that outpost. It was not an embassy, but it was 
definitely an outpost.
  There is a lot of talk going on about how could this happen--e-mails 
and all the rest. Let me focus on something very important. It takes 
funding to protect an embassy. It takes funding to protect a consulate. 
It takes funding to protect an outpost. Yes, it takes funding. Who cut 
the funds from embassy security? The Republicans in the House, that is 
who--hundreds of millions of dollars. If it were not for the Democrats, 
it would have been cut more, because when it came here, we stood our 
ground. We had to accommodate their cuts. That is how the process 
works. So I think the Benghazi ``scandal'' starts with the Republicans 
looking in the mirror. Mirror mirror, who is the fairest of them all? 
They ought

[[Page 6730]]

to ask: Mirror, mirror, who cut the funding for diplomatic security 
across this world for America? The answer: Republicans.
  They cannot stand the heat so they turn it on Secretary Clinton, and 
that is completely wrong. I believe if we want to know what happened in 
Benghazi, it starts with the fact that there was not enough security. 
There was not enough security because the budget was cut. Secretary 
Clinton said that she, in hindsight, should have definitely fought 
against it even harder than she did. But let the record show she 
predicted problems. When she saw the cuts--I don't have the exact quote 
in front of me but to paraphrase--she said there are going to be 
problems here. This budget is cut too much. And she was right.
  What about these talking points? I do not know if the Presiding 
Officer sits down with her staff to discuss how she is going to phrase 
something. I don't know whether the Presiding Officer does that or 
whether she just does it by herself. What I do or what most people do 
is they have a collaborative process. When we are trying to put out a 
press release with a whole number of agencies having to sign off on it, 
it is a collaborative process. At the end of the day, one statement was 
approved. The statement that was made by Susan Rice, her paraphrasing 
of the statement was: It looks like this started because of this 
protest, but we don't know for sure. We don't know and as soon as we 
know we will say.
  The day of or the day after what happened in Benghazi, the President 
of these United States, President Obama, stood and said this was a 
terror attack.
  Why are the Republicans playing politics with this? It is pretty 
clear. Their attack coincides with the Karl Rove ad against Secretary 
of State Hillary Clinton. They are going after her. Why? Because they 
are looking to the 2016 Presidential election.
  I have to say, keep politics out of the IRS, keep politics out of 
Benghazi. Don't take four beautiful Americans who died in a tragic 
fashion and play politics, 2016 politics, with it. It is an outrage.
  So I say they should start off by looking in the mirror, stepping to 
the plate, admitting that they cut too much from embassy security. If 
they want to hold a hearing on it, fine. If they want a hearing, they 
need to call the people to the table who can help us make sure this 
never happens again.
  I will continue to speak out on Benghazi, and I will continue to 
speak out on whatever issues my Republican friends are pounding on. At 
the end of the day, the bottom line is, Who cut the money for embassy 
security?
  If they want to divert attention from that, be my guest, but I will 
bring it home. Everyone knows if we had adequate security there, it 
could have well been a different outcome.


                                  WRDA

  If there are any Senators who have amendments, please come down to 
the Senate floor. Let's get this done. We hope to get this agreed to in 
a timely manner. Let's get to the amendments. There is a whole list of 
bipartisan amendments we believe have been cleared. Let's get this bill 
done.
  The rating we have been given from the engineers is a D-plus for our 
infrastructure. We need to deepen our ports and there needs to be more 
flex control. We need to invest in water infrastructure as well as 
restore our wetlands. We have a lot of work to do.
  We are entering into a period of time now where there is more and 
more extreme weather--weather we have never seen before. We need to 
make those investments to prevent the worst from happening. We saw what 
Superstorm Sandy, that one event cost: $60 billion. How does it make 
sense to pay after the fact? We need to invest.
  This bill has a lot of important reforms. People know we need to fix 
our infrastructure. We need to fix our roads, bridges, and water 
infrastructure. It has to be done. This bill will support 550,000 jobs, 
and Lord knows, people need that as well.
  I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. FISCHER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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