Army

Week ahead: Benghazi back in congressional spotlight

by Carlo Muñoz - 01/21/13 4:39 PM ET

This week, lawmakers will have two chances to hold the White House’s feet to the fire over its response to the attacks, which left four Americans dead, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

{mosads}Their first shot comes on Wednesday, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes her much-anticipated appearance before the House Foreign Relations Committees. She is also set to come before the Senate Foreign Relations panel to answer questions on the consulate strike.

Clinton had been scheduled to come before the House panel last year as part of the committee’s inquiry into the White House’s contradicting claims that the attack was the result of a public protest gone wrong.

That appearance was called off when Clinton was hospitalized for a concussion caused by a fall in December and a resulting blood clot in her head. While several State Department officials testified in her stead, GOP lawmakers demanded Clinton come to Capitol Hill to explain the department’s role in the Benghazi incident.

On Thursday, members of the Senate Foreign Relations panel are expected to grill Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on the administration’s handing of the attack and its aftermath during his confirmation hearing to replace Clinton as secretary of State.

Kerry was among several congressional Democrats who defended the White House’s decision to change its original story on Benghazi and label the assault a coordinated attack on the consulate by Libyan militants.

At the time, top White House officials, including Clinton and Vice President Biden, claimed a lack of timely intelligence led to the administration’s flawed initial assessment of the situation in Benghazi.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) are pushing for an independent review of all U.S. intelligence operations leading up to, during and after the deadly assault in Libya.

Aside from Benghazi, members of the House Armed Services Committee are also scheduled to hear testimony on the fallout from the rampant sexual assault incidents at the Air Force’s main training camp at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

Advocates for sexual assault victims — along with 78 House lawmakers — have pressed for the Armed Services panel to hold a public hearing on Lackland for several months.

They have criticized House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) for not doing enough to investigate the problems.

Protect Our Defenders, the group that has been most vocal about the Lackland scandal, organized a Twitter campaign last year to push for public hearings and a congressional investigation after the Armed Services panel had a closed-door briefing with Air Force Secretary Michael Donley.

So far, the scandal has resulted in 17 trainers being investigated for sexual assault or inappropriate relationships with as many as 42 female trainees. One instructor was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and the commander of basic training at the base was dismissed.

Late last year, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) briefly held up Senate confirmation of current Air Force Chief Gen. Mark Welch over concerns stemming from the Lackand scandal.

Cornyn eventually released his hold on the Welch nomination, but not before Defense Secretary Leon Panetta instituted new department-wide guidelines geared toward cracking down on cases of sexual abuse by service instructors.

The guidelines include a department-wide review of basic training procedures and policies, including the selection, training and oversight of instructors.

Part of those guidelines also include possibly implementing all-female drill instructors at the base to handle training of female cadets, Defense Department press secretary George Little told reporters last October.

Off the Hill, Senate Appropriations Committee member Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) will weigh in Thursday on the potential impacts of the White House’s sequestration plan on U.S. national security at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Coats, who beat out Rep. Brad Ellsworth (R-Ind.) to take the Senate seat vacated by former Sen. Evan Bayh in 2011, is expected to discuss how the $500 billion in defense cuts under sequestration will affect U.S. objectives across the globe.

Last Thursday, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) demanded in a letter that the Pentagon provide a detailed report on the potential fiscal impacts to the department should sequestration happen.

The report will include specific numbers of possible civilian furloughs and “hiring freezes” related to sequestration cuts, as well as information on “essential reprogramming actions” on DOD weapons programs, and it will lead “to a better understanding of the military risk posed by [sequestration] cuts,” Inhofe wrote.