Outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today that cuts to State Department funding have hampered efforts to secure diplomatic outposts around the world.
Citing a report by the department's Accountability Review Board on the security failures that led to the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, during an attack last year, Clinton said the board is pushing for an increase in funding to facilities of more than $2 billion per year.
"Consistent shortfalls have required the department to prioritize available funding out of security accounts," Clinton told the Senate this morning. "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."
Clinton choked up earlier in discussing the Benghazi attack.
"I stood next to President Obama as the Marines carried those flag-draped caskets off the plane at Andrews," Clinton said this morning, her voice growing hoarse with emotion. "I put my arms around the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters."
Clinton is the only witness giving long-awaited testimony before the Foreign Relations Committee right now, and will appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee at 2 p.m.
The secretary, who postponed her testimony in December, started today by giving context to the terrorist attack.
"Any clear-eyed examination of this matter must begin with this sobering fact," Clinton began. "Since 1988, there have been 19 Accountability Review Boards investigating attacks on American diplomats and their facilities."
Molly Riley/UPI via Newscom
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But the secretary did not deny her role in the failures, saying that as secretary of state, she has "no higher priority and no greater responsibility" than protecting American diplomats abroad like those killed in Benghazi.
"As I have said many times, I take responsibility, and nobody is more committed to getting this right," Clinton said. "I am determined to leave the State Department and our country safer, stronger and more secure."
More than four months have passed since the attack killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Libya. These meetings, during which Clinton discussed the report on State Department security failures by the Accountability Review Board, were postponed because of her recent illness.
Clinton told the Senate that the State Department is on track to have 85 percent of action items based on the recommendations in the Accountability Review Board report accomplished by March, with some already implemented.
The report led the State Department to relieve three employees of their posts -- while a fourth resigned -- because of "systemic failures and leadership deficiencies at senior levels in securing the compound."
The departing staffers are still on administrative leave, however, meaning they are still State department employees.
Clinton testified briefly before the Senate less than two weeks after the attack, an appearance that received considerable criticism from conservatives.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Clinton told the Senate "nothing" at that hearing.
"We were told absolutely nothing, all because it's an investigation going on," McCain said on the Senate floorSept. 21, 2012.
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., is presiding over the hearing on the Senate side, in place of out-going committee chair Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., whom President Obama has nominated to take over Clinton's position as secretary of State.
ABC News' Dana Hughes contributed to this report.
Clinton Answers for Benghazi Security Failures
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Clinton Answers for Benghazi Security Failures
