Foreign Policy

Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and John Thune (S.D.) demanded more information Thursday on a $249.1 million federal grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy through the 2009 stimulus, to a battery manufacturer that they say could soon be owned by a Chinese investor.

Grassley and Thune sent a letter this week to the chief executive officer of A123 Systems, a battery company based in Massachusetts, questioning whether U.S. tax dollars benefited a Chinese company.

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) urged Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday to lead a study on the exposure of U.S. financial institutions to the Europian economic crisis.

In a letter sent Wednesday, the lawmakers asked Geithner to lead the study through the Office of Financial Research (OFR), which he oversees, to evaluate the eurozone’s effect on the U.S. economy.

Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) called on the Defense Department to review its efforts to protect American diplomats worldwide Wednesday.

Their suggestion came after four Americans, including U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, were killed last month at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

GOP senators continued their criticism of the Obama administration on Tuesday for “incompetence” in handling the Libyan attack that killed four Americans, saying the administration is “misleading” the country about what truly happened.

“The Obama administration failed to sufficiently protect our consulate and diplomats in Benghazi in the face of obvious and growing threats in eastern Libya in the months leading up to the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack,” Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said in a statement Tuesday. “To make matters worse, the administration mishandled its response to the attack and appears to have selected intelligence that mischaracterized the attack and misled the American people.”

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said in Jerusalem on Friday that the world needs to work together to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of Iran and said failing to achieve this would be tantamount to sending Jews "back to the gas chambers."

"I have a problem with the approach that says 'Israel will take care of the Iranian threat,' " Franks said at the International Israel Allies Caucus Foundation convention in Jerusalem, according to Israel National News.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) called on the Obama administration on Wednesday to shield U.S. shipping companies from new taxes the European Union is threatening to impose in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"The European Union is threatening a new set of taxes on Americans," Sensenbrenner said. "After introducing an illegal tax on all flights to and from Europe, the EU announced that it wants to force a similar scheme on shipping.

Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didn’t provide them with the information they requested regarding the terrorist attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Last month, the two senators from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent a letter to Clinton requesting additional information on the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks, which resulted in four American deaths, or a timeline for when that information would be made available to members of the committee.

Three House Republicans are criticizing an educational trip to Cuba that they say led to a meeting with a fugitive from U.S. justice last year, and have called on President Obama to ensure that future visits do not allow these sorts of meetings to take place.

Travel to Cuba is allowed for several specific reasons, including educational activities, although they require a license from the State Department. But House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) said a 2011 trip went to far, and cited reports in The Daily Iowan that said a University of Iowa student was allowed to meet with someone wanted for a crime in the United States.

Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) called for democracies on Tuesday to demand a free and fair election in Venezuela.

Venezuela’s presidential election will take place this Sunday, between a young opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, and socialist President Hugo Chávez.

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) criticized the Obama administration Thursday for taking so long to confirm that the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya was linked to al Qaeda. 

“We recognize that al-Qaeda involvement in a terrorist attack that killed four Americans in Libya is an inconvenient truth for a president who claims to be destroying al-Qaeda,” Graham and McCain said in a statement Thursday. “But it is not too much to ask why the president and his administration have taken so long to state what has appeared obvious for a long time about what really happened in Benghazi on September 11, 2012.”