Foreign Policy

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) criticized the Obama administration Monday over security leaks he said were perpetrated by administration officials regarding U.S. affairs in the Middle East.

Risch, along with Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), Olympia Snowe (Maine), Richard Burr (N.C.), Dan Coats (Ind.), Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.), sent the administration a letter asking for information about the disclosure of classified information involving potential retaliation for the death of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, who was killed with three other Americans in the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012.

Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) is traveling to Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines this week to promote the dismantling of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

“Cooperation is essential to identifying and interdicting the flow of weapons of mass destruction through Southeast Asia,” Lugar said in a statement Monday. “Sources of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons or precursor materials could be states or rogue terrorist elements.”

A group of bipartisan female senators expressed their outrage to Pakistan's prime minister on Thursday over the recent Taliban attack of a 14-year-old girl. 

“As the women of the United States Senate, we are writing to express our outrage over the barbaric attack on fourteen-year old Malala Yousafzai and two other girls in a senseless act of violence,” the senators, led by Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), wrote in a letter to Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Thursday.

Sen. Rand Paul's (R-Ky.) political action committee has been buying ads against his colleagues who didn’t vote for his bill to end foreign aid to some Middle Eastern countries.

The Bucyrus Telegraph Forum reported Wednesday that Paul's PAC — Reinventing a New Direction, or RANDPAC — has been airing television ads that go after Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who’s in a tight reelection campaign against Republican Josh Mandel, for voting "to send billions of our taxpayer dollars to countries where radicals storm our embassies, burn our flag and kill our diplomats."

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said Monday that President Obama is “punting” on Chinese currency manipulation until after the election.

“Just a few weeks ago, President Obama traveled to Ohio to talk tough on China, vowing to level the playing field for American workers, farmers and businesses and protect them against China’s unfair trade practices,” Portman said in a statement Monday. “His decision to punt the currency report due today until after the election, however, is further evidence his tough talk is just that, talk.”

The trio of Senate Republicans leading the criticism of President Obama's handling of the terrorist attack in Libya said the president isn't off the hook just because Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took responsibility for failing to protect the four Americans who died on Sept. 11.

“This is a laudable gesture, especially when the White House is trying to avoid any responsibility whatsoever,” Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a joint statement.

"I take responsibility," Clinton told CNN Monday evening. "I'm in charge of the State Department's 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts."

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) negotiated a long-term deal with Anheuser-Busch InBev — the world’s largest brewing company — on Monday.

Baucus was visiting the European Union capital city of Brussels, Belgium, as part of a trade mission to promote Montana jobs. He secured the continued sale of Montana malt barley to the beer manufacturer.

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.