Foreign Policy

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Thursday that it’s about time the Senate Select Intelligence Committee scheduled a hearing on the recent terrorist attack in Libya.

“I'm glad the Senate Intelligence Committee will finally get a chance to investigate this matter, but the truth is this hearing should have been held weeks ago,” Rubio said in a statement Thursday.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) called for the U.S. Army to investigate reports of misconduct by a police-training contractor in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

In a letter McCaskill sent Army Secretary John McHugh on Tuesday, she pointed to reports of a bar brawl, loud parties, drug and alcohol abuse and fraud, among the allegations against Jorge Scientific Corp. in Afghanistan, as well as uniformed and civilian Army officials.

“Given the importance of the police training mission in Afghanistan, swift and aggressive action to ensure that these allegations are fully investigated and the contractor and U.S. personnel involved are held accountable is imperative,” McCaskill wrote.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told New Hampshire voters Monday to ask President Obama why Marines weren’t protecting the U.S. Consulate in Libya when Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed last month.

“Where the hell were the Marines? In Libya, where were the Marines? There were no uniformed Marines guarding our ambassador? Where do you think the most dangerous embassy in the world is? It’s got to be Libya or Iraq,” Paul said at an event in New Hampshire on Monday.

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.