Publisher's Synopsis
more than 275 posts around the world. Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty lost their lives on September 11, 2012, during terrorist attacks on the special mission in Benghazi. As a committee, we honor their service to our Nation and we grieve with their families, but we also resolve to take specific actions to prevent future incidents. We may not be able to prevent every single terrorist attack in the future, but we can-and we must-make sure that our embassies and employees, starting with those in high-risk, high-threat posts, are capable of withstanding such an attack. To that end, Secretary Clinton and the Department of State have embraced and agreed to implement all 29 of the Administrative Review Board's recommendations. Today we will hear more about the progress that the State Department has already made toward implementing many of these recommendations. But I would add that Congress is not without responsibility here. We also have an obligation to do our part to comply with the Administrative Review Board's recommendations. It is my intention to work with the members of the committee and the State Department in the coming months on legislation that will improve security and better protect our employees. One of the first and easiest things we can do is ensure that the State Department's contracting rules allow for sufficient flexibility to allow them to quickly make decisions where security is at risk and to hire local guards, not only on the basis of the lowest price technically acceptable, but also on a best-value basis, to ensure that we are not just checking the box when it comes to securing our buildings and protecting our people
