New Foreign Affairs chairwoman: Iran 'No. 1, No. 2, No. 3' on agenda

[Geee]

The Hill:

A senior House Republican is putting Iran and its nuclear program at the top of her aggressive agenda in the next Congress.

Taking the helm of the House Foreign Affairs Committee next month, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said Iran is “No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3” on the panel's to-do list.

Oversight will be stepped up, she said, while noting the limitations of legislation that passes her committee.
“The bills that we pass become interesting historical documents but not really bills that have been implemented,” the Florida Republican said, referring to bipartisan congressional efforts to pass tough Iran sanctions. “And so we want to put an end to that. Can we do it? We can't force the administration to do it.

“But we hope to have oversight hearings that will ask the administration, ‘Why aren't you sanctioning more banks and companies and countries? What are we doing and what are you waiting for?’” Ros-Lehtinen said.

[Valin]

Washington Post: Ros-Lehtinen ready to shake up foreign policy establishment

By Jennifer Rubin

 

The new House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) is unabashedly delighted to be taking the gavel in hand and, with it, to start taking on a raft of foreign policy issues. She began a phone interview with me yesterday with cheery informality: "Hi, this is Ileana." And she declared up front her plans for the committee: "We are going to have great fun taking about freedom and democracy."

 

She was careful not to overstate her committee's jurisdiction, noting that she does not chair the appropriations committee. She emphasized, however: "What we can do is shake the tree. There is always a better way to do things. Certainly, the State Department and international organizations can learn to do better." What she offers, she continued, is a forum for challenging "the tone, the tenor and the policy" of the administration. And she thinks there is a fundamental change needed. "We should stand with our allies and isolate our friends," she said. "Not the other way around."

 

She stressed that part of her focus is on making sure taxpayer money is well spent. ("The State Department works for the taxpayers. I work for the taxpayers.") But that is not what gets her juices flowing. She wants to play a role in "promoting the interests of the United States of America -- not being ashamed of American exceptionalism. We need to get back to the basics and make no apologies."

 

(Snip)

 

Yes, she is a blunt woman, in stark contrast to the State Department's evasive and overly-cautious language. And she intends to grill the administration on foreign policy failures. I asked about our North Korea policy, and she fired back, "What is our policy? What have we accomplished?" She noted that the policy failure began under the Bush administration and has continued. Now, she cautioned, "it is an increasingly aggressive state," while China, she argued, has distinguished itself "by its refusal to rein in" its neighbor. She urged the U.S. to impose new sanctions and "to immediately relist North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism." And she castigated the Bush administration for removing the regime from the list: "It was part of naive engagement. It didn't work then and it doesn't work now."

 

Shifting to Russia, she argued against ratification of the START treaty, making the case that "it will put us in a strategic straight-jacket." As Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) has been doing, she argues that "the administration has not satisfactorily answered questions" on verification and missile defense. And she said that entering into a nuclear co-operation agreement with Russia is a mistake. She asserted, "We have no business entering into an agreement with a country that has such a miserable record on proliferation." She argued that "we can't even verify" the extent of Russian proliferation activities.

 

(snip)

[Casino67]

Don't the R's get the chairs when they take over in January?