Hillary Clinton Confirmed and Sworn-in as U.S. Secretary of State

22 January 2009

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Former President Bill Clinton, and Associate Judge Kathleen Oberly

On Wednesday, January 21, the United States Senate confirmed Hillary Rodham Clinton as the 67th Secretary of State by an overwhelming 94-2 vote, announced U.S. Ambassador to Poland, Victor Ashe.  Sen. Hillary Clinton was officially sworn in as the Secretary of State in a private ceremony in Clinton's Russell Senate office and resigned from the U.S. Senate immediately after by signing identical one-sentence letters to Vice President Joe Biden, and New York Governor David Paterson.  Kathleen Oberly, Associate Judge, District of Columbia Court of Appeals performed the ceremony using the bible that belonged to Hillary Clinton's late father. Former President Clinton was also present at the ceremony.

The Secretary of State is appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate and serves as the President’s chief foreign affairs adviser. The Secretary carries out the President’s foreign policies through the State Department and the Foreign Service of the United States.  During nomination hearings to be Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton called for the use of “smart power” and emphasized that foreign policy must be based on “a marriage of principles and pragmatism, not rigid ideology, on facts and evidence, not emotion or prejudice.”  She further stated that the New President and Secretary of State would have to use the full range of tools at their disposal: diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural.  “With smart power, diplomacy will be the vanguard of our foreign policy,” she said.