Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary Of State Nominee

In April 2008, Clinton signed a letter to the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies calling for an investment of $70 million for the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) and $270.3 million for state and local air quality grants. The letter said such an investment would "go a long way toward helping states and localities meet the nation's clear air standards by encouraging the use of cost-effective emissions reduction strategies."

Immigration
As a New York senator, Clinton's voting record on immigration has been mixed. In May of 2006, she voted in favor of the Senate Immigration Reform Bill (PDF), which allowed for the establishment of a guest-worker program, increased border security, including a virtual wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. That bill, which never made it into law, also established criminal penalties for immigrants who illegally enter the country and those who employ undocumented workers. Clinton voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006 but against the separate amendment making English the country's official language. That bill, which was largely viewed as an anti-immigrant action (WashTimes), eventually passed.

Clinton opposed an amendment (FOX) to the 2007 immigration reform bill that would have prevented criminals from becoming citizens.

Although she initially said she supported a measure (BosGlobe) to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, she said in November 2007 that she opposes the idea. In a January 2008 Democratic debate, Clinton said giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants could put them "at risk, because that is clear evidence that they are not here legally."

United Nations
Clinton has praised the United Nations, and said in 2002 that "whenever possible we should work through it and strengthen it, for it enables the world to share the risks and burdens of global security and when it acts, it confers a legitimacy that increases the likelihood of long-term success." But, she said, the United Nations "often lacks the cohesion to enforce its own mandates." In the period before the Iraq war began, Clinton urged the Bush administration to allow the United Nations to complete weapons inspections before invading. Clinton has criticized Bush's decision to invade before that point, saying that UN inspectors were "the last line of defense against the possibility that our intelligence was false." In that February 2005 speech at the Munich Conference on Security Policy, Clinton also expressed support for then-Secretary General Kofi Annan's reform efforts.

In February 2008, Clinton called the United Nations "an essential arena for political debate among nations," but, she warned, the UN "we must not let it be misused as a forum for anti-Semitism or incitement against any group." She promised to "resolutely fight all efforts to inject anti-Semitism, hatred and discrimination" into the agenda of the UN Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa scheduled for 2009.

U.S. Policy toward Russia
Clinton favors diplomacy toward Russia with the goal of promoting democracy there and reducing nuclear stockpiles. In a November 2007 Foreign Affairs article, Clinton pledged to "negotiate an accord that substantially and verifiably reduces the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals."