Clinton to appear before Congress over Benghazi attack Although the deaths in Benghazi, Libya, have faded from the headlines, the stakes for Clinton remain high. She is widely considered a leading contender for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, and Benghazi could be a black mark. The televised hearings represent a rare opportunity for Republicans to put her on the spot. Hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee were delayed by Clinton's unusual sick leave and hospitalization for a blood clot in her head. Clinton returned to work this month after a month away, but she has had relatively few public appearances. Her entrance to President Obama's inauguration Monday, on the arm of former President Bill Clinton, was many Americans" first view of Clinton since her illness. Republicans insisted that Clinton appear in person to describe what her department is doing to address severe shortfalls identified by an independent audit and threatened to hold up confirmation of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as her successor until she did so. Clinton is expected to give an accounting of actions to address the audit's many safety and bureaucratic recommendations, but she is unlikely to say much that her deputies did not explain when they testified last month before the same panels. "Members of Congress will have a chance to hear what the secretary has to say but also to ask her any remaining questions that they have on this matter," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday. Republicans are expected to ask Clinton whether the administration withheld documents or witnesses from Congress or investigators, and about the lack of progress investigating the deaths of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, diplomat Sean Smith and CIA contractors Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods. House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said he appreciated Clinton's willingness to testify. "It is important to learn all we can about what happened in Benghazi because at the end of the day, it could happen again," Royce said in a statement. After all, al-Qaeda and associated groups plan to attack over and over again, as we saw most recently in Algeria. Clinton has pledged to adopt all of the 29 recommendations from the independent Accountability Review Board, which include changes to the way diplomatic facilities in dangerous areas would be built and staffed. She's been overseeing that work. She's been pushing it along," with the goal of beginning work on each of the agenda items before she leaves office, Nuland said. One senior State Department manager resigned and three others were disciplined. Those targeted were well below Clinton and her senior aides, and some Republicans are expected to question whether blame went high enough up the bureaucratic ladder. The sessions Wednesday come one day before Kerry's Senate hearing to replace Clinton as secretary. Clinton, who lost the Democratic nomination to Obama in 2008, had always said she would serve only one term in his Cabinet. She has brushed aside questions about her political future, saying she looks forward only to rest and reflection. Bill Clinton, however, didn't rule out another presidential run for his wife, if she "thinks this is the right thing for her and for America and for the world." "If she does, she should do it, and if she doesn't, she shouldn't," he said at a conference of his Clinton Foundation this month. Her health would not be an obstacle, the former president said. "I tell her that, you know, she's still got time to have three more husbands after me," he said. I think she'll live to be 120.