Secretary of state followed by the rest of the Cabinet. President Barack Obama named Hillary Clinton as his choice for 67th Secretary of State on December 1, 2008. She was confirmed on January 21, 2009, the day after Obama's inauguration and is the third woman to hold the position. On December 21, 2012 President Obama announced his choice for Secretary of State during his second term, Senator John Kerry. His confirmation hearing took place on January 24, 2013, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The committee unanimously voted to approve him on January 29, 2013, and the same day the full Senate confirmed
Secretary of state Terras. Before the Soviet re-occupation in 1944, the State Secretary went into exile until the position came back to Estonia in 1992. A state secretary (), is the highest official below each minister. Ministers, who lead ministries (government departments), comprise the Finnish Government. Each state secretary is appointed for the term of the minister and is responsible to the minister. This is a new arrangement; during the introduction of this model, a secretary was called "political state secretary" (). In contrast, previously only two ministries, Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs, used to have state secretaries, who were permanently appointed.