U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the greatest threat to American foreign policy is not the unrest in the Middle East or even an emerging China. It's Congress.

Kerry made that assertion in a speech at the University of Virginia Wednesday, as he addressed the looming budget cuts known as sequestration.

"Now I'm particularly aware that in many ways the greatest challenge to America's foreign policy today is in the hands not of diplomats, but of policy makers in Congress," Kerry said. '

'It's often said that we cannot be strong at home if we're not strong in the world," he added.

This was Kerry's first major foreign policy speech since taking over the U.S. State Department.