| Senate Foreign Relations Committee | |
| Type: | standing |
| Chamber: | senate |
| Congress: | 118th |
| Status: | active |
| Formed: | 1816 |
| Chair: | Ben Cardin |
| Chair Party: | D |
| Chair Since: | September 27, 2023 |
| Ranking Member: | Jim Risch |
| Rm Party: | R |
| Rm Since: | February 3, 2021 |
| Seats: | 21 members |
| Majority1: | D |
| Majority1 Seats: | 11 |
| Minority1: | R |
| Minority1 Seats: | 10 |
| Policy Areas: | Foreign policy, aid, diplomacy |
| Oversight: | Department of State Agency for International Development |
| Counterpart: | House Committee on Foreign Affairs |
| Meeting Place: | 423 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. |
| Chamber Rules: | Rule XXV.1.(j), Standing Rules of the Senate |
| Committee Rules: | Rules of the Committee on Foreign Relations |
The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the U.S. Senate charged with leading foreign-policy legislation and debate in the Senate. It is generally responsible for authorizing and overseeing foreign aid programs; arms sales and training for national allies; and holding confirmation hearings for high-level positions in the Department of State.[1] Its sister committee in the House of Representatives is the Committee on Foreign Affairs.[2]
Along with the Finance and Judiciary committees, the Foreign Relations Committee is among the oldest in the Senate, dating to the initial creation of committees in 1816.[3] It has played a leading role in several important treaties and foreign policy initiatives throughout U.S. history, including the Alaska purchase, the establishment of the United Nations, and the passage of the Marshall Plan. The committee has also produced eight U.S. presidents—Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Benjamin Harrison, Warren Harding, John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden (Buchanan and Biden serving as chairman)—and 19 secretaries of state. Notable members have included Arthur Vandenberg, Henry Cabot Lodge, and William Fulbright.
The Foreign Relations Committee is considered one of the most powerful and prestigious in the Senate, due to its long history, broad influence on U.S. foreign policy, jurisdiction over all diplomatic nominations, and its being the only Senate committee to deliberate and report treaties.
From 2021 to 2023, the Foreign Relations Committee was chaired by Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, until he stepped down as chair after facing federal corruption charges.
In 1943, a confidential analysis of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by British scholar Isaiah Berlin for the Foreign Office stated:[4]
Between 1887 and 1907, Alabama Democrat John Tyler Morgan played a leading role on the committee. Morgan called for a canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through Nicaragua, enlarging the merchant marine and the Navy, and acquiring Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Cuba. He expected Latin American and Asian markets would become a new export market for Alabama's cotton, coal, iron, and timber. The canal would make trade with the Pacific much more feasible, and an enlarged military would protect that new trade. By 1905, most of his dreams had become reality, with the canal passing through Panama instead of Nicaragua.[5] During World War II, the committee took the lead in rejecting traditional isolationism and designing a new internationalist foreign policy based on the assumption that the United Nations would be a much more effective force than the old discredited League of Nations. Of special concern was the insistence that Congress play a central role in postwar foreign policy, as opposed to its ignorance of the main decisions made during the war.[6] Republican senator Arthur Vandenberg played the central role.[7]
In 1966, as tensions over the Vietnam War escalated, the committee set up hearings on possible relations with Communist China. Witnesses, especially academic specialists on East Asia, suggested to the American public that it was time to adopt a new policy of containment without isolation. The hearings Indicated that American public opinion toward China had moved away from hostility and toward cooperation. The hearings had a long-term impact when Richard Nixon became president, discarded containment, and began a policy of détente with China.[8] The problem remained of how to deal simultaneously with the Chinese government on Taiwan after formal recognition was accorded to the Beijing government. The committee drafted the Taiwan Relations Act (US, 1979) which enabled the United States both to maintain friendly relations with Taiwan and to develop fresh relations with China.[9]
In response to conservative criticism that the state department lacked hardliners, President Ronald Reagan in 1981 nominated Ernest W. Lefever as Assistant Secretary of State. Lefever performed poorly at his confirmation hearings and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations rejected his nomination by vote of 4–13, prompting Lefever to withdraw his name.[10] Elliot Abrams filled the position.
Republican senator Jesse Helms, a staunch conservative, was committee chairman in the late 1990s. He pushed for reform of the UN by blocking payment of U.S. membership dues.[11]
Bertie Bowman served as a staffer on the FRC from 1966 to 1990 and as the hearing coordinator from 2000 to 2021.[12] [13]
See main article: 118th United States Congress.
See main article: 117th United States Congress.
See main article: 116th United States Congress.
| Subcommittees | Chair | Ranking Member | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Africa and Global Health Policy | Lindsey Graham (R-SC) | Tim Kaine (D-VA) | |
| East Asia, The Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy | Cory Gardner (R-CO) | Ed Markey (D-MA) | |
| Europe and Regional Security Cooperation | Ron Johnson (R-WI) | Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) | |
| Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism | Mitt Romney (R-UT) | Chris Murphy (D-CT) | |
| Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy and Environmental Policy | Todd Young (R-IN) | Jeff Merkley (D-OR) | |
| State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development | John Barrasso (R-WY) | Cory Booker (D-NJ) | |
| Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights and Global Women's Issues | Marco Rubio (R-FL) | Ben Cardin (D-MD) |
| Subcommittees | Chair | Ranking Member | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism | Jim Risch (R-ID) | Tim Kaine (D-VA) | |
| Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights and Global Women's Issues | Marco Rubio (R-FL) | Ben Cardin (D-MD) since February 6, 2018 Bob Menendez (D-NJ) until February 6, 2018 | |
| Europe and Regional Security Cooperation | Ron Johnson (R-WI) | Chris Murphy (D-CT) | |
| Africa and Global Health Policy | Jeff Flake (R-AZ) | Cory Booker (D-NJ) | |
| East Asia, The Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy | Cory Gardner (R-CO) | Ed Markey (D-MA) | |
| Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy and Environmental Policy | Todd Young (R-IN) | Jeff Merkley (D-OR) | |
| State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development | Johnny Isakson (R-GA) | Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) |
Sources: –297, 661–662
| Subcommittee | Chair | Ranking Member | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism | Jim Risch (R-Idaho) | Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) | |
| Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights and Global Women's Issues | Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) | Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) | |
| Europe and Regional Security Cooperation | Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) | Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) | |
| Africa and Global Health Policy | Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) | Ed Markey (D-Mass.) | |
| State Department and USAID Management, International Operations and Bilateral International Development | Rand Paul (R-Ky.) | Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) | |
| East Asia, The Pacific and International Cybersecurity Policy | Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) | Ben Cardin (D-Md.) | |
| International Development, Multilateral Institutions and International Economic, Energy and Environmental Policy | John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) | Tom Udall (D-N.M.) |
Sources: –297, 661–662
| Subcommittee | Chair | Ranking Member | |
|---|---|---|---|
| International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Global Women's Issues | Barbara Boxer (D-CA) | Rand Paul (R-KY) | |
| East Asian and Pacific Affairs | Ben Cardin (D-MD) | Marco Rubio (R-FL) | |
| African Affairs | Chris Coons (D-DE) | Jeff Flake (R-AZ) | |
| Western Hemisphere and Global Narcotics Affairs | Tom Udall (D-NM) | John McCain (R-AZ) | |
| European Affairs | Chris Murphy (D-CT) | Ron Johnson (R-WI) | |
| Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs | Tim Kaine (D-VA) | Jim Risch (R-ID) | |
| International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs and International Environmental Protection, and Peace Corps | Tim Kaine (D-VA), until 2013 Ed Markey (D-MA), from 2013 | John Barrasso (R-WY) |