United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

Role

In 1943, a confidential analysis of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by British scholar Isaiah Berlin for the Foreign Office stated:

History

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.

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. Republican senator Arthur Vandenberg played the central role.

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. 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.

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. Elliot Abrams filled the position.

Republican senator Jesse Helms, a staunch conservative, was committee chair in the late 1990s. He pushed for reform of the UN by blocking payment of U.S. membership dues.

Bertie Bowman served as a staffer on the FRC from 1966 to 1990 and as the hearing coordinator from 2000 to 2021.

Members, 119th Congress

Main article: 119th United States Congress

Subcommittees

Chairs (1816–present)

Former chairs are listed below.

Ranking members

Historical committee rosters

118th Congress

Main article: 118th United States Congress

;Subcommittees

117th Congress

Main article: 117th United States Congress

;Subcommittees

116th Congress

Main article: 116th United States Congress

115th Congress

114th Congress

Sources: –297, 661–662

113th Congress

Sources: –297, 661–662

Notes

References

References

1. "Committee History & Rules | United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations".
2. "Committee History & Rules {{!}} United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations".
3. (2016-11-16). "12.6 Committees". University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing edition, 2016. This edition adapted from a work originally produced in 2011 by a publisher who has requested that it not receive attribution..
4. (September 22, 2023). "Bob Menendez steps down as US Senate foreign relations chairman after indictment".
5. Hachey, Thomas E.. (Winter 1973–1974). "American Profiles on Capitol Hill: A Confidential Study for the British Foreign Office in 1943". Wisconsin Magazine of History.
6. Joseph A. Fry, "John Tyler Morgan's Southern Expansionism," ''Diplomatic History'' (1985) 9#4 pp: 329-346.
7. Roland Young, ''Congressional Politics in the Second World War'' (1958), pp 168–96
8. James A. Gazell, "Arthur H. Vandenberg, Internationalism, and the United Nations." ''Political Science Quarterly'' (1973) pp: 375-394. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2148990 in JSTOR] {{Webarchive. link. (December 4, 2020)
9. Katherine Klinefelter, "The China Hearings: America's Shifting Paradigm on China," ''Congress & the Presidency'' (2011) 38#1 pp: 60-76.
10. Jacob K. Javits, "Congress And Foreign Relations: The Taiwan Relations Act," ''Foreign Affairs'' (1981) 60#1 pp 54-62
11. Robert David Johnson. (2005). "Congress and the Cold War". Cambridge UO.
12. William A. Link, ''Righteous Warrior: Jesse Helms and the Rise of Modern Conservatism'' (2008)
13. Rosenwald, Michael S.. (October 25, 2023). "Bertie Bowman, revered aide who got start sweeping Capitol steps, dies at 92". Washington Post.
14. "Bowman, Bertie".
15. {{USBill. 119. SRes. 16 (119th Congress)
16. {{USBill. 119. SRes. 17 (119th Congress)
17. (January 28, 2025). "Risch, Shaheen Announce SFRC Subcommittee Assignments". Foreign Relations Committee.
18. "Background Information on the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate".
19. "Lugar defeats Helms for Foreign Relations post - UPI Archives".
20. "The fight between Sens. Jesse Helms and Richard Lugar... - UPI Archives".
21. {{USBill. 118. SRes. 30 (118th Congress)
22. {{USBill. 118. SRes. 31 (118th Congress)
23. {{USBill. 118. SRes. 807
24. {{USBill. 118. SRes. 926
25. Sen. Menendez voluntarily stepped down as Ranking Member on 1 April 2015 after being indicted by the Justice Department. [http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/bob-menendez-stepping-down-foreign-relations-20150401 Menendez Gives Up Foreign Relations Post] {{Webarchive. link. (October 1, 2023)