House Committee Leaders Announce Foreign Policy Priorities
08 January 2007
Key panels to work on issues related to Iraq, Afghanistan, border security
Washington -- As the 110th Congress gets under way, military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan will be a focus of the four House committees with primary responsibility for foreign relations and military matters, according to committee chairmen.
"Now that Democrats are in charge of Congress, you can expect to see the foreign policy aspect of the Legislative Branch take a new direction," Representative Tom Lantos of California, the chairman of the newly renamed House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said in remarks released January 4. "There will be substantially more oversight of the Executive Branch, with greater emphasis on holding this administration accountable," he said.
Lantos said his committee, which oversees the international diplomatic and political relations of the U.S. government, will hold hearings on implementation of the 9/11 Commission recommendations to strengthen the effort against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups; a new strategy toward North Korea, including bilateral talks if necessary; and ways to make the United States less dependent on foreign sources of energy. The committee also is expected to stress preventing the spread of nuclear technologies to countries and groups that could use them for terrorism. Some lawmakers also have written to Bush calling for a boost in foreign aid spending.
Under Lantos, a naturalized U.S. citizen and the only Nazi Holocaust survivor who is a member of Congress, the committee also is expected to push for decisions on economic sanctions and other diplomatic tools to promote religious freedom and urge the international community to establish a robust civilian protection regime in the Darfur region of Sudan.
The committee also will challenge an expected decision by the administration temporarily to increase troop levels in Iraq, urging instead a focus on diplomacy. Lantos also said he will focus on Iraq reconstruction efforts and said the program “has been riddled with waste, fraud and abuse.”
In a September 4, 2006, letter to President Bush, Lantos said he favors:
• Transitioning the U.S. mission in Iraq to counterterrorism, training, logistics and force protection;
• Implementing a "phased redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq";
• Working with Iraqi leaders to disarm militias and develop a broad-based and sustainable political settlement, which would include amending Iraq's Constitution; and
• Convening an international conference and contact group to support a political settlement in Iraq.
On Afghanistan, Lantos said the United States must do a better job monitoring Afghan reconstruction and must bolster the government against the Taliban. “[T]he United States is on the verge of losing Afghanistan once again,” he said. The chairman plans to advocate renewal of the 2002 Afghan Freedom and Support Act, which was not renewed in 2004. The act sets human rights rules and other guidelines for spending billions of dollars in foreign and U.S. aid in Afghanistan.
The new House Armed Services chairman, Representative Ike Skelton of Missouri, announced December 19, 2006, that his priorities will be Iraq, Afghanistan, the war on terrorism, improvements to the state of the U.S. armed forces, nuclear nonproliferation and the future structure of the Department of Defense. Skelton's committee oversees the U.S. armed forces and the Department of Defense.
For Iraq, Skelton said his focus will be "the missions of U.S. forces and force protection, the training of Iraqi Security Forces, and the current status of reconstruction and rebuilding efforts." He also said the committee will look into whether the war against terrorism "is getting the right priority within the services."
The House Select Intelligence Committee deals with matters important both to foreign and military policy, and its new chairman, Representative Silvestre Reyes of Texas, has said the committee’s agenda includes examining U.S. involvement in Iraq and the nation's terrorist surveillance program.
On December 6, 2006, after being briefed by the Iraq Study Group, Reyes said the group's report found that neither the Defense Department nor the intelligence community has "invested sufficient people and resources to understand the political and military threat" to U.S. troops in Iraq. "One of my first actions when I assume the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee in January will be to convene a series of comprehensive hearings examining the state of intelligence support to our troops deployed in Iraq," Reyes said.
Incoming House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi said a significant focus will be placed on immigration and border security issues. His committee is responsible for oversight of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, where most of its focus is domestic security issues.
Speaking from the floor of the House on September 14, 2006, Thompson provided insight as to his concept for border security. Addressing a rule for consideration of key homeland security legislation, Thompson said that he had offered an amendment to the bill that would include 3,000 more Border Patrol agents, 2,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, 250 more detention officers, plus helicopters, all-terrain vehicles, radio communications, GPS devices and night vision goggles. His would be, he said, "an all-encompassing approach to border security and [would] ensure that every mile of the border is monitored and secured 24 hours a day, seven days a week." Thompson’s amendment, which was considered before the 2006 mid-term elections returned control of Congress to the Democrats, was not approved at the time.
For more information on the priorities of the 110th Congress, see The U.S. Congress.
For more information on U.S. policies, see Rebuilding Afghanistan, Iraq Update and Immigration Reform.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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