Leadership

Elected in 1980, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester, N.J.) is currently in his 23rd, two-year term in the U.S. House of Representatives, and serves residents of the Fourth Congressional District of New Jersey. Mr. Smith serves as a senior member on the Foreign Affairs Committee and as Chairman of its Africa Subcommittee, which has oversight over the continent, with U.S. legislative authority over Africa, along with important State Department bureaus and programs.  These include the Office of Foreign Assistance; The Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy, including PEPFAR; the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and; The U.S. Agency for International Development.  He has been appointed to serve as both the Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and as Co-Chair of the bipartisan House/Senate/White House Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC). In the 119th Congress he has also been appointed as a member of the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, which includes the regional focus of Central and South America and functional jurisdiction over the bureaus such as the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, which covers his groundbreaking work to fight human trafficking, advance religious freedom and international labor rights. He has also served as “Special Representative” on Human Trafficking for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. Additionally, he previously served as Chair and highest-ranking House member of the bipartisan House/Senate Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE, or Helsinki Commission) serving as chairman five times, and has served as Chairman of the Veterans Committee (two terms), and chaired the Foreign Affairs’ past subcommittees on human rights, international operations and organizations, and global health.