The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has produced presidents and secretaries of state. It has tackled some of the most vexing foreign policy challenges and has a long history of bipartisanship.
But the panel has strayed from that ethos in recent years. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) thinks she has the right formula to help restore it.
Shaheen, 77, is the committee’s new top Democrat. For most of her decade-plus tenure on the panel, she was the only woman. Now, Shaheen is the first woman from either party to take on a leadership role for the committee.
Shaheen has a uniquely close relationship with the panel’s Republican chair, Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho. They’ve met several times to discuss shared priorities and how the committee can be restored to basic functionality after a year-plus of total paralysis and a multi-year descent into hyper-partisanship.
“If we can make the committee work better, that’s a first step,” Shaheen told us in a recent interview. “And that’s important to do.”
Starting anew: As we reported on extensively last year, the Foreign Relations Committee went more than eight months without holding a business meeting, causing nominations and legislation to pile up.
The dispute centered on Risch’s demand that the panel vote on a bill to sanction the International Criminal Court. With Republicans now in charge of the Senate, the legislation will get a floor vote in the coming weeks, as we scooped.
So the 119th Congress presents the historically productive committee with an opportunity for a “reset,” of sorts.
To that end, Shaheen sees value in empowering women to roles like the one she now has, noting that countries with female leaders tend to be more stable. Shaheen also wants to advance and support the Women, Peace and Security initiative at NATO, which aims to bring more women to the table to resolve diplomatic crises.
“Women have different life experiences than men. They’re not better, they’re not worse. But they’re different,” Shaheen said. “And it’s important to have that perspective at the table.”
Shaheen could make even more history if she becomes chair of the powerful panel. In order to have a chance to get there, she’d need to run for reelection in 2026. Shaheen hasn’t yet made up her mind, but she suggested this is a consideration.
“The chance to continue to work on issues with respect to foreign policy is certainly something I will factor into that decision, which I haven’t made yet,” Shaheen said.
A friendship: Shaheen and Risch have more in common than is widely known. They both came into the Senate in 2009 and previously served as governors.
This also isn’t the first time they’ve served simultaneously as chair and ranking member of a Senate committee. They overlapped in those roles on the Small Business Committee. They also travel together frequently and have been in lock-step when it comes to supporting Ukraine.
To be sure, their relationship will be put to the test by several nominees during the incoming Trump administration. And Shaheen told us she’ll oppose the ICC sanctions bill when it hits the Senate floor.
But under a Risch-Shaheen partnership, there appears to be a path to improving the committee’s track record.