14 Senators Who Are Shaping U.S. Security and Foreign Policies by John Shaw If the U.S. Congress has not exactly returned to the days when all 535 lawmakers sought to be de facto secretaries of state, Capitol Hillís renewed interest in foreign policy is a stark reversal from its domestic preoccupations of the 1990s. Congress has clearly abandoned the mindset when some lawmakers proudly proclaimed that they didnít even own passports and said they had little interest in activities beyond Americaís shores. Lawmakers are increasingly interested in foreign policy, and Congress plays a substantial role in formulating the countryís international policies. Congress is a co-equal branch of the federal government with the executive branch, playing a major, sometimes pivotal role over trade, budget and tax policies, as well as in the consideration of international treaties and hundreds of executive branch, including ambassadorial, appointments. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) are heavily involved in international issues, but so are a number of other senators. The following are brief profiles of 14 key senators who help to shape Americaís security and foreign policies. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) Blunt, hard-charging and famously quick-tempered, Ted Stevens was appointed to the Senate in 1968 to fill a vacant seat and was first elected to the Senate in 1970. He is Alaskaís senior senator. Stevens, 80, is currently serving his seventh term. He is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and heads up the panelís Defense Subcommittee. As a result, Stevens has significant influence over the annual federal budget and especially the more than $400 billion defense budget. Combative and colorful, Stevens is more than willing to clash with Democrats, House Republicans and the White House. Stevens once aspired to be the Senate Republican leader and was narrowly defeated by Robert Dole for that post in 1984. He currently serves as the Senateís president pro temporeóa mostly honorary post that under the Constitution places him third in line of presidential succession after the vice president and speaker of the House. Stevens is one of the few World War II veterans still in the U.S. Congress. He flew C-46 transport planes over China during World War II and won the Distinguished Flying Cross. A legendary figure in Alaska, Stevens has used his tenure on the Appropriations Committee to funnel substantial federal funds into his home state. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) More inclined to give a lengthy speech on the Senate floor about the Roman Republic or ancient Greece than appear on a television news show, Robert Byrd is the self-appointed defender of the Senateís rules and powers. First elected to the Senate in 1958, Byrd is now in his eighth term. If he is re-elected in 2006 and his health holds up, he is on pace to become the longest serving member in the history of the Congress in 2009. Now 86, Byrd served as Senate majority leader in the 1980s and then chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee as recently as 2002. He is now the panelís ranking Democrat and a member of the Armed Services Committee. Byrd assumed a new stature among many Democrats last year when he accused President George W. Bush of rushing the United States into an unwise war with Iraq. Although other congressional Democratic leaders appeared to nervously watch the polls as they discussed U.S. policy toward Iraq, Byrd blasted the administrationís policy with passion and blistering rhetoric. From his seat on the Armed Services Committee, Byrd has also been a harsh critic of Bushís so-called pre-emptive war strategy. He has blasted the administration for demonstrating an arrogance that he said has damaged Americaís role in the world. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) Soft-spoken and camera shy, Daniel Inouye is a widely respected expert on national security issues. He was the first Japanese-American elected to Congress and has represented Hawaii in Congress since it became a state in 1959. Now 79, Inouye was first elected to the Senate in 1962 and is currently in his seventh term. He is the sixth-longest serving senator in American history. Inouye is the second-ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and he is the senior Democrat on the Appropriations panelís Defense Subcommittee. He often works closely with Stevens on military funding issues. The two senators argue that the United States should focus more of its energies and policies on Asia and the Pacific region. The senator gained national prominence during the Watergate hearings in the 1970s and as co-chairman of the Iran-Contra Committee in 1987. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) After a long career in the House as a representative from Kansas, Pat Roberts was elected to the Senate in 1996 and was re-elected in 2002. An acerbic quipster, Roberts is now the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Emerging Threats Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Roberts, 67, is a staunch defender of the Bush administration on most foreign policy issues. Roberts is leading the Senate Intelligence panelís probe of the White Houseís use of intelligence before the war in Iraq. Roberts issued warnings about terrorist attacks on the United States well before Sept. 11, 2001. He feared cyber-attacks on economically vital computer networks and also warned that weapons of mass destruction could be launched against civilian targets in the United States. A native of Topeka, Kan., Roberts served in the Marines. He was a newspaper reporter and editor before serving as an aide in the House of Representatives. Roberts served in the House from 1991 to 1997 and chaired the House Agriculture Committee. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) A former governor of West Virginia, John D. Rockefeller was elected to the Senate in 1984 and is now in his fourth term. Focused primarily on domestic issues such as health care and the health of the steel industry, Rockefeller is also the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. As the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, Rockefeller has been sharply critical of those who have blamed the United Statesís intelligence failures in Iraq solely on the CIA. Rockefeller, speaking for many Democrats, argues that the role of the Bush administration in analyzing intelligence should be examined. Now 66, Rockefeller is the great grandson of John Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil Co. He grew up in New York and moved to West Virginia as a young VISTA anti-poverty volunteer. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Elected to the Senate in 1984 and now serving in his fourth term, Mitch McConnell serves as the majority whip. In this post, McConnell rounds up Senate Republican votes on key issues and tries to ensure an orderly flow of legislation on the Senate floor. McConnell, 62, is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committeeís Foreign Operations Subcommittee. He plays a key role in drafting annual foreign assistance bills every year. A strong supporter of Israel, McConnell has also advocated additional U.S. assistance for Georgia, Armenia and Ukraine. The Kentucky senator is married to Elaine Chao, the secretary of labor. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) First elected to the Senate 30 years ago, Patrick Leahy is now in his fifth term. A former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Leahy is the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee. From this position, he helps to shape Americaís foreign assistance programs. Leahy, 64, has long been a champion of a worldwide ban on land mines. He battled the Clinton administration on the issue because of its opposition to the total ban that Leahy supports. The Vermont senator is the sixth most senior Senate Democrat. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar is one of the most respected lawmakers on international issues. He chaired the Foreign Relations panel in the 1980s and challenged the Reagan administration for supporting Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos after he tried to overturn the victory of Corazon Aquino in the 1986 presidential election. Lugar is a co-author of one of the most celebrated U.S. foreign policy programs since the end of the Cold War: the Nunn-Lugar program to help dismantle thousands of nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union. Now 72, Lugar backed President Bushís efforts to force a confrontation with Saddam Hussein last year but pleaded with the administration to work with the United Nations. He has been sharply critical of the administration for failing to adequately prepare for post-war security and reconstruction problems in Iraq. Lugar is the longest serving senator in the history of Indiana. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) A Vietnam veteran and successful businessman, Chuck Hagel is one of the rising foreign policy stars in Congress. Elected as a senator from Nebraska in 1996 and now serving only in his second term, Hagel is the second-ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee and a close ally of Lugar. A fixture on television news shows, Hagel has questioned many aspects of the Bush administrationís policy regarding Iraq. He has criticized the administration for not following its military victory in Afghanistan with a long-term reconstruction program. Hagel, 57, chairs the Foreign Relations panelís International Economic Policy Subcommittee and the Senate Banking Committeeís International Trade and Finance Subcommittee. He is also a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) Aggressive, energetic and talkative, Joseph Biden is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. First elected to the Senate in 1972, Biden is a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees. During the final years of the Clinton administration, Biden helped broker a congressional agreement to pay most of Americaís back dues to the United Nations. He also wrote a law several years ago that allowed the United States to forgive former Soviet debt if the funds were applied to nonproliferation programs in the former Soviet Union. A leading spokesman for congressional Democrats on foreign policy issues, Biden gave a memorable speech at the National Press Club on Sept. 10, 2001, in which he warned about the dangers of international terrorism. Now 61, Biden has a close working relationship with Lugar and Hagel as well as Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle. John Warner (R-Va.) A World War II veteran and former secretary of the navy in the Nixon administration, John Warner is one of Congressís leaders on defense issues. Warner, now 77, is a strong supporter of the Bush administration from his post as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and as a member of the Intelligence Committee. Formal and patrician, Warner is a dominant political figure in Virginia. First elected to the Senate in 1978, Warner is now in his fifth Senate term. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) Sometimes referred to as the Senateís best lawyer, Carl Levin is arguably the most underrated member of the Senate. Deeply skeptical of many of the Bush administrationís foreign policy initiatives, Levin is the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee and served as the panelís chairman in 2001 and 2002. Polite but tenacious, Levin is one of Congressís most probing questioners of administration officials during committee hearings. Levinís interrogations of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have become one of the best shows in Washington. Levin frequently argues that the United States must work more carefully and respectfully with its international allies. First elected to the Senate in 1978, Levin is a graduate of Harvard law school. Now 69, Levin is also a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) Often referred to as one of the most important U.S. senators in the last century, Edward Kennedy has focused mostly on domestic issues during his long career. Elected to the Senate in 1962, he is now in his seventh term. He is the author of several landmark health care and education laws. A senior member of the Armed Services Committee, Kennedy has been one of the chief Democratic critics of the Bush administrationís foreign policy. In passionate, scathing speeches, Kennedy has challenged the White Houseís use of intelligence before the Iraq war, its planning for Iraqís reconstruction, and the administrationís pre-emption doctrine. Now 72, Kennedy is the fifth-longest serving senator in U.S. history. John McCain (R-Ariz.) Fiercely independent, McCain is aggressively using his enhanced stature from his 2000 presidential campaign to push a range of issues, including key foreign policy and national security matters. A senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain joined key Democrats in pushing for an independent panel to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He was appointed by President Bush to a separate panel assessing American intelligence before the Iraq war. The Arizona senator backed Bushís policy toward Iraq but has challenged the White House to be more forthcoming about the nationís long-term challenges in Iraq. In an upcoming feature, John Shaw will profile the top representatives from the House specializing in foreign policy and security issues. John Shaw is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.