Profiles of 15 Power Brokers Who Shape Foreign Policy In House of Representatives by John Shaw In his memoirs about his tenure as Canadaís ambassador in Washington, Allan Gotlieb said he was stunned to learn how important Congress is in establishing Americaís foreign policy. Failure to appreciate this central reality of the U.S. government threatens to weaken the effectiveness of any ambassador in Washington. Congress is a co-equal branch of the federal government with the executive and plays a major, at times pivotal, role over trade, budget and tax policies, as well as in the consideration of international treaties and hundreds of executive branchóincluding ambassadorialóappointments. The following are brief profiles of 15 key foreign policy leaders in the House of Representatives. (See April 2004 issue of The Washington Diplomat for Senatorial profiles.) Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) In many respects, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert is the exact opposite of his predecessor, former Speaker Newt Gingrich. Hastert is a low-key, nonverbal, self-effacing and quietly effective leader of the Republican majority in the House. Hastert, 62, is a fo rmer high school social studies teacher and wrestling coach from Aurora, Ill., a suburb about an hour from Chicago. A former member of the Illinois General Assembly, Hastert was elected to the House in 1986. He is now serving in his ninth term representing Illinoisís 14th Congressional District. Hastert is a strong champion of international trade, a view that is strongly supported by Caterpillar Tractor Co., which maintains operations in his district. Hastert frequently leads congressional delegations in overseas trips. He has a particularly strong interest in South America, especially in the struggles of Colombia. He supports all major aspects of President Bushís legislative agenda. Hastert initially opposed extending the reporting date of the 9/11 Commission, a stance that was widely criticized around the country and fueled questions about whether the Republican leadership and the White House were trying to undermine the work of the panel. Hastert eventually relented. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) A passionate, unapologetic, liberal Democrat, Nancy Pelosi assumed the leadership of House Democrats in 2003 with one clear pledge: House Democrats would never run another election without clearly spelling out where the party stands on economic and foreign policy issues. This was a not-so-subtle slam of the 2002 congressional Democratic strategy, in which party leaders embraced President Bush on Iraq but rebuked him on economic issues. Pelosi, 64, has represented Californiaís 8th District since 1987 and is now serving in her eighth full term. Her district includes most of San Francisco. The House minority leader has solid foreign policy credentials. Pelosi sat on the House Intelligence Committee for a decade and was one of the few Democrats to aggressively challenge President Bushís decision to go to war with Iraq. She said she saw no intelligence that persuasively argued that Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat to the United States. A former member of the House Appropriations Committee, Pelosi served on the Foreign Operations Subcommittee and championed funding to fight AIDS, forgive the debt of poor nations, and allocate funds for international family planning programs. Pelosi has also been a strong critic of China for human rights violations during her entire congressional career. She frequently blasts the Bush administration for alienating the countryís traditional allies and not working more effectively with the United Nations. Rep. Tom Delay (R-Texas) A member of the House since 1985 and now serving in his 10th term representing Texasís 22nd Congressional District, Tom Delay is a fiercely partisan and effective majority leader of the House Republican caucus. A devout Christian, Delay is a strong champion of Israel and argues that Jewish control over the West Bank is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Delay has strongly defended the Bush administrationís war on terrorism and the U.S. invasion of Iraq, often challenging the patriotism of those who oppose Bushís war in Iraq. Now 57, Delay spent much of his childhood in Venezuela because his father was an oil-drilling contractor. He represents a district near Houston. Before entering politics in Texas, Delay owned a pest-control business. He served as the House majority whip from 1995 to 2003 and was celebrated for delivering Republican support in the House on key legislative initiatives. He began his tenure as House majority leader in 2003. Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) First elected to the House in 1970 and now serving in his 17th term, C.W. Bill Young is an affable, collegial lawmaker who chairs the Appropriations Committee. He has often quietly clashed with the White House and the House Republican leadership over spending matters; however, Young has usually bowed to the wishes of the Bush administration and the Republican congressional leadership. Before assuming the chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee, Young chaired the Defense Subcommittee, a panel that has wide authority over the nationís $400 billion defense budget. Young, 73, has long been a champion of robust defense spending. As chairman of the House Appropriations panel, Young wields power over both the nationís foreign assistance and defense programs. Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.) Blunt, combustible and combative, David Obey is one of the Houseís most experienced lawmakers. However, as a member of the minority party in the deeply partisan House, Obey serves mostly as the tactical and vocal leader of the opposition. Now 65, Obey has a legendary temper and was once involved in a shoving match on the floor of the House with Delay. First elected to the House in 1969 to represent Wisconsinís 7th Congressional District, Obey is now in his 17th full term. He has been the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee since 1994 and has a nuanced command of the federal budget, including the countryís defense and foreign policy programs. Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) Solid, respected and even revered in the House, John Murtha is a serious lawmaker with a deep interest in, and influence over, national security issues. A former Marine and Vietnam War veteran, Murtha is a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee and is often deferred to by House Democrats on defense matters. He is also one of the handful of Democrats that Republicans actually respect and sometimes listen to on national security issues. Murtha is widely seen as one of the few nonpartisan lawmakers in the House, willing to criticize Democratic and Republican administrations based on the merits of the issue under consideration. Murtha has represented the 12th Congressional District in Pennsylvania since 1974. He is now in his 15th term. Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) Affable and smooth, Jerry Lewis is a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee and chairs its Defense Subcommittee. As such, he has influence over the details of the United Statesís $400 billion annual defense budget. A loyal Republican, Lewis has also been willing to challenge the value of major weapons programs such as the F-22 fighter jet. Lewis, 69, is one of the few congressional Republican lawmakers to publicly challenge Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on whether his much celebrated military ìtransformationî policy is working. ìHard decisions and trade-offs have not been made,î he told Rumsfeld during one hearing. ìIt is imperative that budgetary priority be assigned to those systems that will enable our efforts to eradicate terrorism and transform the military to succeed, rather than funding programs that have nothing but bureaucratic inertia behind them.î A former insurance salesman from Redlands, Calif., Lewis was first elected to represent Californiaís 41st Congressional District in 1978 and is now serving in his 13th term. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) Expansive, amiable and hard-charging, Duncan Hunter, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is a decorated Vietnam War veteran who is one of the most vocal congressional champions of Americaís defense programs. In fact, Hunter often argues that the United States is seriously underfunding its defense programs. He insists that an annual defense budget of $500 billion would be more a ppropriate. Hunter got into a big fight with the Pentagon last year over his ìBuy Americaî bill to require the military to purchase materials and services almost exclusively from U.S. firms. The Pentagon said this could ignite a trans-Atlantic dispute. Hunter has been a member of the House Armed Services Committee since he was elected to the House at the age of 32 in 1980. Before his election from Californiaís 52nd Congressional District, Hunter operated a storefront legal office in San Diegoís Hispanic district, providing free legal advice to disadvantaged people. Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) Fascinated with military issues, Ike Skelton is a Democratic leader on defense matters with a hawkish bent. The senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Skelton has given qualified support to some of the Bush administrationís national security issues. But his qualifications have been significant. For example, while Skelton backed Bushís Iraq policy in 2002, he implored the administration to offer a plan for a politically stable post-war regime in Iraq. ìI have no doubt that our military would decisively defeat Iraqís forces and remove Saddam, but like the proverbial dog chasing the car, we must consider what we would do after we caught it,î Skelton said in a letter to Bush. Skelton has represented Missouriís 4th Congressional District since 1977 and is now serving in his 14th term. He is 72. Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) A courtly, witty, well-respected lawmaker, Henry Hyde is also a loyal and even partisan Republican. Hyde is currently the chairman of the House International Relations Committee, but he is best known for his chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee from 1995 to January of 2001, during which time he was a central figure in the impeachment of then President Bill Clinton. Because of House rules limiting the tenure of committee chairmen, Hyde gave up his Judiciary Committee chairmanship in 2001 and assumed the helm of the International Relations panel. The panelís influence on foreign policy has declined in recent decades. In a Sept 10, 2001, interview with The Washington Diplomat, Hyde issued a grim warning that the United States was far more vulnerable than many policymakers appreciated. Hyde, 80, has represented Illinoisís 6th Congressional District since 1975 and is now serving in his 15th term. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) Eloquent, passionate and often abrupt, Tom Lantos has emerged as a real force as the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee and a leading Democratic spokesman on foreign policy issues. A liberal Democrat on most domestic issues, his foreign policy positions are often hawkish. He backed military force to remove Saddam Hussein, supported a robust Israeli policy against the Palestinian Authority, rebuked Saudi Arabia for financing terrorism, and endorsed tough sanctions against Iran and Libya. In addition, he was the first U.S. lawmaker to visit Libya when the relationship shifted after Libyaís abandonment of its weapons of mass destruction program. Lantos has long been one of Congressís most passionate supporters of human rights, attempting to cut off imports from Myanmar and fighting to prevent China from hosting the 2008 Olympics. Lantos has a riveting life story, having been imprisoned as a boy in a Nazi work camp in 1944. A former economics professor at San Francisco State University, Lantos was elected to the House in 1980 to represent Californiaís 12th Congressional District. Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.) Porter Goss is one of the most important members of Congress youíve probably never heard of. Forceful, energetic and articulate, Goss has also kept a relatively low profile during the years he has presided as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. But the Florida congressman began to speak out more publicly after the 9/11 attacks. He has defended the intelligence community from what he views as unfair criticism for failing to predict the attacks on New York and Washington. And he has pressed for more money for intelligence programs and for sweeping changes in how the United States organizes its intelligence activities. Goss, 65, brings a compelling life story to his work in Congress. The son of a wealthy Connecticut industrial family, Goss became interested in intelligence while studying at Yale University. After graduating from Yale, he spent two years in the Army and then became a CIA clandestine services agent. He served in the CIA for a decade and developed a passionate commitment to the agency and to the intelligence profession. Goss amassed a fortune as a publisher and investor. He became involved in local politics and eventually ran for and won a House seat in 1988 representing Floridaís 14th Congressional District, which includes Fort Myers and Naples. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) One of the leading congressional experts on intelligence and homeland security issues, Jane Harmanóthe ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committeeóis frequently called upon to discuss how the U.S. intelligence community should be reorganized. A native of New York, Harman was first elected to represent Californiaís 36th Congressional District in 1992. Harman served for six years in the House before running unsuccessfully for governor of California in 1998. From 1998 to 2000, Harman served as one of 10 members of a congressionally mandated panel to explore the threat of terrorism. The panel issued a report in 2000, which warned that the terrorist threat to the United States had grown more serious. It said that ìtodayís terrorists seek to inflict mass causalities.î Harman ran for her old congressional seat in 2001 at the urging of House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. She was one of the first congressional advocates for a Homeland Security Department. Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) Brilliant and combative, energetic and mercurial, Bill Thomas is an almost Shakespearean figure on Capitol Hill. As chairman of Congressís most important panel, the House Ways and Means Committee, Thomas plays a central role in crafting U.S. international tax and trade policy. A former political science professor, Thomas was first elected to the House in 1978 to represent Californiaís 22nd Congressional District. He is now serving in his 13th term in the House and is one of the most important lawmakers on domestic issues. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) From his position as the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, Charles Rangel was a driving force behind the 2000 law that liberalized trade with Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. He has been a vocal opponent of the trade embargo against Cuba. First elected to the House in 1970 to represent New Yorkís 15th Congressional District, Rangel is a forceful and charismatic lawmaker who avoids legislative detail. Irreverent and good-humored, Rangel spends much of his time on the Ways and Means panel clashing with Thomas. John Shaw is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.