Rep. Meeks wins chairmanship of House Foreign Relations Committee in next Congress

WASHINGTON – Rep. Gregory Meeks will become chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee in the next Congress, the first Black lawmaker to hold the influential post, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday.

Meeks said in a phone interview that he won the chair in a three-way competition, adding that "we had a vigorous vote," and that he will pick up the gavel in January.

Meeks, 67, a St. Albans Democrat who represents Queens and part of Nassau County, has served on the Foreign Affairs Committee since becoming a member of the House after winning a special election in 1998.

The top priority, he said, will be "to reinvigorate the State Department so that we can bring diplomacy back" and "to repair some of the damage done by the current administration."

Describing himself as a "multilateralist," Meeks said the Foreign Affairs Committee has its work cut out for it in the wake of President Donald Trump’s disengagement in the World Health Organization, Paris Climate Agreement and other international bodies.

"The committee under the next Congress will preside over an historic shift in US foreign policy, and there is no shortage of work ahead of us," Meeks said in a statement. "We will no longer be America first, but America forward."

Meeks said he will work to diversify the diplomatic corps and that he invited testimony from non-traditional sources.

Meeks, who also serves on the House Financial Services Committee, will be one of six Black chairpersons leading nearly a third of the 19 House committees.