Adam Smith
Now in his 12th term, Smith serves as the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, where he is a strong advocate for our military personnel and their families. Smith is also committed to providing our military personnel with the best equipment available to carry out their current and future missions while ensuring that the Pentagon spends taxpayer dollars in the most efficient and effective manner. This includes carefully examining our current policies and working to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse.
Having served on the on the House Armed Services Committee since 1997, Smith formerly chaired the subcommittee on Air and Land Forces (ALF), which has jurisdiction over all Army and nearly all Air Force acquisition programs. Prior to serving as Chair of ALF, Adam chaired the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities subcommittee, which oversees the United States Special Operations Forces and counter-terrorism policy, among other critical areas. Adam has also previously served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Given his current and previous committee assignments and extensive travel, Smith has unique insights into today’s foremost national security issues throughout the Middle East, including the war in Afghanistan, as well as Northern Africa and our larger efforts to stop the spread of violent extremist groups and their ideology around the globe. Understanding the need for a holistic approach to national security, Smith recognizes the importance of poverty reduction, access to education, sustainable global markets, diplomatic engagement, good governance and other measures to enable our pursuit of stable international partners. As such, he has been a long-time advocate of strengthening American diplomacy and development as well as defense.
Congressman Smith sees a clear need to reform our foreign assistance and improve these two pillars of national security that have been under-resourced and underutilized for too long. He has supported efforts to reform American foreign assistance, introduced legislation to address global poverty, and created the bipartisan Congressional Caucus for Effective Foreign Assistance (CCEFA) with Congressman Ander Crenshaw.