Adam Smith

The middle and working-class families no longer have access to the same opportunities that they did just decades ago, and these inequities in our economy have been exacerbated by the economic recession as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.  A central driver of this “squeezing out” effect is income inequality, which is now as high as it’s been since the 1930s. Adam’s top priority is to encourage broad-based economic opportunity by ensuring all Americans have access to a high-quality education and job-training opportunities, building a stronger transportation infrastructure, reforming our tax code, and supporting social programs that provide a bridge for struggling families to get back to work. These efforts are necessary to restore the American Dream with a pathway to a middle class life for American families.

Adam also understands the importance of passing comprehensive immigration reform.  He has been a strong voice in Congress advocating for the House of Representatives to pass legislation that creates a pathway to citizenship.  For too long our immigration system has been broken and it continues to rip families apart. Adam has also been leader in developing new legislation to reform deportation and detention policies.  

Adam serves as Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, where he is a strong advocate for our military personnel and their families. Adam 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 House Armed Services Committee since he started in Congress, Adam formerly chaired the Subcommittee on Air and Land Forces (ALF), which had 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 oversaw 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, Adam 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, Adam 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.

Adam 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 former Congressman Ander Crenshaw. In the 116th Congress, Congressman Smith now co-chairs the Caucus with Congressman Ted Yoho (R-FL). The Caucus has been expanded to the Senate under the leadership of Senators Johnny Isakson (R-GA) and Chris Coons (D- DE).