Chris Smith

Elected in 1980, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-Hamilton, N.J.) is currently in his 21st two-year term in the U.S. House of Representatives, and serves residents of the Fourth Congressional District of New Jersey. In 2019-2020’s 116th Congress, Mr. Smith served as a senior member on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and is Ranking Member of its Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittee. He served as the Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and Ranking Member of the bipartisan House/Senate/White House Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), serving as chairman twice, and also serves as “Special Representative” on Human Trafficking for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. Previously, he served as Co-Chair and highest-ranking House member of the bipartisan House/Senate Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) serving as chairman five times, and served as Chairman of the Veterans Committee (two terms), the Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Operations, and the Subcommittee on Africa. Committee and commission assignments in the 2021-2022’s 117th Congress are yet to be finalized.

Congressman Smith has long chaired a number of bipartisan congressional caucuses (working groups) including the Pro-life (37 years), Autism (21 years, co-founder), Alzheimer’s (19 years, co-founder), Lyme Disease (15 years, co-founder), Spina Bifida (15 years), Human Trafficking (15 years, co-founder), Refugees (15 years), and Combating Anti-Semitism caucuses, and serves on caucuses on Bosnia, Uganda and Vietnam.

According to the independent watchdog organization Govtrack, as of January1, 2021 Mr. Smith ranks second among all 435 Members of the House over the last two decades in the number of laws authored. According to the official Congress.gov website run by the Library of Congress, Rep. Smith has authored 47 laws.

In 2019, his Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act (House of Representatives 2200 or HR 2200, now Public Law (PL) 115-425)  was signed into law by the President in January 2019. The law authorized $430 million over four years for a comprehensive whole-of-government effort to fight sex and labor trafficking at home and abroad. Rep. Smith is the author of five of America’s comprehensive anti-human trafficking laws, including the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA, PL 106-386), a groundbreaking law designed to prevent modern-day slavery, protect victims, and enhance civil and criminal penalties against traffickers. He is also the prime sponsor of the law that first reauthorized of the landmark Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), Division B of his TVPA of 2000.