(credit: Wikipedia Commons )   Gregory Weldon Meeks (Democrat)  is  U.S. Representative for New York’s 5th Congressional District

By Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

U.S. Congressman Gregory W. Meeks (NY-D) has been elected to Chair the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee, becoming the first African-American ever to lead the committee.  The Howard University Law School graduate achieved the ground-breaking honor as the sole Black lawmaker to chair the Foreign Affairs Committee in its nearly 200-year-long  history. Congressman Meeks said among his priorities will working to rebuild the low morale of the beleaguered U.S. Department of State after four years of the Trump administration which failed to  fill numerous crucial senior positions across the  department.  Meeks also promised to work to help restore U.S. global leadership which suffered tremendously under the “America First” Trump foreign policy. 

“I am incredibly honored to be elected Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, a committee that I have served on throughout my tenure of service in Congress. There is extraordinary talent across the committee and Democratic caucus, and I look forward to working closely with Members as we look ahead to a new era of US global affairs. We can no longer be America first, but America forward. Our challenges before us are global in scale, and it will require global cooperation, spearheaded by American leadership.We will broaden our scope and outreach to parts of the world we’ve historically overlooked. We will return as partners to our European allies, but we will also need to build new multilateral relationships in the Western Hemisphere and Africa. We can only address the systemic challenges posed by Moscow and Beijing with the help of like-minded friends.”

-U.S. Rep. Gregory W. Meeks

Foreign Affairs Committee Must Take Leading Role in Rebuilding State Department:  Congressman Meeks

“We will work to rejoin the JCPOA and WHO, but we will also need to establish new coalitions to address the existential crisis of climate change and emerging threats. In pushing further on the fight for human rights across the world, we must lead by humble example with the weight of US moral credibility.  None of that work, however, can be completed without a considerable rebuilding of our Department of State. Diplomacy must be moved front and center as the primary tool for conducting US foreign policy, no longer second to military action. The Foreign Affairs Committee must take a leading role in how we rebuild the State Department.”

(credit:twitter.com)  House Committee on Foreign Affairs is responsible for foreign policy legislation and oversight.

Congressman Meeks Will Replace outgoing Chairman Eliot L. Engel of New York 

“I congratulate my dear friend and fellow New Yorker Greg Meeks on his election as the next chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Serving many years together on the committee, I’ve seen up close Greg’s deep knowledge of foreign policy issues…I’m glad to be leaving the gavel in such good hands.”

-U.S. Rep. Eliot L. Engel,  NY 

"I’ve seen up close Greg’s deep knowledge of foreign policy issues, his profound commitment to… foreign policy rooted in our values… As my time as Chairman comes to an end, I’m glad to be leaving the gavel in such good hands."
-Chairman @RepEliotEngelhttps://t.co/G6d06cR0lM

— House Foreign Affairs Committee (@HouseForeign) December 3, 2020

The Foreign Affairs Committee will be working with President-Elect Joe Biden’s  incoming U.S. Secretary of state, Tony Blinken.   Congressman Meeks has thus far served 11 terms in the US House of Representatives for New York’s 5th congressional district. The district constitutes most of south east Queens, from Hillside to Far Rockaway and through to John F. Kennedy Airport. The demographic of this district is largely African American and West Indian communities of all class backgrounds. Meeks was born in East Harlem in New York City, raised in a housing project and went on to graduate from Howard University Law School.