By Emily Pontecorvo & Jael Holzman• April 16, 2025 The Trump administration will try to stop work on Empire Wind, an offshore wind project by Equinor south of Long Island that was going through active construction, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum posted to X on Wednesday. Burgum announced that he directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to “halt all construction activities on the Empire Wind Project until further review of information that suggests the Biden administration rushed through i...
Read more
By Dan Alexander The contention by Republican Congressmen Chris Smith and Jeff Van Drew that wind turbines off the coast of New Jersey would interfere with military radar was proven correct in a newly issued report by the Government Accountability Office. The report issued Monday by the non-partisan organization states that “wind turbines can reduce the performance of radar systems used for defense and maritime navigation and safety in several ways. These include reducing detection sensitivity,...
Read more
—An Offshore Wind Energy report released today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO)—the independent congressional watchdog agency—gives credibility and vindication to concerns first raised in Congress by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) that offshore wind turbines pose significant threats to national security and aviation and maritime safety by interfering with radar systems. Smith said the report provides additional scientific justification to President Trump’s pause on offshore wind which he h...
Read more
Rep. Chris Smith today welcomed the nomination of Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun to serve as U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism – a position created by legislative provisions Smith authored in 2004 (P.L. 108-332) and then elevated to ambassadorial-level position by the law Smith authored in 2020 (P.L. 116-326). “Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun sees the threat of antisemitism for what it is – a mortal threat to Jews in the United States, Israel, and throughout the world, particularly in its manife...
Read more
– Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, strongly condemned recent acts of transnational repression targeting Nigerians and Nigerian-Americans in the United States following a March 12, 2025 congressional hearing he chaired on religious persecution in Nigeria. “These alarming acts of intimidation—occurring both before and after my Congressional hearing—are not isolated,” said Chairman Smith, author of H.Res. 220—to designate Nigeria a Country o...
Read more
In a bicameral letter led by House Pro-Life Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Values Action Team Chairman Robert Aderholt (R-AL), and Senate Pro-Life Caucus Member Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), 29 Members of Congress encouraged President Donald Trump to stop funding for human embryonic stem cell research (hESC). “We have serious moral objections to hESC. The research relies on the death of young human beings,” the lawmakers wrote. “Human life cannot be reduced to the level of a guinea pig; t...
Read more
— U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) on Monday reintroduced the “Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Certification Act,” HR 2661, a bill that would require the State Department to reevaluate the extension of the diplomatic privileges granted to the three official representative offices of the Hong Kong government in the United States. “At one time, the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices (HKETOs) represented a city whose prosperity was based on its protection of the fundamental human rights and freed...
Read more
– Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), a long-time champion of human rights and the unborn, announced his strong support and early cosponsorship of the Aid Accountability Act of 2025, and he applauded Congressman Warren Davidson (R-OH) and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), the bicameral authors of the bill. “U.S. laws have long prohibited the use of foreign assistance to perform abortions or to motivate or coerce anyone to practice abortion, as well as lobby for or against it,” said Congressman Smith, a seni...
Read more
By Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) As Co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, I was pleased to be at President Trump’s fair trade tariffs announcement at the White House on April 2. President Trump deserves special thanks for demanding fairness and reciprocity in international trade and his strategic vision and actions to reindustrialize our nation, create jobs and boost economic prosperity. Right now, there is one country, above all, which engages in egregiously unfair and predator...
Read more
“Parents of all faith traditions and economic backgrounds deserve the opportunity to choose and afford the school system that will help their children thrive and learn in the educational setting best suited for them,” said Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) upon unveiling his ‘Education Achievement and Opportunity Act’ (HR 2097), legislation he has sponsored to provide tax relief to NJ families for the costs of education for their children. (1) The Smith bill: Education Achievement and Opportunity Act “J...
Read more
