Here’s what committees every N.J. member will serve on in the 119th Congress

As the Republican trifecta in Washington gears up to implement its agenda during the 119th Congress, it will matter quite a bit what committees each New Jersey senator and representative serves on, since they will determine what policy areas they get to engage with and what levers of power they can use to fight for New Jersey’s needs.

The departures and deaths of several long-serving members in the last year meant that the delegation’s clout has taken something of a hit; New Jersey no longer has Bob Menendez at the top of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson)’s death deprived the state of its lone seat on the Ways and Means Committee, the House’s tax-writing body. But their successors now get the chance to build up clout of their own, and a few New Jersey members are taking on much higher-profile assignments this year than they had in the past.

Here are the details on what committee every New Jersey senator and representative will serve on for the 2025-2026 session (and, for House members, what major caucuses they’ve joined as well).

Cory Booker
Committees: Foreign Relations; Judiciary; Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry; Small Business & Entrepreneurship

After more than a decade in the Senate, Senator Cory Booker is starting to build up serious seniority in Washington – he’s currently #46 in overall seniority – and has been making inroads on his four current committees: Judiciary, Foreign Relations, Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry, and Small Business & Entrepreneurship. (Those are the same four committees he served on in the 118th Congress.)

Booker will also be the ranking member on three of those panels’ subcommittees. He’ll lead Democrats on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, & Consumer Rights, the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa & Global Health Policy, and the Agriculture Subcommittee on Commodities, Derivatives, Risk Management, and Trade.

Booker’s spot on the Judiciary Committee means that, when the battles begin over Trump’s nominees to the federal judiciary (possibly including Supreme Court nominees), he’ll have a front-row seat. And while Bob Menendez isn’t around to chair the Foreign Relations Committee anymore, Booker’s seat means New Jersey will at least still maintain a presence there.

Andy Kim
Committees: Housing, & Urban Affairs; Commerce, Science, & Transportation; Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions; Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs; Special Committee on Aging

Senator Andy Kim, Booker’s new counterpart, got five Senate committee postings of his own to start out his first full term: Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs; Commerce, Science, & Transportation; Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions; Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs; and the Special Committee on Aging.

Kim will be the ranking member on two subcommittees, Homeland Security’s Disaster Management, District of Columbia, & Census Subcommittee and Banking’s National Security & International Trade and Finance Subcommittee.

When Kim was sworn in last December, he briefly took the seats that had once been held by Menendez, including spots on the powerful Foreign Affairs and Finance Committees. But those assignments quickly dissipated when the new Congress was sworn in – though Kim did keep Menendez’s old seat on the Banking Committee.

Donald Norcross
Committees: Armed Services; Education & the Workforce
Caucuses: Progressive Caucus, New Democrat Coalition, Problem Solvers Caucus

Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden) is sticking with the same two committees he’s served on for years: Education & the Workforce and Armed Services. He’ll be the Democratic ranking member on the Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air & Land Forces, which is also unchanged from the previous Congress.

Jeff Van Drew
Committees: Judiciary; Transportation & Infrastructure
Caucuses: Republican Study Committee

Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), who was named to the high-profile Judiciary Committee in 2023, is staying on that committee this Congress and will now chair its Oversight Subcommittee. The South Jersey congressman is also a member of the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.

Herb Conaway
Committees: Small Business; Veterans’ Affairs
Caucuses: New Democrat Coalition, Black Caucus

Brand-new Rep. Herb Conaway (D-Delran), sworn in last month to replace Andy Kim, got spots on the Veterans’ Affairs and Small Business Committees to start out his first term. Those are two smaller-scope committees where lots of freshman members land, but Conaway is already officially the second-highest-ranking Democrat on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, where he’s been named vice ranking member.

Chris Smith
Committees: Foreign Affairs; Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (co-chair); Congressional-Executive Commission on China (chair)
Caucuses: Republican Study Committee

Having made global human rights his chief mission in Congress for many years, Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) will continue serving on the Foreign Affairs Committee in the 119th Congress, and will also remain the GOP co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and the chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

Smith – who was a possible candidate for Foreign Affairs chairman this year, but ultimately didn’t go for it – will chair the committee’s Subcommittee on Africa, a slight shift from the global health and human rights-focused subcommittee he chaired last Congress. That might mean he’ll be working closely with Cory Booker, the Democratic ranking member on the Senate’s equivalent subcommittee.

Josh Gottheimer
Committees: Financial Services; Special Committee on Intelligence
Caucuses: New Democrat Coalition, Blue Dog Coalition, Problem Solvers Caucus

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly) may be focused right on his ongoing campaign for New Jersey governor, but he’s still maintaining his two prominent spots on the Financial Services Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence in the 119th Congress. (He was the ranking member of an Intelligence subcommittee last Congress, but those positions haven’t been announced yet for this year.)

Gottheimer also stepped down this year as the co-chairman of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, though he remains a caucus vice-chair.

Frank Pallone
Committees: Energy & Commerce (ranking member)
Caucuses: Progressive Caucus

When Bob Menendez was booted from his Foreign Relations Committee chairmanship following his 2023 indictment, it left just one New Jerseyan atop any committee in either chamber of Congress: Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), the ranking member of the Energy & Commerce Committee.

Pallone’s spot on the committee, one of the farthest-reaching in Congress, will give the congressman a prominent role in any laws the Trump administration attempts to pass related to health care, energy policy, consumer protection, and more. He’s been the top Democrat on Energy & Commerce since winning a competitive internal race in 2014, and he was the committee’s chairman from 2019 to 2023.

And after many cycles of being the only New Jersey House member on the committee, he’ll be joined by two more this year, greatly increasing the delegation’s clout.

Tom Kean Jr. 
Committees: Energy & Commerce; Foreign Affairs
Caucuses: Problem Solvers Caucus, Republican Main Street Partnership

One of those new members is Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), a two-term congressman who got an Energy & Commerce seat this year after failing to make the cut last year. Kean, who represents one of New Jersey’s most competitive districts, was one of a number of junior Republican members added to the committee this year ahead of the bruising policy battles this session is likely to bring.

And while Energy & Commerce is one of the House’s so-called “exclusive” committees – committees which are so time-intensive that they’re often a member’s only assignment – Kean will also remain on the Foreign Affairs Committee, though he won’t chair a subcommittee like last Congress. (Kean’s other previous assignments, to the Science, Space, & Technology and Transportation & Infrastructure Committees, have been left by the wayside.)

Rob Menendez
Committees: Energy & Commerce
Caucuses: Hispanic Caucus

And the other new Energy & Commerce member is Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City), who with Pallone’s backing won a ten-way internal race for a single coveted seat on the committee. Unlike Kean, Menendez will only serve on Energy & Commerce this Congress; he’s dropping his prior committee assignments on Transportation & Infrastructure and Homeland Security.

Nellie Pou
Committees: Transportation & Infrastructure; Homeland Security
Caucuses: Progressive Caucus, New Democrat Coalition, Hispanic Caucus

With former Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark)’s death last year and the departure of Kean and Menendez for other committee postings, the Transportation & Infrastructure had a looming gap in New Jersey representation – and Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon) is filling that gap. Pou, elected to succeed the late Rep. Pascrell, got a seat on Transportation & Infrastructure as well as Homeland Security for her first term.

LaMonica McIver
Committees: Homeland Security; Small Business
Caucuses: Progressive Caucus, Black Caucus

Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark) got seats on the Homeland Security Committee – a posting that her predecessor, the late Rep. Payne, also held – and the Small Business Committee. She’ll be a subcommittee ranking member on both: the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security, and the Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access. 

Mikie Sherrill
Committees: Armed Services Committee; Special Committee on the CCP
Caucuses: New Democrat Coalition

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) has served on the House Armed Services Committee since her first term in the House, and the former Navy helicopter pilot will remain there this term. Sherrill was also named yesterday to another term on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, a new committee created last session to focus on China policy.

Bonnie Watson Coleman
Committees: Appropriations; Budget
Caucuses: Progressive Caucus, Black Caucus

Not too long ago, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, which crafts the annual funding bills that keep the federal government running, was New Jersey Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-Harding). But Frelinghuysen retired years ago, and now the New Jersey mantle on the committee has been taken up by Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), who’s been an appropriator since 2019.

Watson Coleman is a member of the committee’s Labor, Health and Human Services, & Education and Transportation & Housing and Urban Development subcommittees; the latter posting could be especially important as Congress debates funding for Amtrak and federal transportation projects. The congresswoman also serves on the smaller Budget Committee.