Senate Unveils Top Assignments for Appropriations, Judiciary, and Finance Committees

Several senators join the Appropriations, Judiciary, Finance, Foreign Relations, and Commerce Committees, where they will gain new influence over policy.

A staircase for Senators inside the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on Jan. 2, 2025. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

WASHINGTON—As the 119th Congress takes office, the leaders of the Senate Republican Conference and Senate Democratic Caucus have unveiled their proposed committee assignments, which will heavily influence the policy agenda of the Senate for the next two years.

Standing committees—which are permanent committees—in the Senate are the first bodies to review legislation and take a leading role in preparing it for votes on the Senate floor. The chairmen of these committees wield significant power over this process.

The committees also hold oversight hearings and consider the president’s nominees to various executive branch positions.

Opposition from a committee chairman often prevents a bill or nomination from ever receiving a vote. Hence, senators wrangle to secure prestigious committee assignments that affect key policy areas, so as to accrue more influence in the political process.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) released his conference’s list on Dec. 20, 2024, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) released the Democratic Caucus’s list on Jan. 2. The full Senate is expected to formally vote to ratify these lists and appoint senators to various committees within the first days of the new Congress.

Below is a summary of the Senate’s key committees.

Appropriations Committee

The Appropriations Committee is widely regarded as the Senate’s most important standing body, for it has jurisdiction over the spending of public money. Annual bills to fund the federal government are always drafted by this committee, whose members have significant influence over the process, including in the allocation of “earmarks” to spend money on pet projects in home states. Given its prestige, committee spots are usually allocated by seniority.

In the new Congress, the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee will be Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who was the ranking member in the 118th Congress. The ranking member, who leads the minority party, will be Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who similarly was the chairwoman in the last Congress.

Akin to this leadership switch, the composition of the committee remains largely unchanged from the last Congress. New Republican members include Sens. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). There is one new Democratic member—Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), who is up for reelection in 2026.

Several senior senators have re-obtained spots on the committee, one of them being Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who retired as leader of the Senate Republican Conference, after 14 years, at the end of the 118th Congress. No longer in the leadership, he is expected to now play a more active role in the committee. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Ak.), another senior senator who often dissents from the Republican leadership, has also retained her membership.

Judiciary Committee

After the Appropriations Committee, the Judiciary Committee is considered another plum assignment in the Senate. The body has jurisdiction over all judicial nominations by the president to federal courts, making it a critical forum to influence the composition of the Supreme Court of the United States and broader federal judiciary. It also oversees all nominations of the Department of Justice, including law enforcement agencies like the FBI, and has jurisdiction over bills concerning immigration, internet privacy, criminal law, anti-trust matters, and amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The Chairman of the Judiciary Committee will be senior Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who previously served as chairman from 2015 to 2019. The ranking member will be Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who served as chairman in the 117th and 118th Congresses.

New members include Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), who served as Attorney General of Missouri before joining the Senate in 2023, as well as Sens. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho). Two members will depart the committee—Ossoff and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) will retain his membership in the committee after having replaced Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) on Dec. 8.

Finance Committee

The Senate Finance Committee has jurisdiction over matters concerning taxation, which will be an initial focus of President-elect Donald Trump’s administration once it takes office on Jan. 20. Several major provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 are expiring this year, and several senators in both parties want to enact a proposed expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) pursuant to a bipartisan deal in 2024.

Crapo will chair the committee, with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the 118th Congress’s committee chairman, as the ranking member. A notable change in composition is the departure of Rounds, who was the ranking member in the last Congress and led opposition to the CTC bill, and who has been replaced on the committee by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas).

Among Democrats, several new members will join the Finance Committee after five previous members either retired or lost reelection to the Senate. The new members are Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).

Foreign Relations Committee

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, alongside the Armed Services and Intelligence Committee, is one of the three major national security-related standing committees of the Senate. It has jurisdiction over the United States’s foreign policy and foreign aid, particularly aid to Ukraine—a subject of wide controversy in the Republican Party amid Russia’s war against that country. Additionally, it considers all treaties presented by the president to the Senate for ratification, which is necessary to give them the force of law.

Membership of the foreign relations committee gives Senators a chance to develop foreign policy expertise and international relationships with foreign leaders, due to the frequency of travel to foreign countries as part of congressional delegations. Chairmen of the committee have often later held high-ranking governmental positions, such as President Joe Biden (chair from 2001 to 2003 and 2007 to 2009) and former Secretary of State John Kerry (chair from 2009 to 2013).

In the 119th Congress, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee will be Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), who has served as ranking member in the previous two Congresses. The ranking member will be Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who will lead the Democrats on the committee following the temporary leadership of now-retired Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). Cardin took the job after the committee’s chairman, former Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), was indicted and, later, convicted on federal corruption charges after using his position to benefit the government of Egypt in exchange for bribes.

New arrivals on the committee are Sens. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Mike Lee and John Curtis (R-Utah), John Cornyn (R-Texas), and Rick Scott (R-Fla.). Leaving the committee are Sens. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who will be nominated by Trump as his Secretary of State. On the Democratic side, a new member will be Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), who won reelection in a narrow contest in 2024.

Commerce Committee

The Commerce Committee is the Senate’s second-largest standing committee (behind only the Appropriations Committee), with 28 members. The committee oversees the Senate’s exercise of Congress’s constitutional power to “regulate commerce” between states and with foreign nations. As a result, its jurisdiction spans a wide array of portfolios—including highways, railroads, aviation, consumer products, science, and outer space—with significant influence over the U.S. economy.

The chairman of the Commerce Committee will be Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a well-known national political figure who ran for president in 2016, with this being the first committee chairmanship of his career. He takes over after serving as ranking member in the 118th Congress and will exchange that position with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).

Republican additions to the committee will be newly elected Sens. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), and Curtis. Leaving the committee is the vice president-elect, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who will resign his Senate seat prior to his inauguration as the Vice President of the United States on Jan. 20, 2025. During his tenure on the committee, Vance frequently raised the issue of railroad safety after a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, in 2023, which released many toxic chemicals into the surrounding area.

On the Democratic side, two freshmen senators—Kim and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.)—will join the committee, as will Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.).