Senator Chris Van Hollen was first elected to the Senate in 2016 after more than a decade of distinguished service in the House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic leadership team and Ranking Member on the Budget Committee.
He currently serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee and the Senate Budget Committee.
Growing up in a foreign service family, he has a deep personal commitment to the importance of American diplomacy and engagement abroad. He is Co-Chair of the Senate Foreign Service Caucus.
Van Hollen has been an active and outspoken champion on the Council’s issues, regularly using his positions on the Foreign Relations and Appropriations committees to support diplomacy and arms control, and to shift funding from certain unnecessary and wasteful weapons programs into more pressing national security needs. Last year, he introduced a bill to prohibit development of a Trump-era new nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile and warhead and has been urging President Biden to reduce U.S. reliance and spending on nuclear weapons. In 2020, he voted to cut the military budget by 10% and authored the bipartisan bill calling for the extension of the New Start agreement. He has been a strong supporter of the JCPOA nuclear agreement with Iran.
