Why I Have Hope for Bipartisan Progress on U.S. Foreign Policy

Last month, Americans were shown two sharply contrasting images of their potential political future in 2023: Days of chaos in the House of Representatives brought on by a hard-right fringe attempting to undermine Kevin McCarthy’s bid to be speaker, juxtaposed with the image of U.S. President Joe Biden and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell celebrating bipartisan infrastructure investments to rebuild a critical bridge connecting Kentucky and Ohio.

Biden and McConnell visited that bridge to celebrate an important domestic achievement. The outlook for similar success going forward, with a House led by a fractured Republican Party, might be murky. In foreign policy, however, most congressional Republicans and Democrats agree on the key national security challenges our country faces, and there’s a real chance to make bipartisan progress.

As Biden said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, “We’re often told that Democrats and Republicans can’t work together. … But time and again, Democrats and Republicans came together—came together to defend a stronger and safer Europe.”

So yes, I have hope—especially given Congress’s track record of bipartisan success on foreign policy over the past two years.

To start, Biden has sustained and strengthened several foreign-policy successes initiated by the Trump administration: the Abraham Accords, tough trade controls on China, increased investments by our NATO allies in our mutual security, and the launch of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to better leverage the private sector in development finance. Overall, these efforts undertaken by both the Trump and Biden administrations help lay the foundation for cooperation in a few key areas.

No event has had more impact than Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago, which has reshaped U.S. engagement with NATO and other allies worldwide. With bipartisan support in Congress, Biden mobilized our allies to join in historic sanctions on Russia, increase their own defense spending, and deliver substantial amounts of aid to Ukraine. NATO is on the verge of admitting two new, strong partners.

In Congress, there has been strong bipartisan support for NATO expansion; the imposition of sanctions and other costs on Russia for its war of aggression; and U.S. assistance for Ukraine, its neighbors, and other impacted countries. That includes more than $100 billion appropriated by Congress last year for military, economic, and humanitarian support for Ukraine and countries impacted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. These funds will help Ukraine continue to fight to liberate its territory and keep the heat on this winter as Russia cruelly targets the country’s civilian energy infrastructure.

There have been rumblings on both the right and left about such funding levels to Ukraine, but they have been mostly on the margins. A strong bipartisan majority stood and applauded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to Congress in December. Even when McCarthy said in October that Republicans were “not going to write a blank check to Ukraine,” he quickly walked back his comments when pressed by party colleagues—arguing that he was merely advocating for effective oversight, which is something all members support.

There is also broad bipartisan support for holding Russian leaders, including President Vladimir Putin, accountable for their war crimes. In November, I traveled to The Hague as part of a bipartisan delegation to meet with the lead prosecutor and officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Following that visit, I worked with a bipartisan group in Congress to remove legislative barriers to U.S. technical, legal, and financial support for the ICC in December’s spending bill, which will enable the court to prosecute senior Russian officials complicit in war crimes. Things rarely move so quickly through Congress. It was critical that the United States not only stand alongside its allies but also that it continue its long-standing reputation as a leader on international accountability, dating back to the Nuremberg trials.

Bipartisanship in foreign policy is not limited to support for Ukraine, however. On China, look beneath the partisan rhetoric and you’ll see that Republicans and Democrats are fairly aligned. Last Congress, we worked in a bipartisan manner to strengthen U.S. competitiveness, as well as create new—and enhance existing—partnerships to ensure we can outcompete China and counter its malign activities.

The United States is also taking strong steps to impede China’s advances in technologies critical to both our military edge and the economy of this century. Similar to Europe’s over-reliance on Russian natural gas, the United States exposed itself to critical vulnerabilities by allowing the semiconductor industry, once based here, to move offshore.

The bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law last August by Biden and partially funded in December, shows a strong consensus on reshoring production of critical technologies and reinvesting in our leadership on advanced manufacturing.

In addition, the president’s export restrictions on semiconductors to China will limit China’s ability to procure and produce cutting-edge chips, as well as the advanced weapons systems that depend on them. A critical next step will be persuading our European and Indo-Pacific allies to join us in this effort, which is already beginning to happen.

Notably, Biden also recommitted to the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a joint effort among Japan, Australia, India, and the United States to promote free societies, free trade, and freedom of navigation in the face of China’s efforts to assert control of the South China Sea Last year, I worked with my Republican colleagues to fully fund the administration’s new Indo-Pacific Strategy, including to expand U.S. diplomatic presence and engagement in the region, in the December spend bill. Now, we are working together to identify emerging threats and areas where we can push back on China’s economic coercion.

Support for our allies is another area of bipartisan opportunity in the new Congress. One such path forward is the Countering Economic Coercion Act, a bill I reintroduced this week with Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana. This bill would enable economic support to partners and allies who face punitive and discriminatory economic measures from antagonistic foreign powers such as Russia and China. The United States should also pursue policies with bipartisan support that protect intellectual property and combat currency manipulation.

When it comes to one of our biggest global threats—climate change—China is also a main focus. It is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases and a significant producer of carbon-intensive goods such as steel. Meanwhile, domestic U.S. manufacturers who have invested in cleaner production are undercut by cheap imports from countries such as China that don’t share U.S. environmental standards. An opportunity for bipartisan cooperation exists in considering trade policies that impose a cost on exporters of carbon-intensive fuels and goods.

Bolstering clean trade with like-minded countries could also help strengthen the United States’ alliances. It also aligns with the G-7’s establishment of a “Climate Club”—a global partnership to support cleaner heavy industry.

Finally, as chair of the appropriations subcommittee that funds foreign assistance, I worked with my colleagues from both parties to strengthen our tools to better engage with the world through our development programs and diplomats. At a time when China is growing its global reach through its expanding diplomatic corps and vaccine diplomacy, we increased our spending on development programs and investments in global public health.

Democrats and Republicans also agree that our international development strategy should have a greater emphasis on leveraging the private sector. For years, China has also increased its influence through the Belt and Road Initiative, investing billions of dollars on infrastructure projects throughout the developing world. In 2018, I helped create the DFC to meet this challenge by securing passage of the bipartisan Better Utilization of Investment Leading to Development (BUILD) Act, which was signed into law by then-President Donald Trump. In the December spending bill, Congress significantly increased funding for the DFC, providing $1 billion  to help finance alternative investments in clean energy, public health, and more sustainable infrastructure.

In December, Zelensky’s passionate joint address to Congress received the most enthusiastic and sustained applause I’ve ever witnessed as a U.S. senator. It was a statement on the Senate floor a few hours before that, however, that gave me hope that bipartisan progress is possible. It came from McConnell, who made a forceful, pragmatic argument for the U.S. consensus on Ukraine: “[T]he most basic reasons for continuing to help Ukraine degrade and defeat the Russian invaders are cold, hard, practical American interests,” he said. “By assisting Ukraine today, America is … changing the calculus for others considering military aggression and lowering the odds of far costlier and far more deadly future conflicts in the process.”

I’m not naive about the many deep disagreements between Democrats and Republicans. The next two years will be difficult, but we don’t need to agree on everything to make progress on the things we do agree on. Thanks to Biden and congressional Democrats, working in tandem with Republicans such as McConnell, Americans have been able to present a united front on the most critical global issues facing our country. There’s no reason that can’t continue in this new Congress. We can support Ukraine, counter China, and assist the developing world—together.