The Congressional Caucus is a group of members of the United States (U.S.) Congress who come together to work toward certain common legislative goals.
Formally, caucuses are formed as congressional member organizations (CMO) through the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and are governed by the rules of these houses. Besides the term “caucus”, they are sometimes referred to as conferences (especially republican ones), coalitions, study, or working groups. Many other countries use the term “parliamentary group”.
Distinguished congressmen
Some of the biggest such caucuses are the Blue Collar Caucus within the Democratic Party, which pays special attention to the struggle for workers’ rights, and the Freedom Caucus within the Republican Party, which is considered the most conservative group in Congress.
What is little known to the public in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), is that our country also has its own caucus within the Congress. It is in charge of representing the interests of our country in the highest legislative body of the world’s leading power. It has as many as 23 members of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
It includes members of both parties although dominated by Democrats. From this party, 16 deputies belong to the Bosnian caucus, and seven are Republicans.
The co-chairs of the Bosnian caucus are Republican Christopher Smith, a congressman from New Jersey, and Democrat Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas deputy.
In addition to them, the Bosnian caucus includes many other U.S. senators and congressmen, such as Democrat Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Republican Mike Turner of Ohio, Democrat Elion Engel of New York, and Republican Scott Perry of Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.
As they stressed, the main goal of this caucus is to help protect the sovereignty of BiH and promote long-term peace, stability, and democratic and economic reforms for BiH and all its citizens.
Important messages
Co-chair Johnson recently congratulated the citizens of BiH on the Independence Day of our country, mentioning the dangerous actions of Milorad Dodik in undermining BiH.
Also, Johnson put the situation in our country in the context of the conflict in Ukraine.
Even though there is a group of friends of BiH in the U.S.Congress who maintains close relations with our organizations in the diaspora, the question is how much the institutions in BiH, especially the Presidency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are aware of their role and importance. When we look at their activities and meetings, we would say, minimally.
Rich biographies
The co-chair of the Bosnian caucus, Christopher Smith, is the dean of the New Jersey congressional delegation. For most of his career, he has focused on the promotion of human rights abroad and is the author of the 2000 Law on the Protection of Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings and Violence and several others. He used his leadership positions, including the presidency, to create more human rights-focused laws and to conduct aggressive monitoring of human rights violations. Smith has been in the U.S. Congress since 1980.
E.Dz.
Source: Avaz
