Christopher H. Smith was born in Rahway, Union County, New Jersey on March 4, 1953. He was first sworn in to the United States House of Representatives, representing the Fourth Congressional District of New Jersey, in 1981 at the age of 27.
Smith graduated from St. Mary’s High School in Perth Amboy, N.J in 1971. He received his Bachelor in Science from Trenton State College in 1975. He then attended Worcester College in Worcester, England in 1974. He grew up in Iselin, New Jersey and worked in his family's sporting goods business. After graduating from college he became the Executive Director of the NJ Right to Life Committee in 1976. Originally a Democrat, he switched parties and became a Republican in 1978.
As a champion of global human rights since being elected to Congress, Smith is a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Ranking Republican of the Committee's Africa and Global Health Subcommittee. Smith also serves as a Ranking Member of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (also known as the United States Helsinki Commission), which works to promote and foster democracy, human rights, and stability in Eastern and Central Europe, and on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China which monitors human rights and the development of the rule of law in China.
One of Smith’s significant legislative achievements is his landmark Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Law, the nations' first law that deals specifically with human trafficking. In January, 2006, President Bush signed Smith’s third trafficking law – the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2005. Smith authored the legislation to strengthen the nation’s current trafficking law, provide new funds for investigation and prosecution of domestic trafficking within the United States and to help the young women and children who are most often the victims of human trafficking operations. In 2005, Smith’s tireless work paid dividends when four of his bills were signed into law by President Bush, including the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005. Also signed into law was Smith's “Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005,” which provides $265 million for stem cell therapy, umbilical cord blood and bone marrow treatment. It also authorizes $79 million for the collection of cord blood stem cells. Thousands have been successfully treated with cord blood stem cells for more than 67 diseases including Leukemia and Sickle Cell Anemia – which affects thousands of African Americans – and Smith’s bill assures that these miracle treatments will now be available to tens of thousands of patients in need of transplant.
From 2001 to 2004, Smith served as Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, a panel responsible for the well-being of our nation's 25 million military veterans. The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs oversees the $63.8 billion provided to the Department of Veterans Affairs for healthcare and other benefit programs. Veterans’ laws authored by Smith include one providing a record 60 percent increase in the GI Bill which helps veterans pay for college.
In addition to his work on human rights, veterans, and international relations issues, Congressman Smith is very active in several healthcare issues, serving as Co-Chairman of the bipartisan Congressional Alzheimer's Task Force, Coalition for Autism Research and Education, and Congressional Spina Bifida Caucus. He also Co-Chairs the bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus.
One of his most notable health laws is Title I of the Children's Health Act which authorized a massive surveillance project in an effort to learn what causes autism. The bill established Centers of Excellence to conduct this vital work. One of the surveillance centers is currently operating in New Jersey.
A resident of Hamilton, Chris and his wife Marie have four adult children.