Congress

Who’s Who in Defense: Elissa Slotkin, Ranking Member, Senate Armed Services (SASC) Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities

Sen. Slotkin’s experience in national security complements her responsibility as ranking member of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities.

By Catherine Macaulay on October 27, 2025 2:15 pm

Ranking Member, Senate Armed Services (SASC) Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities

Senator Elissa Slotkin, D-Michigan

Responsibilities

  • Sen. Slotkin’s experience in national security complements her responsibility as ranking member of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, given jurisdiction over: special operations; intelligence; counterterrorism, security cooperation; strategic communications and information operations; homeland defense; and countering weapons of mass destruction.
  • Beyond lending oversight to the policies and programs related to science and technology, the 15-member Senate subcommittee works alongside the following DoD commands and agencies: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; Defense Security Cooperation Agency; National Security Agency; Defense Intelligence Agency; National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency; and National Reconnaissance Office. 
  • The subcommittee oversees the budget accounts for: Army and Air Force research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E); and procurements, less technology base, space, cyber, nuclear weapons, special operations, and ammunition.

Quote

During a 2025 subcommittee hearing, Slotkin addressed DoD command about the intensifying pace and nature of special operations, saying “as someone who was a CIA officer and a Middle East specialist and did three tours in Iraq, I am 100 percent with you that just because you don’t hear about threats in the news every day doesn’t mean they’re not still out there plotting to kill Americans, attack the homeland and do really devastating things. And we, of course, have nation states that are causing all kinds of problems.”  

Committees/Caucuses

  • Ranking member of: Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee; and Livestock, Dairy, Poultry, and Food Safety Subcommittee on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry committee. .
  • Member of: Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs; Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; the Subcommittee on Airland: and Cybersecurity Subcommittee; Disaster Management, District of Columbia, and Census Subcommittee; and Subcommittee on Border Management, Federal Workforce and Regulatory Affairs.
  • Co-chair of the Senate Taiwan Caucus for the 119th Congress.

Public Service Career

  • CIA analyst and acting assistant secretary of defense for International Security Affairs under former President Barack Obama, overseeing policy on Russia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa from 2015 to 2017. Multi-lingual, she has held various defense and intelligence roles at the White House, receiving the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service for her contributions to national security.
  • Director for Iraq policy during the administration of former President George W. Bush in 2007.
  • Middle East analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, advising diplomats and military service members in Iraq from 2003 to 2007.

Political Career

Slotkin first campaigned for Michigan’s 8th Congressional District in 2018. She was re-elected in 2020, representing Michigan’s 7th Congressional District after redistricting. In 2024, she won the US Senate seat, representing the state of Michigan.

Education

  • Columbia University – MD in International Affairs in 2003. Upon graduating, Slotkin entered public service, motivated by the Sept. 11, 2001 attack in NYC while she was attending school there.
  • Cornell University – BD in Rural Sociology in 1998.

Personal

  • Calling herself a “a third-generation Michigander”,  Elissa Blair Slotkin was born on July 10, 1976, in New York, NY, to Curt and Judith Slotkin. For a time, she lived with her parents at the family farm in Holly, MI, then moved to a suburb outside Detroit, attending Cranbrook Kingswood School, in Bloomfield Hills, part of the class of 1994. 
  • Her great-grandfather, Sam Slotkin, immigrated from Belarus, in Eastern Europe, to found the Michigan-based Hygrade Meat Company, now owned by Tyson Foods. Its Detroit headquarters were established in 1949, its popular Ballpark Franks becoming a staple at Tiger Stadium.
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