Senate Committee Staff Directors Set Session Agenda

Beyond that, Poirier, 45, will pursue Boxer's aim of "making sure that children are specifically considered in the environmental laws," such as clean air and water regulations. She points out that while many of its issues are seen as classic Democratic concerns, in fact the committee has a long history of bipartisan cooperation. "We'll look for opportunities to reach and work across the aisle on these issues," she said.

Finance

Russ Sullivan has been in the heart of the committee's business, tax policy, since the tax fights of President Bush's first months in office. Chief tax counsel in those days, he moved up to Democratic staff director in 2004.

Nowhere in Congress will the transition from minority to majority be as seamless as in this committee. Under Republican leadership, Democratic staffers were given wide latitude to explore policy and oversight options, taking their cue from the close relationship between then-Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking Democrat Max Baucus (Mont.). That bipartisanship is likely to continue.

From 1995 to 1999, Sullivan, 55, was tax counsel and legislative director for then-Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.). He then became the Finance Committee Democrats' chief tax counsel under then-Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.).

Foreign Relations

Antony J. Blinken brings skills as an academic, journalist and policy planner to his new role. A former international lawyer, for the past four years Blinken, 44, has served as the committee's Democratic staff director and as senior foreign policy adviser to Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.). Prior to that, he served six years on the White House National Security Council staff in the Clinton administration.

The committee's "first and most urgent challenge is Iraq," Blinken said. "Putting us on a better path in Iraq would give us much more freedom, flexibility and credibility to deal with other important issues," such as Iranian and North Korean nuclear plans, unrest in Darfur and Afghanistan, and the emergence of China and Russia.

Health, Education, Labor and Pensions

J. Michael Myers has worked, on and off, for the incoming committee chairman, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), for 20 years. If the past is a predictor, Myers, 51, will spend next session focused on a long list of issues including immigration and refugee policy, early childhood education, college loan costs and the effort to raise the minimum wage.

While pursuing his master's degree in political science at Columbia University in the late 1970s, Myers worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He came to Kennedy's staff to work on foreign policy issues after six years with the humanitarian relief group Church World Service. During the Clinton administration, Myers worked for nearly two years at the Pentagon's Office of Humanitarian and Refugee Affairs, and worked on immigration and refugee issues in various roles for the Senate Judiciary Committee throughout the mid-1990s. Myers has been minority staff director on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions since 1998.

Homeland Security

Michael L. Alexander, 50, has served on the committee for five years and has worked on intelligence reform, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and issues surrounding disaster relief -- including emergency preparedness, first responders and communications.

Before joining the committee, he was legislative director for then-Rep. Mike Espy (D-Miss.) and served as acting deputy director of the USDA Office of Civil Rights. A native of Griffin, Ga., Alexander worked as a reporter and columnist for the Jackson Advocate in Mississippi before coming to Washington.

He said the top priority for the committee and its incoming chairman, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) is to enact laws that implement the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission. Other priorities include improving rail and transit security, oversight of the Department of Homeland Security and securing more funding for first responders.

Intelligence

Andrew Johnson will serve as staff director, one of the most unusual jobs in the Senate. Unlike most other committees, the intelligence panel does not have a majority and minority staff, and it works in great secrecy in an office with no windows and a guard out front.