Lawfare Daily: Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) on Congress’s Role in Foreign Affairs
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2026
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today’s episode, Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson sits down with Rep. Sara Jacobs, who represents California’s 51st congressional district. As a member of the House armed services and foreign affairs committees, Rep. Jacobs has taken a lead role on an array of foreign affairs-related legislation. Before being elected to Congress, she worked for the U.S. Department of State and the United Nations.
Together, Scott and Rep. Jacobs discuss her and her colleagues’ efforts to oppose the Iran war and how she hopes the House will approach the issue in defense-related authorizations and appropriations later this year. From there, they discuss Rep. Jacobs’ work on bipartisan legislation relating to foreign assistance and expeditionary diplomacy. Finally, they step back to consider the role that Congress currently plays in foreign affairs and national security, how that role may change if the House or Senate changes control, and what could help Congress be more effective in the future.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Renee DeResta, a contributing editor at Lawfare. |
| 0:07.1 | You may have heard me on our podcasts, talking about online influence operations or platform |
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| 1:22.8 | And I think that's really what we have right now is oversight, is asking the questions, |
| 1:29.8 | demanding investigations, trying to make sure that even if sort of the political atmosphere at the Pentagon has changed, that the co-com commanders are still retaining that capacity and expertise |
| 1:35.5 | and including the civilian harm mitigation measures in their targeting. |
| 1:40.0 | It's the Lawfare podcast. I'm senior editor Scott R. Anderson with Representative Sarah Jacobs |
| 1:45.8 | of the 51st Congressional District of California. We are going to have to do a lot of oversight. |
| 1:52.4 | And in the foreign policy space specifically on Venezuela, on Iran, on the use of our military |
| 1:59.3 | in domestic instances. |
| 2:02.2 | Today, we're talking about the role Congress plays in foreign affairs and national security |
... |
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