Congressional Greenland Caucus

• Caucus Background: In March of 2025, I was proud to be the founding chairman of the Congressional Greenland Caucus, with Rep. Harriet Hageman as co-chair. This Congressional Member Organization was founded with the intent to inform members regarding important issues relating to the island. Given the strategic nature of the island, active military sites, vast amounts of natural resources and proximity to the United States, it has become a recent point of interest for the administration as well as Congress.

• President Trump began the conversation on possible accession during his first term and now that he has returned to the White House has identified the island as being a key national security priority once again. The recent visit to the island by Vice President J.D. Vance and Senator Mike Lee has further deepened both legislative and executive interest in the future of the island.

• The island is an important hub of arctic security. During the Cold War, the U.S. ran Thule Air Force Base, which at one point housed over 10,000 personnel, monitoring the Arctic, lest Russian bombers fly over the North Pole to attack the U.S. The base has largely been mothballed but still exists as (newly renamed under the Biden Administration) Pituffik Space Force Base. The U.S. is already inextricably linked to the island of Greenland in both the past and now the future of national security policy. Adequate presence in the Arctic is key to the future of our national security.

• Aside from the Arctic security issues, the island also has the potential to be a key source of near shore critical minerals. Greenland is reported to be home to a quarter of the globe’s undiscovered hydrocarbon resources and around a tenth of the world’s coal and critical materials, including iron, zinc, and even uranium. U.S. partnership and investment has the potential to unlock important resources.

• While the Greenland Caucus represents no individual policy viewpoint on the future of U.S. Greenland relations, it exists to facilitate and inform the discussion by Congress and to work constructively with the executive about what is doubtless a critical national security issue.
  
  

Members: Rep. Davidson (Chair), Rep. Harriet Hageman (Co-Chair), Senator Schmitt, Senator Moreno, Rep. Steube, Rep. Fleischmann, Rep. Barry Moore, Rep. Gill, Rep. Ogles, Rep. Flood, Rep. Rulli, Rep. Van Drew.

Greenland Caucus Advisory Board

Carla Sands

Former Ambassador Carla Sands was appointed to serve as Ambassador to Denmark in the first Trump Administration after serving on the Council of Economic Advisors. Sands proposed and helped establish the U.S. Consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, and assisted with resolving the Thule Base Maintenance Contract dispute. She also facilitated partnership agreements between the U.S., the people of Greenland, and the people of the Faroe Islands. In January 2021, Sands received the Department of Defense’s highest civilian honor, the Medal for Distinguished Public Service, for her work to increase security in the high north while countering Russia and China. 

Reid Smith 

Reid Smith is vice president of foreign policy at Stand Together, overseeing the organization’s philanthropic strategy and policy advocacy relating to U.S. defense and foreign policies. He is an expert on the domestic politics of American foreign policy, constitutional war powers, and US grand strategy. His previous affiliations include the Cato Institute, the Foreign Policy Association, and the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Sumantra Maitra

Dr. Sumantra Maitra is the Director of research and outreach at the American Ideas Institute, a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America, and a senior editor at The American Conservative. He is also a senior contributor to The Federalist, and an elected Associate Fellow at the Royal Historical Society in London. He holds a Master of International Studies with credit from the University of Otago, New Zealand, where he was awarded a Coursework Masters scholarship, with distinctions in International Politics, and Global Trade and Macroeconomics. He completed his PhD in International Relations at the University of Nottingham, UK, with a Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship in Research Excellence.

Please reach out to executive director Gus Desch at Gus.Desch@mail.house.gov with any questions about the Congressional Greenland Caucus.