The First 100 Days of a Jim Risch Presidency: What the Record Suggests

Hero photo: East Steps, Idaho State Capitol — File:East Steps, Idaho State Capitol.jpg, via Wikimedia Commons.

01 The scenario

Jim Risch of Idaho is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in his third Senate term. This article asks a hypothetical question: if he were ever sworn in as president, what would the first 100 days look like based on his documented record? This is a scenario analysis, not a prediction that the person will become president and not an endorsement or criticism of the person.

The premise rests on a chairman's record: strategic competition with China as his stated top priority, critical-minerals and nuclear legislation, a fentanyl-enforcement statute signed into law, and NATO enlargement work. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a Risch White House would open on China-facing executive levers — sanctions, enforcement directives, arms-sales posture — while his domestic bills went to Congress.

02 The record: who Jim Risch is

Risch is a Republican and Idaho's senior senator, in the Senate since 2009 and now in his third term (which ends 2031). Born and trained in Idaho — a B.S. in Forestry and a J.D. from the University of Idaho — he was a senior partner at the Risch Goss Insinger Gustavel law firm, a rancher/farmer, and a small business owner. He served as a state senator (rising to Senate President pro tem) and as Idaho's 31st Governor from 2006 to 2007.

He assumed the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on January 7, 2025 for the 119th Congress, after previously serving as its ranking member, and also sits on the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. As chairman he holds the committee's gatekeeping role — treaties, ambassador confirmations, arms sales reviews — which the research digest notes a new president must negotiate with from day one.

03 Strategic competition with China

Risch's stated “top priority on the committee continues to be strategic competition with China.” He authored the Strategic Competition Act of 2021 (S. 1169, 117th Congress), which the committee approved and which he pushed to include in the broader China competition package.

A president's China-competition levers are heavily unilateral: sanctions on Chinese entities, export-enforcement directives and deterrence posture. Risch's own statutes — S. 1169 and the BUST Fentanyl Act — required Congress, but the agenda they encode maps onto executive authority a president already holds.

04 Fentanyl interdiction and the BUST Act

Risch's Break Up Suspicious Transactions (BUST) Fentanyl Act was signed into law as part of the FY2026 NDAA in December 2025. It allows targeting of Chinese government-owned or controlled entities financing opioid trafficking, expands tracked meth precursor chemicals, and pushes DEA reporting. His quote: “Too many Idahoans have lost their lives to illicit fentanyl flowing into the U.S. from China and through our border with Mexico.”

The BUST Act expressly “encourages” the administration to identify Chinese precursor-chemical entities and report on DEA offices in China — and encourages Treasury targeting of Chinese financial institutions that enable money laundering. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a President Risch would direct Treasury and DEA enforcement toward those targets in the first 100 days; the underlying statute now exists, so the lever is executive implementation.

05 Critical minerals and nuclear energy

In February 2025 Risch introduced the Mining Regulatory Clarity Act (S. 544) with Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) to protect mine support activities — waste storage and processing — on public lands after litigation upended a long-held Mining Law interpretation; it passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in April 2025. His quote: “Domestic mineral production is critical to everyday energy, technology, and national security needs... For too long, Idaho's minerals have been tied up in red tape.”

In February 2026 he introduced the bipartisan Accelerating Reliable Capacity (ARC) Act with Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) to establish a cost-overrun risk-reduction program for first-of-a-kind commercial nuclear reactors, backed by ClearPath Action, the Nuclear Energy Institute, and Idaho National Laboratory.

Both are statutes — they would require congressional approval rather than unilateral presidential action. The digest notes, though, that the underlying streamlining push aligns with agency permitting discretion an administration already holds.

06 NATO and transatlantic security

Risch worked to secure Senate approval of Finland's and Sweden's NATO accession, published a transatlantic report on China challenges, and supports Ukraine against Russia's invasion — all per the committee's chairman page.

NATO accession runs through Senate ratification; a president's unilateral levers here are alliance diplomacy and U.S. force posture. As chairman, Risch has sat on the ratification side of that relationship; a President Risch would hold the executive side. A reasonable inference from these positions is continuity of the transatlantic posture he has spent this Congress advancing.

07 Agriculture, firearms businesses and digital assets

Risch's Idaho portfolio: the DAIRY PRIDE Act (with Sen. Baldwin, D-WI) against non-dairy mislabeling; the Equal Shot Act to prevent SBA discrimination against firearm-related businesses (17 GOP cosponsors); and the Back the Blue Act (with Crapo and Cornyn).

On digital assets, he issued a statement supporting the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act ahead of Senate action in August 2025, calling it high-stakes legislation. Each of these is a statute — this would require congressional approval rather than unilateral presidential action.

08 What the record cannot tell us

The evidence runs out in specific places. There is not enough public evidence to determine Risch's position on AI regulation specifically — his crypto statement is adjacent but the digest flags AI as unverified rather than inferred. His exact vote record on the 2025 government shutdown was not pulled from congress.gov roll calls in this pass.

One sourcing caveat: a “Risch, Crapo, Ricketts” agriculture supply-chain press release returned a 404 at one URL variant in the research pass (it appears to exist under a different path, dated September 27, 2024, per a search result); its bill number was not verified, so it is not cited as evidence here.

Disclaimer: this article is a scenario analysis based on the documented public record as of September 21, 2026. It is not a prediction that Jim Risch will become president, nor an endorsement or criticism of him or his positions. Where evidence is incomplete, that is stated rather than filled in.