while Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Risch decided not to press Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to testify at the annual budget hearing. Pompeo had just successfully sought to have State Department inspector general Steve Linick fired; at the time, Linick had been conducting a watchdog investigation into the Trump administration's decision to sell arms to Saudi Arabia without congressional approval. For his tenure as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the 116th Congress, the nonpartisan Lugar Center's Congressional Oversight Hearing Index gave Risch an "F" grade. Risch was participating in the certification of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count when Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol. He called the attack "unpatriotic and un-American in the extreme" and suggested it was sparred by "deep distrust in the integrity and veracity of our elections." In 2021, Risch blocked the confirmation of Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt to the position of special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. Committee assignments Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Energy Subcommittee on Energy Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests Subcommittee on Water and Power Committee on Foreign Relations (Ranking Member)' Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps and Narcotics Affairs (Ex Officio Member) Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs (Ex Officio) Subcommittee on African Affairs (Ex Officio) Subcommittee on European Affairs (Ex Officio) Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Select Committee on Ethics Select Committee on Intelligence Caucuses Senate Republican Conference Foreign policy positions Saudi Arabia In 2019, Risch sought to quell dissent among Republican senators over what they perceived as the Trump administration's weak response to the killing of Saudi journalist and U.S. permanent resident Jamal Khashoggi, and its refusal to send Congress a report on the administration's determination of who killed Khashoggi. He told his fellow Republican senators and Politico that the Trump administration was in compliance with the Magnitsky Act, but the administration had said that it refused to comply with the Act. Israel Anti-Boycott Act In March 2018, Risch co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act (s. 720), which would make it a federal crime for Americans to encourage or participate in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements in the West Bank if protesting actions by the Israeli government. Turkey sanctions Risch was a co-sponsor of the Promoting American National Security and Preventing the Resurgence of ISIS Act of 2019 (S.2641–116th), which was intended