Ansari, Yassamin

Yassamin Ansari represents Arizona's 3rd congressional district and serves as ranking member of the Energy and Mineral Resources subcommittee within the House Committee on Natural Resources. As ranking member of the minority party, she leads Democratic opposition and priorities on the subcommittee, which oversees federal energy development, mineral resources, and related regulatory matters. The Natural Resources Committee broadly handles public lands, environmental protection, and energy policy—areas central to Congress's legislative and oversight work.

Ansari brings substantial expertise in climate policy and international environmental governance to her committee work. Before entering Congress in 2025, she spent years in the United Nations system, working as a senior policy advisor to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his successor António Guterres on the Paris Agreement and global climate action. She earned a master's degree from Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar and helped organize major climate summits. On the Phoenix City Council from 2021 to 2024, she created an Office of Heat Response and Mitigation and championed electric vehicle adoption and clean public transportation—experience directly relevant to energy and environmental policy.

As ranking member, Ansari has focused her legislative efforts on energy innovation and immigration enforcement oversight. She has sponsored the Geothermal Gold Book Development Act, advancing renewable energy development, and multiple bills addressing immigration detention conditions and deportation impacts. She also serves on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and its cybersecurity subcommittee. At 32, she is the youngest female member of Congress and the first Iranian American elected to public office in Arizona, bringing a distinctive perspective to energy and natural resources debates.