How a new Congress could give Bangladesh friends in Washington
Bangladesh has wandered the corridors of Washington like an orphan for years with little leverage, few known friends and no constituency that would object if it vanished from the agenda or was reduced to a footnote in someone else’s regional equation.
The November 3 midterms have rearranged those corridors. Democrats took the House and the Senate, flipping seven Republican-held seats for a 54–44 majority, with two races still undecided. When the 120th Congress convenes in January, the party will hold the gavels, the hearing calendars, the subpoenas and the first draft of the budget.
Now, for Bangladesh, the more consequential story lies beneath the headline numbers: in a handful of districts in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, and among the people who live there. A diaspora has become a political constituency.
That leaves Dhaka with a choice. It can carry on as before, renting access through lobbyists and hoping goodwill holds. Or it can build something sturdier. Bangladesh holds two currencies that Washington respects, people and trade, and an all-party parliamentary caucus is the institution through which to spend them.
What changes, and what does not
The White House and the State Department still run diplomacy, visas and sanctions, while trade remains an executive affair. The 19% tariff set by February’s Agreement on Reciprocal Trade was swept away when the Supreme Court struck down the president’s emergency tariffs.
In its place stands a 10% duty under Section 301, imposed after a forced-labour investigation. It places Bangladesh below China and Vietnam, at 12.5%. Congress cannot simply undo any of this.
What Congress can do is ask, fund and convene. Senator Chris Coons is expected to chair Senate Foreign Relations as Jeanne Shaheen retires. In the House, Gregory Meeks is expected to take the Foreign Affairs gavel. His district, NY-05 in southeast Queens, holds the largest Bangladeshi population of any congressional district in America, about 30,000 people, or 3.84% of residents, and he introduced the BURMA Act, the vehicle for Rohingya protection and accountability. The man who will set the House’s foreign-policy agenda answers, in part, to Bangladeshi voters.
Meanwhile, the friends we had are thinning out. An analysis by the Bangladeshi-American Advocacy Group (BAAG), on which this piece draws, maps the losses. Bill Huizenga, who chaired the House subcommittee on South and Central Asia, has lost his seat. Joe Wilson, the Republican co-chair of the Congressional U.S.–Bangladesh Caucus, faces a recount. Two other caucus members are retiring. The old scaffolding is coming down as a new one becomes possible.
The first currency: people
The demographics explain why this matters. According to American Community Survey estimates for 2020–2024, some 125,000 people of Bangladeshi descent live in New York State. Michigan comes next with about 18,600, then Texas with 17,800, California with 16,900, Virginia with 12,100 and New Jersey with 11,800. New York alone outnumbers those five states combined by a wide margin.
Concentration matters more than totals. Eight of the ten most heavily Bangladeshi congressional districts are in New York: beyond Meeks’s NY-05, several hold roughly 16,000 each, NY-07 about 13,000, and NY-26 around Buffalo nearly 10,000. The other two are in Michigan: MI-13 around Hamtramck and MI-10 in Macomb County.
A necessary caveat: these are estimates of residents, not counts of eligible voters, and in none of these districts are Bangladeshis a majority. But a diaspora’s power comes from concentration and organisation, not share. In a close primary, a council race or a turnout drive, 13,000 people are not a footnote. This year’s New York primaries, in which two sitting members of Congress were unseated, showed how much an organised electorate can move.
Three newly elected members from New York City show how the ground is shifting.
Brad Lander (NY-10), the former city comptroller, opened a Bangla-speaking community office in Kensington in 2016 that helped residents with benefits, housing, voter registration and legal advice. His office worked with Bangladeshi organisers on participatory budgeting, produced Bangla-language voting materials and backed a proposed International Mother Language Monument.
Claire Valdez (NY-07), a former union organiser and state assemblymember, represents about 13,000 Bangladeshi residents. Her published immigration platform names Bangladeshi families in Ozone Park among the communities she wants to serve.
Darializa Avila Chevalier (NY-13), a daughter of Dominican immigrants and a convert to Islam, comes from immigrant-rights organising that has included work on detention and opposition to the 2017 travel restrictions on several Muslim-majority countries.
None of them is an instrument of Dhaka, and none should be treated as one. They are interlocutors with credibility among Bangladeshi and Muslim New Yorkers, in a House that will soon hold hearings on visas, detention, civil rights and foreign aid.
One line must never be crossed. American Bangladeshis vote, organise and fund campaigns as American citizens; those rights are not tools of Bangladeshi foreign policy and must never become so. Foreign governments may not contribute to or direct American campaigns, and Dhaka must observe disclosure rules in every contact. Within that line, a diaspora that turns out earns a member’s attention in a way no lobbying contract can.
The second currency: trade
For decades, this was a narrow relationship, driven mostly by ready-made garment exports to the United States. A relationship that rests on one product is brittle. The February agreement began to widen it. Beyond its tariff terms, since overtaken by the courts, the joint statement records approximately $3.5 billion in purchases of American agricultural products, including wheat, soy, cotton and corn, and energy purchases estimated at $15 billion over 15 years. Whatever becomes of the tariff schedule, the commercial pieces are moving.
Agriculture. Bangladesh has committed to import at least 700,000 tonnes of American wheat a year for five years. In November 2025, five Bangladeshi companies signed deals for $1.25 billion of US soybeans and soybean meal.
Cotton. Bangladesh’s total cotton imports fell 6.1% in 2025, to 7.82 million bales. Yet imports of American cotton rose 30.5%, from about 0.59 million bales to 0.77 million, lifting the US share to 9.9%. Brazil still leads with 27%. But a supplier gaining ground in a shrinking market is a supplier whose customers are choosing it. As announced, the agreement also tied zero-tariff treatment for certain apparel to American cotton and man-made fibre inputs, linking our mills to American farms.
Aviation. Biman signed with Boeing for 14 aircraft, valued at about $3.7 billion at list prices, with deliveries from 2031. A supplementary agreement signed on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September added 11 more, bringing the order book to 25.
Energy. Beyond the agreement’s $15 billion ambition, American supply is contracted. Excelerate Energy has a 15-year deal to supply up to one million tonnes of LNG a year to Petrobangla, with deliveries from January 2026, and Gunvor USA has a 13-year agreement for 117 cargoes through 2038.
Read together, these show three things. First, diversification: the relationship spans grain, fibre, fuel and aircraft, not only garments. Second, interdependence: wheat and soybeans touch food security, LNG touches power and industry, and cotton touches the garment sector itself. These commitments outlast a news cycle. Third, architecture: a trade agreement, purchase deals and long-term supply contracts form a framework for two-way trade and investment.
None of this should be oversold. Before the agreement, Bangladesh bought less than $1 billion a year of such American products, and US supplies can cost more and arrive more slowly than rivals’. The Gunvor deal’s early years are linked to a volatile spot-market price. Biman also ordered ten Airbus aircraft in September. Interdependence must be earned by value, not merely signed. We should buy American where it serves our consumers and industry, and document that it does.
Why the two must work together
Washington responds less to appeals than to interests. A lobbying firm can buy access, but access is not allegiance, and goodwill that rests on no one’s livelihood evaporates when the political wind turns.
When a senator sees Bangladesh buying American wheat, soybeans and cotton, that senator acquires a stake in our stability. The new map makes this concrete. Texas and Georgia, both cotton-growing states, now have senators in the majority, and BAAG notes that Senator Jon Ossoff sits on the Appropriations Committee, which funds the Rohingya response. Make our purchases visible, documented and growing, and they become a reason for Americans to care.
Neither currency works alone. A diaspora without trade is sympathy; trade without a diaspora is invisible. Together they turn a distant country into a neighbour with a face in the district and a customer in the farm state.
That demands coordination. Bangladeshis at home should talk regularly with their American Bangladeshi counterparts on issues where interests overlap: Rohingya funding, trade implementation, immigration and civil rights, and our own reform story. Not to command them, but to listen, brief them and avoid the embarrassment of a diaspora pushing one outcome while Dhaka pursues another.
The caucus as hinge
The Bangladesh Parliamentary Caucus on Bangladesh–US relations is the institution for this work. Its advantage is that it is all-party. American politics will oscillate; so will ours. A caucus that seats government and opposition at the same table in Washington says that this relationship, with one of the world’s most important powers, is a national interest, not a partisan project. It also gives Americans a counterpart who will remain after the next election in Dhaka.
Five steps follow.
Go early. A delegation in the first weeks of 2027, while agendas are being set, should meet majority and minority staff, the new foreign affairs leadership and the rebuilt Congressional US–Bangladesh Caucus, which needs recruits from Queens, Brooklyn and Michigan.
Meet the diaspora where it lives. Put community organisations in New York and Michigan on the itinerary, openly and on the record.
Bring the numbers. Present the cotton, wheat, soybean, LNG and aircraft data, and ask for US reporting on how the quota and tariff provisions are working for Bangladeshi exporters, so that both sides can see the bargain deliver.
Bring Congress to Cox’s Bazar. Bangladesh hosts more than a million Rohingya refugees while American assistance has fallen. Adam Hamawy of New Jersey has said he wants to see the camps; Tim Kennedy of Buffalo, a cosponsor of the Burma GAP Act, represents Rohingya refugees. A visit turns statistics into testimony.
Own the reform story. Offer an account of the July Charter reforms, delays included, before a hearing demands one.
A constituency, not a client
A new Congress gives Bangladesh more room to manoeuvre, not an open door. Divided government means oversight more than legislation, and a presidential veto limits what even a friendly Congress can deliver.
But the opportunity is real, and the assets are ours: a diaspora that votes, a parliament that can speak across parties, and purchases from which Americans profit. The window is the first months of 2027, while agendas are being written.
It is time to stop drifting through Washington without allies. Let people and trade be our bridge, durable, visible and mutually rewarding, and let Bangladesh shed the orphan’s cloak for a partnership both sides need.
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Mustain Zahir is a writer, Dongfang scholar and development professional. He served as a member of the Constitutional Reform Commission and as Senior Aide to the National Security Adviser