Along side her family, friends and several North Dakotans, Heidi Heitkamp was sworn in as the first female Senator from North Dakota on January 3, 2013. 

The first major issue Senator Heitkamp worked on was reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).  She played a key role in helping pass the bipartisan legislation in the Senate, and fought to make sure it also gave Native American women the protections they deserve. 

After VAWA passed in the Senate, Senator Heitkamp completed a statewide tour to talk about how the bill improves the lives of North Dakota families. Nationally, the legislation has reduced incidents of domestic violence by more than 50%. Senator Heitkamp hosted meetings about the legislation in Bismarck, Fargo, Jamestown, Grand Forks, Devils Lake, and Belcourt. 

In her short time in the Senate, Senator Heitkamp has become a leader on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. In June, Senator Heitkamp helped introduce strong, comprehensive legislation to reform America’s broken housing finance system and help address North Dakota’s housing shortage. With a bipartisan group of Senators, she crafted a bill to protect taxpayers from future economic downturns while responsibly preserving the availability of the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for homebuyers, and making sure the housing finance system works for rural families.

Senator Heitkamp believes North Dakota is showing that by taking a comprehensive energy approach, we can truly achieve national energy security and North American energy independence. North Dakota is doing that at a state level, and by following North Dakota’s lead, we can also do it at a national level. During her first year in the Senate, Senator Heitkamp has continued to pushed for policies that will contribute to this all-of-the-above approach, including seeking approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline and finding a viable path forward for coal. She has actively worked to bring federal officials, like U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, to North Dakota to see the state’s energy production firsthand, and to educate them about North Dakota’s resources and energy strategy.  

In August, Senator Heitkamp visited Alberta, Canada to see firsthand the province's energy development. She also meet with top Canadian officials, including Alberta Premier Alison Redford, to discuss North Dakota's energy production and talk about ways the U.S. and Canada can work together to develop North American energy security and independence. Senator Heitkamp then invited Premier Redford to come to Washington, D.C. in November.

In September, Senator Heitkamp returned to Washington early for briefings and meetings on the potential use of force in Syria. Senator Heitkamp closely studied all sides of the debate before she made a final decision about how to best approach the situation. After doing her due diligence, Senator Heitkamp believed there needed to be an alternative, diplomatic path forward to the very complex situation in Syria. She worked with Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) on legislation, which ended up being similar to the direction the President decided to go.  

The path of diplomacy in Syria, spearheaded by Senators Heitkamp and Manchin, continues to be America's and the world's approach to addressing the potential use of chemical weapons in Syria. Read about Heitkamp's alternate proposal in this Jamestown Sun article.