New Foreign Affairs chair shirks spotlight

"The lesson learned for me was challenge yourself and your own predispositions more on some of these things, and challenge the evidence more. I wasn't sufficiently skeptical," Berman said.

Democrats and Republicans say Berman takes a collaborative approach. He negotiated $20 billion more in foreign HIV/AIDS assistance than the White House requested, according to Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J. The proposal passed the House and is pending in the Senate.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said that when Berman approached him about the Mandela visa restrictions, his initial reaction was that the U.S. should be adding people to the terror list, not taking them off. Berman talked him around.

"He knows how to negotiate," said Smith. "He's willing to take half a loaf rather than a full loaf, and then come back for more later on."