State Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry is sure to rack up the airline miles going forward as she travels to and from Washington on Senate business as the new chair of the new standing committee on intergovernmental affairs. Senate President Stanley Rosenberg tapped her for the post last week as he announced the formation of three new standing committees.

Dorcena Forry, who represents Dorchester, South Boston, Mattapan, and much of Hyde Park, will focus on working with the state’s congressional delegation to leverage federal dollars, potentially including security funds for the Boston 2024 Olympic bid.

“I’m very excited about it,” Dorcena Forry said on Monday. “The new committee is tasked with finding new ways for the commonwealth to engage with our partners in federal government to see how we can secure more resources and bolster our efforts here in Massachusetts.”

Sen. Barbara L’Italien of Dracut will serve as the committee’s vice chair. Senators Anne Gobi of Spencer, Michael Moore of Worcester, and Michael J. Rodrigues of Westport round out the roster of Democratic members on the panel. A yet-to-be-named Republican will also serve on the committee.

Dorcena Forry said she still has to sit down with Rosenberg to define the contours of her job, adding that she anticipates addressing rising health care costs and federal transportation infrastructure spending as well as any federal money that might be used for Boston’s Olympic security costs.

Although Gov. Charlie Baker announced last week that the commonwealth faces a $765 million budget deficit, Dorcena Forry said that her committee, which will pursue additional funds and resources for the commonwealth that are currently “left on the table,” is organic of the budget deficit. “This is something the Senate president has thought a lot about,” she said. “It’s not in relation to the deficit; it’s more about how we can be more efficient.”

It is not yet clear just how frequently Dorcena Forry and her committee associates will travel to and from DC; that will be ironed out in her meeting with Rosenberg. And, she noted, “the congressional delegation is up here, too.”

Dorcena Forry, who is married to Reporter editor Bill Forry, will also lead both the Joint Committee on Housing and the Special Senate Committee on Housing, which have been tasked with examining housing policy and increasing access to low- and moderate-income housing options.

Sen. Sonia Chang Diaz of Jamaica Plain will remain chair of the Education Committee with another ardent charter school skeptic, Sen. Patricia Jehlen, joining as her vice-chairwoman. Jehlen will also lead the Special Senate Committee on Innovative Education. Another special senate committee will examine the issue of marijuana legalization and the implementation of the state’s medical marijuana law as well as opioid addiction and government spending accountability.

“Both of those senators have engaged in extensive research and conversations with people trying to figure out how to move forward on charters, solving the problems people have been raising,” Rosenberg told the State House News Service. “During the debate last year, Sen. Chang-Diaz was not trying to kill charter schools; she was trying to find what she called ‘the third way.”

One of the Senate’s leadership positions – chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee – went to Ashland Sen. Karen Spilka, a sixth-term Democrat.