Raynor: Mr. Kaine’s take on Washington
The United States Senate is a place of famously glacial pace and painfully arcane procedure and as such often inflicts severe tribulation on the serial achievers who tend to dominate its membership. Former governors, accustomed to the powers and perks of executive office, are thought to be especially vulnerable to chronic, if not debilitating, frustration while sitting in the Senate.
Virginia’s senior senator, the perpetually energetic ex-Gov. Mark Warner, has been known on occasion to complain even to Republicans and unreliable editorial boards about the inertia that so easily captures the upper house of Congress, a deliberately deliberative body that allows one member to slow its proceedings to a crawl for reasons large or small.
So it’s at least a little refreshing to hear Virginia’s junior senator, the ex-Gov. Tim Kaine, express a surprisingly sunny view of his first 15 months in office. It’s true, of course, that Kaine has a long history of bringing his generally genial optimism to jobs that many would consider unusually trying — city councilman, mayor of Richmond, lieutenant governor — so while his lack of complaint about life in and around the nation’s Capitol is not entirely unexpected, it remains, nevertheless, welcome.
During a recent visit with the Times-Dispatch editorial staff, Kaine admitted that he’d been warned about becoming entangled in what might be one of the Senate’s grumpier bipartisan cliques: “the ex-governors club.” But he appears to have avoided at least the bad attitude, thanks in part, he says, to some experienced advice from Warner. “You have to put the executive out of your mind,” Kaine said.
Success in the Senate, he added, is mainly about focusing on a handful of important issues where your leadership can make a difference. “The Senate will defer to expertise. So make a couple of areas your passion.”
His Senate passions, to an extent, have been fashioned by his committee assignments: Armed Services — which he describes as a “spectacular” position for anyone representing Virginia — as well as Foreign Relations and Budget.
One of his top priorities involves finding ways to decrease unemployment among military veterans, with an emphasis on forging paths to the workplace before people leave the armed forces. He’s also determined to improve the country’s approach to the use of war powers and has worked closely with Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain on the issue. Geographically, Kaine’s attention in foreign affairs is centered on the Americas and the Middle East.
He’d also like to see the Senate, which until late 2013 had not passed a budget in four years, return to “regular order” in managing the country’s finances. That’s Senate-speak for relying on established rules and customs rather than the ad hoc approach that has often prevailed in the recent past. The process might be improved, he added, if the federal government adopts a longer budget period, similar to Virginia’s. “There’s some momentum around switching to two-year cycles,” Kaine said. He also lists career and technical education among his legislative passions.
An effective senator’s need to focus rather narrowly leads to a broad reliance on staff — the only way to stay well-informed about the many votes cast every year, Kaine said. “I have a fantastic staff.”
Kaine not only seems to enjoy the Senate, he believes he’s discovered a way to at least modestly improve relations with the House of Representatives.
“We have nearly zero interaction with the House,” he said, although Virginia’s senators and congressmen meet for lunches, which Kaine described as cordial and generally productive, particularly in terms of “projects we need to make happen.”
But he’s encouraged by the passage of the Gabriella Miller act to increase federal funding for pediatric medical research. The bill was named for a 10-year-old from Leesburg who died last year from brain cancer, but not before becoming an inspirational advocate for other children with illnesses.
Kaine’s fellow Richmonder, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, spearheaded passage of the legislation in the House. When it arrived in the Senate, Kaine and Warner lent their support. It passed the upper house and was signed into law by President Obama earlier this month.
The relatively quick action caught Kaine’s attention.
“They pass bills all the time that the Senate doesn’t do anything on,” he said. “What other House bills are sitting on the shelf that are good bills? … If we can do something in the Senate, they’ll go straight to the president for his signature.”
Kaine said his staff is right now taking a close look at bills passed by the House that could find support in the Senate. He’s quick to point out that many of those bills lack wide appeal, such as the repeated efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and that the House has been equally reluctant to accept work from the Senate: “We’ve passed some significant legislation, that is pretty bipartisan, in the Senate.”
Kaine remains optimistic. “We have to show Republicans and Democrats standing together to solve some problems … and we have to do it again and again and again.”
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