From looming government deadlines to potential cabinet picks for the incoming Trump administration, politicians on Capitol Hill still have loads to tick off their checklist before signing off and diving into their December break.
Taking center stage on the to-do list is a stopgap measure that needs to be signed off on by Dec. 20 in order to prevent a government shutdown. Republican concerns over President Joe Biden’s request for more than $100 million in disaster relief funding has proved a sticking point as of late.
As Congress races to close business on must-pass legislation, politicians are also navigating the confirmation process for President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks, particularly for former Fox News host Pete Hegseth and Sen. Marco Rubio. Trump picked Hegseth to serve as his Pentagon chief and Rubio as his secretary of state.
But that’s not all.
Also making the rounds in the District is talk that the federal workforce could see noticeable reductions under the incoming Trump administration under Schedule F, an executive order signed by Trump prior to the 2020 election.
Although it was revoked by Biden, the measure could be reimplemented and pave the way for axing job protections for federal employees.
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine spoke to WTOP’s Michelle Basch and John Aaron on Wednesday to offer more insight on the happenings and how things may unfold.
Listen to the full interview below or read the transcript, which has been lightly edited for clarity.
Tim Kaine: The three issues we have before us are the budget, disaster relief funding and the defense bill, and we have to finish all of them before next Friday. I think the defense bill is in good shape. The funding for the budget bill — it’s not to my liking. We should do a full-year budget instead. With Republicans taking control of both houses, they want to control the final work product. So we’ll just extend the budget till March and then reach a final deal.
But, the part that’s really in dispute right now is the disaster relief funding. Virginia got hit hard by Hurricane Helene. Other states — Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and all the way down to Florida — got hit hard, too. So there is a big group of legislators in both houses, both parties, really pushing for this disaster relief package. My gut tells me we will get there, maybe not at the dollar amount requested by President Biden, which was about $98 billion. But, the news on the floor yesterday, as I was chatting with my colleagues, is it’s looking good. It’s an easier sell in the Senate than in the House, though. So, we’ve got some work to do with our House colleagues.
John Aaron: OK, a lot of talk on the Hill is about the president’s, president-elect’s cabinet picks, including Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense. We remember that you bumped into him in the hallway last week and said that you would be talking to him this week. Has that happened?
Tim Kaine: No, it’s not, and I’m not sure it now is going to happen until early January. I had my first meeting with a Trump cabinet nominee yesterday, with Sen. Marco Rubio. He came to my office to talk about his nomination for secretary of state. But, other cabinet nominees have not yet gotten on my calendar. I am on the Health, Education, Labor, Pension, Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, so, some of the big ones — Hegseth, Rubio, RFK Jr. — will end up coming before my committee, but we don’t yet have a, an appointment set with Pete Hegseth.
John Aaron: So what are your thoughts on Sen. Rubio then?
Tim Kaine: I’m very impressed with him, but I was before he was nominated. You know, look, he’s a, he’s a Republican — if we have Democratic administration, I’d want somebody different. But, Marco is a very, very studious member of the Foreign Relations Committee. I’ve served with him on that committee for 12 years. And, in particular, my interest is always that the Americas should — the U.S. should pay more attention to Central and South America.
I was a missionary in Honduras, and I don’t think the U.S. has ever really paid the attention it needs to the Americas. And Marco Rubio will be the first secretary of state during my time serving here for whom the Americas is a real priority. I’ve been frustrated under Democratic — and Republican — administrations that we haven’t had a foreign policy that really prioritizes the Americas, and I know from having served with Marco on the Foreign Relations Committee for 12 years, he will prioritize it, and, and that gives me some, some optimism, and I think he will be confirmed without much difficulty.
Michelle Basch: Let’s talk about the, briefly, the Trump administration’s plans to reduce the federal workforce. You in the past have introduced legislation to protect government employees. What’s your thoughts on this?
Tim Kaine: Yeah, there are at least three things that the president is proposing to do with the federal workforce that caused me concern. One is to dramatically shrink it. Two is to forcibly relocate federal employees outside the DMV, which would hurt Virginia badly, as well as the region. And, the third is to convert federal employees from civil servants to political loyalists by something that he would call Schedule F. All three of those really pose risks to Virginia and the DMV, but also really pose risk to the quality of government service that people can expect.
We were able to work with the administration to put a regulation in place that is current law that would make it difficult to convert federal employees from civil servants to political loyalists — not impossible, but it would make it difficult to do so. But now what we have to do in the budget, and this would largely be through the appropriations bills and through the budget, is block any wholesale move to just take a meat-ax to the federal workforce or forcibly relocate families outside the DMV.
There are those in the Trump administration who are looking at government to try to make it more efficient. I applaud that, and I’m going to look at any recommendations they come up with, but the notion that before you’ve really analyzed the details you would just commit to shrinking the federal workforce or forcibly relocating families, that’s something I’m going to fight very hard against.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
