With the election now over, Sen. Patty Murray will soon be switching hats. The outgoing Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairwoman will succeed retiring Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) as chair of the Senate Budget Committee.
Though the Washington Democrat was widely expected to grab the gavel, Murray made it official Wednesday, declaring to POLITICO in her first post-election interview about her new role: “It’s my intent to serve as Budget chair.”
While Conrad had a reputation as a deficit hawk and numbers guy, Murray — nicknamed the “mom in tennis shoes” after her successful 1992 Senate run — underscored that she’ll bring a more compassionate approach to the budget process.
“I think what’s been lacking from our discussion for a long time is really that other part of what a Budget chair does, which is set the priorities for this country in terms of making sure we invest in the right places, in education, in job training, and to make sure we do a balanced approach moving forward,” Murray said in an interview just outside the Senate chamber.
“I am fighting for those middle-class families who want us to deal with our debt and deficit, but they also want the investments that are critical to our country moving forward. And I want to help them understand why this word ‘budget’ is so important to them,” she added. “It’s about whether their kids get access to college, or we have an ability to create the infrastructure for our roads to bring new jobs here, or we have job training, and a really deep concern of mine, that we are ready to take care of the veterans who are returning home by the hundreds of thousands.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Democratic Caucus won’t likely finalize committee chairmanships until after the Thanksgiving break or as late as January. But by announcing her intentions now, Murray is making it clear she wants to play a role in the bipartisan negotiations to solve the “fiscal cliff,” the mix of tax hikes and spending cuts set to hit the country at the end of the year.
And she has the résumé to do so: She’s served on the Budget panel for 20 years, is a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee, is part of Reid’s leadership team and was co-chair of the supercommittee that failed to strike a deficit deal last year. As head of the DSCC, Murray pulled off a stunning feat, helping Democrats actually pick up two seats in an election cycle in which they feared they could lose the majority.
“She’s exceptional. She’s somebody that gets things done. I have the highest regard for her,” Conrad told POLITICO.
But how she’ll work with the Budget Committee’s top Republican, conservative Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, is a big question mark. Sessions and his fellow Republicans hammered Reid and Conrad for failing to pass a budget blueprint during the past three years, though Democrats argue that last year’s Budget Control Act essentially served as a budget because it set spending levels.
”The Senate majority shirked this legal duty for three straight years and it is unthinkable that it would go a fourth straight year without offering a proposal as the law requires,” Sessions said in a statement. “Enough secret meetings and last-minute backroom deals. The Budget Committee should do its job, as the law requires, in the full, open, and public light of day. I hope Senator Murray will make that commitment.”
Murray, the No. 4 Democrat in leadership, made no promises Democrats would pass a budget with her at the helm, but she said she’s never turned down a job because it was too tough.
“We are deep in discussion about what we need to do from now until the end of the year. That will totally determine our path forward. As I’ve said repeatedly, we’ve got to have a balanced approach. This election was about that: Our president ran on it, our numerous Senate candidates said those at the top need to contribute to this,” said Murray, a close ally to Reid and President Barack Obama.
“If we can get Republicans to quit protecting the wealthy in order to move forward and solve that, then I think we are on a path to be able to make the decisions we need to do and move towards a budget.”
– Politico
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