Senator Tim Kaine: "Instead of No Path Forward, We Have a Guaranteed Vote [on Health Insurance Subsidies] in a Month"
Kaine spoke to reporters on Monday morning about legislation he will support to reopen the government, which includes protections for federal workers and SNAP.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Virginia Senator Tim Kaine on Monday morning said he feels “very, very good” about his decision to support legislation to reopen the federal government, but he acknowledged during a Zoom call with reporters that it was a controversial decision.
“This was a very tough 40 days. The decision was very tough, and I don’t question anybody else’s vote,” Kaine said. “Senator [Mark] Warner and I talked about it extensively. He knew I was leading this negotiation around the federal workforce. The issue for all the Democrats was, is this enough? Some of us concluded that it was, and some concluded that it wasn’t. But I feel really, really good about my vote.”
Kaine said that what got him to a “yes” was a commitment to provide back pay to all furloughed federal workers and to reinstate those who were fired at the beginning of the shutdown in early October. He said that commitment came from the White House, via Senate Majority Leader John Thune, at 4:45 p.m. on Sunday.
He said the agreement also includes “statutory text” protecting federal workers from mass reductions-in-force such as those implemented earlier this year by the Elon Musk-led “Department of Governmental Efficiency.”
“That’s a huge anxiety that can now be lifted” from federal workers, federal contractors, and their dependents, Kaine said.
“No state is as affected by the federal employee issue as Virginia,” he said. “There are an estimated 320,000 federal workers [in the Commonwealth], so we’re talking double that if we add their dependents. And if we add the contracting community, we’re up to nearly one million people.”
Kaine said he decided to join a group of Senators working to end the shutdown, which began on October 1, this past weekend, having become convinced that the Republicans were not going to budge from their refusal to negotiate an extension to the healthcare subsidies under the Affordable Care Act as long as the government remained closed.
“Republicans said on Day 1 that they would refuse to engage on any discussion [about the ACA subsidies] until the government reopened,” Kaine said. “I stuck with the Democrats, but … I eventually concluded they weren’t going to change their minds on that… When you run into a red line, you don’t beat your head repeatedly against the red line.”
Kaine said the legislation he will support includes the guarantee of a vote within a month on a proposal crafted by Democrats to extend the health insurance subsidies.
“We will all go on the record on that bill, and everybody will be accountable to their voters next year,” he said. “I want the debate about health care to be on the main stage under the spotlight, with everybody seeing who’s fighting for them and who’s fighting against them.”
Kaine said the legislation to reopen the government also guarantees a full fiscal year of funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Kaine said he doesn’t believe that voting to reopen the government without the promise of extending the ACA’s health insurance subsidies undercuts negotiations on that issue.
“I’m not new to negotiations and I’m not new to negotiations with Republicans,” he said. “I ask my progressive colleagues—do you think another week of punishing SNAP recipients is going to make the Republicans cave? Another month or two months? You can answer that question differently than I answered it, but no one gave me any evidence to suggest Republicans would engage in the healthcare discussion until government was open.”
Kaine continued, “What I’m hearing from people, including Governor-elect [Abigail Spanberger], is ‘Thank God you did this.’”
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