She has summited Mt.Rainier, Kilimanjaro, and the Grand Teton, but the most treacherous ground traversed by Sen. Maria Cantwell is in Washington D.C. corridors of power. Trying to get stuff done carries perils in our polarized nation.
Cantwell is vigorously opposing Senate confirmation of extreme and unqualified Trump appointees, while trying to enlist Republicans to curb Trump excess. A prime example, her legislation that would require congressional approval of new tariffs within 60 days. The president could propose but Congress would dispose.
The bill is co-sponsored with GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley and has backing from ex-Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. It is a three-fer. The wild instability of Trump trade policy would end. The balance of powers would be restored. And it would help Cantwell’s trade-dependent home state. She points out that once lost, overseas markets are mighty hard to regain.
The late Pittsburgh Steelers’ Chuck Noll had a saying relevant to both football and politics: The empty drum bangs loudest. Congress’ show horses populate cable TV talk shows, left and right — witness Marjorie Taylor Greene. Work horses like Cantwell do the public’s business.
Sen. Cantwell holds seats on three A-list Senate committees. In the Senate Finance Committee, during Obama’s administration, she insisted on creation of a federal consumer protection agency. That agency has saved taxpayers billions of dollars, and Trump is bent on its abolition.
With the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Cantwell engineered permanent authorization and revenue for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The LWCF uses revenue from offshore oil leases to buy up endangered recreation and wildlands.
Chairing the Senate Commerce Committee, Cantwell put together and passed the CHIPS and Science Act, a $200-billion, bipartisan bill designed to restore U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and innovation. The 2022 act is a job generator, but Trump doesn’t like it.
The Senate is about relationships, and Cantwell’s collaboration with colleague Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has been fascinating to watch. The two have squared off over oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Cantwell has fought for two decades against drilling pads, roads, and pipelines. And Cantwell has mobilized opposition, using the Clean Water Act, to a giant gold and copper mine proposed between two of Bristol Bay’s prime salmon spawning streams.
Yet Cantwell and Murkowski are adults and friends. The two have successfully collaborated to get construction underway on one heavy duty icebreaker and design of another. Cantwell was also able to slip a ban on mining in the upper Methow Valley into a Murkowski bill.
Cantwell is a demanding boss. Such were her moods in her 2000 Senate race that personal aide Gavin Lodge was nicknamed the “human firewall” for his skill shielding campaign staff from their candidate. For instance, Cantwell demands and masters details on such matters as flammable oil-train tank cars and toxic chemicals left behind when the Tacoma Smelter was closed.
Cantwell has multiple causes. She would have the U.S. and China collaborate in weaning the world away from its dependence on fossil fuels. She is concerned that Canada will out-compete West Coast American ports in receiving and transporting cargoes from across the Pacific.
Her latest effort is a proposal to permanently ban oil drilling in sensitive waters off the West Coast. Cantwell has learned to link conservation and economics, saying the ban would protect a coastal fishing, trade, recreation, and tourism economy valued at $45 billion and supporting 174,000 jobs.
Washington is particularly exposed in looming trade wars. Export of apples to India cratered due to tariff policies of the first Trump administration. Boeing jets are the country’s largest, most-valued, single export product.
The tariff issue has finally put Cantwell on Sunday morning TV with an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” An empty drum, she ain’t.
This article also appears in Cascadia Advocate.
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