U.S. Sen. Bob Casey talks accomplishments, missed opportunities with Tribune-Review

Pennsylvania's soft-spoken senior senator isn't known for flash or strident rhetoric, but after nearly 12 years in the U.S. Senate, Bob Casey Jr. quietly points to a record that might argue those qualities aren't necessary for success.

In an hourlong interview with the Tribune-Review editorial board, Casey, who is seeking his third term this fall, pointed to bill after bill that he has shepherded through the Senate — 26 as lead sponsor and another 14 as lead Democrat.

They include the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act, a bill to expand the Gettysburg National Military Park and the 21st Century Veterans Benefits Delivery Act.

Like others, the 57-year-old Scranton Democrat who previously served two terms as Pennsylvania auditor general and another as state treasurer, is confounded by the partisan gridlock that grips Washington.

Candidates and office holders need to commit to work for compromise, Casey said.

“Part of the answer to any candidate — and for me, who's been there — is to look in the mirror,” Casey said.

Casey said he and Pennsylvania's junior senator, Republican Pat Toomey, were at odds over the GOP-sponsored tax bill and Medicaid measures, but managed to find common ground to work together on other issues, such as filling Pennsylvania judicial vacancies.

“We try not to poke each other in the eye,” Casey said, smiling.

Although Casey faces no opposition in the May primary, the senator who ousted incumbent Republican Rick Santorum in 2006 and then slid to an easy victory over Republican challenger Tom Smith in 2012, could be facing a loud, raucous challenge this fall if U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, an ardent and early supporter of Donald Trump, wins the GOP nod.

Barletta, the former mayor of Hazelton, rode to national prominence on his opposition to illegal immigration and an unsuccessful court battle to uphold Hazelton laws to make it illegal to hire or rent a home to undocumented immigrants in the small northeastern Pennsylvania city.

Trump and the Pennsylvania GOP have heartily endorsed Barletta's primary bid .

Casey, conversely, has been among the Democrats seeking a way forward for so-called Dreamers, young people brought to the United States without documentation prior to 2007.

He faulted Trump for “pulling the rug out from under” eight Republican senators who joined 46 Democrats in February to hammer out a compromise that would have provided $25 billion for border security over 10 years in return for a path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands stranded under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, status. Despite securing a majority, the proposal fell short of the 60 votes needed.

Casey shook his head, addressing the failed proposal.

“(Trump) could have claimed victory on border security. … It was a real compromise. In the days leading up to it, the president was 100 percent unhelpful,” Casey said.

Declaring he was ending DACA and calling once again for a wall, Trump lashed out at Democrats Sunday and again Monday, blaming them for the impasse.

While he likes to point to his accomplishments and noted that his office has closed more than 34,000 constituent cases over the past 12 years, Casey said he's concerned about missed opportunities.

Although Congress included a measure to update the National Criminal Information System in its recent budget bill, Casey would like to see more movement on gun control measures, specifically closing the loophole that allows those on the no-fly list to purchase and own guns and implementation of universal background checks such as those Toomey and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., proposed in early 2013.

“What moved me to say vote for common sense gun measures was Sandy Hook, Newtown,” Casey said, referring to the 2012 massacre of 20 first-graders and six teachers when a lone gunman stormed the Connecticut elementary school.

“I'm hoping we'll get a vote on (background checks) in the next couple of weeks. Then we'll see where we are,” he said.

Likewise, Casey regrets that Congress was unable to focus on infrastructure and push bigger cuts for the middle class when addressing tax reform.

There's no question, reform was necessary, Casey said. But it should have focused on simplifying the tax code and fighting poverty, he said.

“We could have used tax reform as a way to invest in infrastructure,” Casey said.

Limiting the corporate tax reduction to 25 or 26 percent rather than lowering it to 21 percent could have routed hundreds of millions of dollars for infrastructure work over a decade.

“We neglected a lot of issues when were fighting health care and taxes. We neglected infrastructure, which would have created a helluva lot of jobs if we'd started in 2017,” Casey said.

“And the best poverty reducer we've ever seen is the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit. …We could have taken that powerful tax incentive and turbocharged it to lift 10 million children out of poverty,” Casey said.

For now, Casey will settle for $2.5 billion in increases in block grants for child care in the current budget bill and a move to develop a strategic plan to address the needs of infants born addicted in a region still battling the opioid epidemic.

Debra Erdley is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 412-320-7996 or derdley@tribweb.com or via Twitter @deberdley_trib