Without shoving ourselves into too much of the business of Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., he should not be allowed to leave his Senate seat before he stands for re-election in 2020 (and he should be encouraged to run again).
It’s not that Sen. Reed’s effectiveness in “bringing home the bacon” is not recognized as an important piece of the Ocean State’s success at receiving federal dollars. As the senior member of the state delegation, his committee assignments alone – Appropriations, Armed Services, Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and the Select Committee on Intelligence – mean that he is at the table when federal largesse is being allocated.
In fact, Rhode Island received 1.23 times more in federal dollars than it sent to Washington in fiscal 2017, a total of $12.6 billion, the second-highest ratio of federal receipts to tax collections in New England. The rest of the delegation no doubt has a role to play, but Reed stands tall among not just our legislators but among all of Congress.
Yet his biggest asset may be what he brings to the halls of government, an ability to bring people together.
Sen. Reed talked about building coalitions in his Dec. 28 One Last Thing essay, noting that “When people band together, they can … become greater than the sum of their parts.”
He went on to say that coalitions “can be far more powerful when you have partners and allies outside your own sphere of influence.”
At moments like these, as the partial government shutdown closes in on being a month long, Sen. Reed is a reminder that statesmanship may not be easy, but it is the best way forward.