Kirk to get early test in lame-duck session

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Sen.-elect Mark Kirk, pictured Friday, says he thinks Democratic leaders will extend present tax rates for two more years.

Mark Kirk will be sworn in this evening as Illinois' newest senator, giving him a six-week head-start on other newly elected senators.

He sat down with the Sun-Times to offer a preview of what he hopes to accomplish.

Former Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, the last Republican to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate, will be at Kirk's side as Vice President Joe Biden administers the oath.

Almost immediately, Kirk will be called upon to cast his first vote, for or against the food safety bill sponsored by Illinois' other senator, Dick Durbin. The bill would give the FDA more power to try to prevent E. coli and other contaminations of the nation's food supply.

Kirk called himself "generally supportive" of the bill's goals, but he would not commit to a "yes" vote. He wants to make sure no last-minute amendments he can't stomach are added to the bill before he signs off, he said.

Next on the agenda is whether to renew the Bush tax cuts set to expire Dec. 31. President Obama and most congressional Democrats wanted to end the tax cuts for wealthy Americans. Democrats still control both houses of Congress for another six weeks. Obama said extending tax cuts for the wealthy would cost the treasury $700 billion.

But Kirk says he thinks the White House and Democratic leaders appear ready to back a plan to extend the tax cuts for two years.

Kirk warned against using the lame-duck Congress to pass a tax hike on the wealthy.

"I would oppose this lame-duck congress being the last gasp of progressivism," Kirk said in the interview at the Union League Club.

Kirk sat down with Durbin to map out issues they can agree on:

"Number-one: Ban sewage dumping in the Great Lakes," Kirk said. "I've been highly critical of Milwaukee. They built the not-so-Deep Tunnel. But most importantly: Detroit. Half of all sewage dumping in the Great Lakes is from one city. Roughly 24 billion gallons of sewage were dumped in the Great Lakes last year -- 12 billion from Detroit.

"Number two: We both back high-speed rail," Kirk said. "With Wisconsin's controversial decision, maybe that will advantage Illinois."

Wisconsin's Republican Governor-elect Scott Walker has told the Obama administration it can keep the $800 million it was offering the state for high-speed rail from Milwaukee to Madison, saying the project could end up costing Wisconsin taxpayers. Durbin and Kirk would love to divert some of that money to Illinois, where both Gov. Quinn and his former Republican opponent, Bill Brady, support high-speed rail from Chicago to St. Louis.

The third area Kirk said he'd work with Durbin is on O'Hare modernization.

Kirk continued his posture as more open than most Republicans to compromise with Democrats. As he has made the rounds in Washington, he said Maine's senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, as well as Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown and newly elected Ohio Sen. Rob Portman talked about working together as an unofficial caucus of moderates. Even the more conservative new Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania may work with them, he said.

"His margin was about the same as mine: 2 percent," Kirk said of Toomey.

Kirk said he made clear to Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell that as a pro-choice "social moderate," he would not always be voting the party line.

"McConnell . . . is very aware that Illinois is a different state. We are a blue state," Kirk said. "He very much remembers working with Sen. Fitzgerald."

Fitzgerald was a maverick who would irritate party leaders with his independent streak.

More so than in the House of Representatives, senators can work around party lines to set an agenda, Kirk said.

"Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham mentioned this to me: A gaggle of senators that forms because they're frustrated with one party or the other; or develops an expertise that's just solid, really can control the agenda of that body," Kirk said.

Other items Kirk hopes to get to in the short term:

*If Obama offers a presidential line-item veto bill, Kirk says he'll vote for it.

*Kirk plans to start looking over classified documents on the proposed START II treaty on Tuesday to see if he'll support it.

*He will lobby Obama -- who he has only shared a brief phone conversation with since the election -- to begin enforcing sanctions against corporations that do business with Iran.

Kirk requested seats on the Appropriations Committee; the Commerce Committee, which overseas transportation; Agriculture and Banking. He won't know for a while which of those he'll get. He inherits Roland Burris' assignments for the remainder of this term.

Kirk has resumed his U.S. Navy reserve duty.

On the home front, he has held two town halls since the election and plans another three around the state.