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Even after the health care debate ends, there is plenty to keep Sen. Kay Hagan busy next year.
In interviews last week, she answered questions about the upcoming year and her first year in office.

Q: Financial services reform, a jobs bill and climate change will all be topics before the Senate next year. What else do you think you’ll be working on?
A: “Education reform will come up. I spoke to Sen. (Tom Harkin of Iowa) last week. He actually came in here and talked a lot about the role that I could play,” Hagan said.
The bill in question is the reauthorization of the “No Child Left Behind” policy first put in place during George W. Bush’s presidency.
“I’m very interested in ... what we can do to make it better, what we can do for science and technology, which I’m very interested in, what we can do for our universities, our historically black colleges and universities.”

Q: Do you have a sense if or when the Senate might try again to do immigration reform?
A: “I know (Sen. Charles) Schumer (of New York) has a bill on that. I don’t know what his time frame is.”

Q: You sit on the Armed Services Committee and North Carolina is a state with a lot of military bases. What has it been like to help oversee military issues?
A: Hagan said some of the issues were familiar from her state Senate days, but her Greensboro state Senate district did not have many military installations. Now she’s had a chance to meet with military officials and see military operations firsthand.
“I have had the opportunity to go to Afghanistan and Pakistan, which is certainly something I’ve never done before. And we’re scheduling another trip next year. I’ll be going with Sen. (Jack) Reed (of Rhode Island) ...
“We’ll get to see how the surge, the extra 30,000 troops, is working. And I think we’ve got to be concerned about increasing the number of Afghans in the Afghan security forces as well as the Afghan national police.
“...A number of our Marines have already gone, and Camp Lejeune and Fort Bragg are the two bases that are really leading the charge in the fight against terrorism.”

Q: On health care, does it frustrate you that Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska cut a deal that exempts his state from paying Medicaid costs North Carolina and every other state must pay?
A: “Right now we’re going from (people who make) 100 percent to 133 percent of the poverty level being covered under Medicaid.
“But in North Carolina, the federal government for (three) years will pay all of it and then the federal government will pay 95 percent and then the state will have to pay that 5 percent. When you look at how many other people will be covered under that, I think that’s something that will be very beneficial to North Carolina.”

Q: Sure, but isn’t the Nelson deal something that can make you cynical?
A: “I think that’s why I said early on that I learned (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid does a masterful job of putting 60 votes together and that we (Democrats) do have a very big tent, and it’s certainly something that I’m much more attuned to now I’ve been in the Senate this year going through this huge issue.”

Q: Is the bill so compromised after all the deal-making that it doesn’t do what it originally intended?
A: “I think the bottom line is, in this provision, 94 percent of Americans will be covered, 31 million of the uninsured will be covered. Pre-existing conditions will no longer be a factor to deter somebody from getting insurance. The wellness part I’m very excited about...There’s premium discounts for employer-provided health insurance that allows employees to get a discount if they’re in a wellness plan...and in your policies the premiums that you pay will cover preventive screenings, like a wellness checkup, at no cost to you...there’s a lot of good in it.”

Q: Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina has done its best to sway you on health care issues, going so far as to lead a letter-writing campaign to your office. Have they changed your mind at all?
A: “I think I’ve had probably five meetings with (company CEO) Bob Greczyn up here, even after those mailings went out.
I’m hoping I’ve changed their thinking. I’ve always said, if you have health insurance and you like it, there’s nothing we’re doing to get in the way of that. And I’ve been adamant in that. And I’ve been adamant that I don’t want to do anything to increase the federal deficit.”

Q: Your Republican colleagues disagree, saying this is a budget-busting bill rather than one that lowers the deficit.
A: “I didn’t make those numbers up. Those numbers came from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. I don’t know where they (the GOP) are getting their numbers. I don’t know why they can’t look at it the way we’re looking at it from the CBO.”

Q: I’ve had people on the political left and right ask what your position might be on the “card check” bill, which would make it easier for unions to organize. Where are you on that?
A: “The card check issue is dead. Whether there comes to be another sort of labor bill, we’ll wait to see ... But as far as the check off, there are not the votes for that.”

— Mark Binker, staff writer