U.S. Rep. Brian Baird has been uncharacteristically quiet since he announced in December that he wouldn’t seek a seventh term in Congress.

The steady flow of press releases from his Washington, D.C., office has slowed to a trickle, and Baird himself has been traveling — to the Middle East for eight days this month; to Davos, Switzerland, for the Global Economic Forum in late January; and back to the 3rd District twice in the past month.

Baird, 53, hasn’t replaced his last press secretary, and in an interview he said he’s still evaluating whether he will do so, given the pace of Congress since the winter break.

“It’s partly that there has not been a lot happening in Congress,” he said. Since we came back, there have been very few things done. In terms of the legislative agenda, there’s not a lot to report. Health care is locked up, energy is frozen, transportation is not moving. And that’s a real shame. That’s one of my key areas of jurisdiction.”

It’s likely, he said, that he’ll leave office before federal money is committed to the Columbia River Crossing project in the next six-year transportation budget.

Baird attended the Switzerland conference by invitation Jan. 27-31. He has participated in two previous global forums and also in several regional economic forums.

He was asked, he said, in part because he chairs a House Science subcommittee on energy and the environment.

In January, “I was on a number of panels related to energy and environmental science,” he said.

Baird, who has been criticized for past taxpayer-funded trips to the Galapagos Islands, Australia and the South Pole, said his trip to Davos, also taxpayer-funded, was hardly a boondoggle.

“These are work trips,” he said. “It may sound glamorous, but you start at 7 a.m. and go well into the evening. I’m an avid skier but I didn’t ski a day in three days.”

Baird’s wife, Rachel Nugent, joined him in Davos at her own expense. Nugent, an economist in the field of global health, travels internationally in her work and was already in Europe at the time of the conference, according to Lisa Austin, Baird’s chief of staff.

Retaining war chest

In February, Baird made the latest in a series of trips to the Middle East to assess progress in rebuilding Gaza after it was pummeled during the Israeli Army’s 22-day military offensive against the militant group Hamas in late December 2007 and January 2008.

The news is not encouraging, he said.

“Very little progress has been made in getting building materials in,” he said. “Very little is getting past the blockade.’

Baird also visited the West Bank and Israel. A member of his staff accompanied him on the trip.

Why go again?

“The first thing I wanted to do was to convey by my presence that people still care what is happening on the ground” in Gaza, he said. “There’s a perception that Gaza has slipped off the radar screen. It’s not in America’s best interest to continue ignoring it.”

With 10 months left in his final House term, Baird and his staff are assessing what unfinished business they can reasonably accomplish.

“Taking on a new issue that we won’t have a lot of likelihood of resolving in the next year is less wise than saying, ‘What can we do?’” Baird said. “Realistically, our plate is full.”

One of his long-term priorities, federal recognition for the Chinook Tribe, may not be achieved by year’s end, Baird concedes.

“We have been working for 10 years on recognition,” he said. “We have to get it through the House Resources Committee, then the House, then the Senate.”

On the other hand, “We will finally finish the Columbia River Channel Deepening project,” he added.

Baird had $551,664 in cash in his campaign fund as of Dec. 31. He plans to hang on to most of it.

“I think it’s very likely I’ll give to some candidates,” he said. “I will reserve a fair amount in the war chest.”

Under Federal Election Commission rules, “You can’t spend it on anything personal,” he said. “You can donate it to charity or to your own political party. I plan to keep a fair amount in reserve and see what the future might bring.”

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