As a member of Congress, Frank Wolf appears to wake up every day and consider how he can use the power of his office to make the world a better place. He is a man with tremendous empathy and a moral compass. He is an independent thinker who doesn’t let ego get in the way of bringing various sides together to do the right thing.
After 26 years in office, he is if anything more passionate than ever about human rights — working to curb human rights abuses in Darfur and other places around the world. He has traveled to the Sudan repeatedly, working to keep the ongoing atrocities in public view and advocating for action. He has also traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan repeatedly in the past five years.
Wolf is just as passionate about problem solving on a local level.
One of the things that makes Wolf so effective is his ability to listen. He listens to law enforcement officers carefully, often identifying trouble in the works long before anyone else. Examples are his early warnings and funding to help fight gang activity, and his efforts to fight the spread of methamphetamines.
Wolf has worked to contribute to solutions for the region’s traffic congestion, from promoting flextime and telecommuting especially for government workers, to funding for Metro, to thoughtful and incremental approaches such as spot intersection improvements and timing of traffic lights.
Wolf is creative at problem solving, proposing an independent review, the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan 10-member group co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker and former congressman Lee Hamilton, which could offer a path to solutions in Iraq that might be acceptable to all sides.
Wolf also worked to establish a similar panel to examine federal spending and tax policies to develop proposals to head off the impending federal budget train wreck.
— Frank Wolf