By: Eamon Javers

Think Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s got a tough job? Meet Kevin Fromer, Treasury’s top liaison to Congress.

Fueled by pizza and sandwiches during day-and-night negotiating sessions on Capitol Hill, Fromer averaged only four hours of sleep each of the three nights before Monday’s climactic showdown over the $700 billion economic rescue plan in the House.

At 1:20 p.m. Monday, as members prepared to vote, Fromer couldn’t step onto the House floor or walk into the cloakrooms. So the assistant Treasury secretary for legislative affairs stood just off the floor, near the north doors of the cavernous House chamber leading to Statuary Hall, and monitored the vote electronically with a gaggle of White House aides.

Quickly, it became clear that the bill was struggling. “As the vote was extended, the spread led us to believe that it was in trouble,” Fromer said. And when the gavel came down and the bill failed, it was Fromer who called Paulson to deliver the bad news and strategize the next steps.

“This is the most difficult — but most important — legislation that I’ve ever been involved with,” said Fromer, a 25-year veteran of Washington politics.

Fromer, 48, came to Treasury in 2005 from the office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), where he was a top policy aide, managing budget and appropriations issues. There, Fromer developed a reputation as a level-headed, honest broker, particularly in refereeing intra­party fights between Republican appropriators and conservatives, who were sometimes at each other’s throats.

“He’s a calm guy. He’s not a freak,” said John Feehery, who worked with Fromer in Hastert’s office. “That’s important in these kinds of situations. I think it’s probably frustrating for him, because he just doesn’t have that many tools to work with, given a lame-duck administration and a Congress that just won’t listen.”

Lobbyists who deal with Fromer agree.

“He is cool under pressure, operates without fanfare and always offers an intelligent, fair perspective,” said Rob Nichols, president and chief operating officer of the Financial Services Forum, a trade group representing large banks and Wall Street firms.

Still, one Democratic banking lobbyist who did not want to be identified argued that many Democratic leaders have been frustrated with the limited sales pitch that Treasury has offered Congress. They complain that Treasury hasn’t doled out enough data that members can translate into easy-to-swallow sound bites back home about how dire the financial crisis could really be.

“But in fairness to Paulson and Fromer, this is much easier said than done,” the lobbyist said.

It’s especially difficult because, if the bailout bill works as advertised, there won’t be an economic meltdown. And it’s a lot tougher for a member of Congress to point to an accomplishment that didn’t happen than to a more visible result. And that’s a hard thing to ask members of Congress to do in an election year, especially when the bailout has such low support in public opinion polls.

A graduate of the University of Virginia, Fromer began his Capitol Hill career in 1982, working a variety of staff jobs. From 1988 to 1993, he was an associate staff member on the House Appropriations Committee, and he later served as the chief of staff to Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.).

With the Bush administration winding down over the next three months, Fromer will soon be out of a job. And he’s got no idea what’s next.

“I have no set plans,” he said. “I’m focused on this.”

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