We sat down with Gov. Josh Shapiro to talk about his first month. Here are our takeaways.

No bills have come across Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk during his first month in office.

But he’s kept busy.

The new Democratic governor has worked to cast himself as a leader willing to reach across the aisle in a deeply polarized state. And he’s put time into boosting his national profile, too — giving interviews to Fox News and the Washington Post shortly after taking office, and going to the Super Bowl in Arizona.

Shapiro has also called on the state legislature to abolish the death penalty, signed pro-business executive orders, visited the train derailment site near the Pennsylvania-Ohio border, and attended the funeral of the Temple University police officer killed Feb. 18.

He now must work with lawmakers in the state House, where Democrats hold a thin majority after a chaotic start to their session, and the Republican-controlled state Senate to accomplish his agenda.

The Inquirer sat down with Shapiro to talk about his first month, his upcoming budget address, and what he thinks he’ll be able to get done in the coming years. Here are five takeaways from the exclusive interview.

Just two weeks after taking office, Shapiro got a 3 a.m. phone call about the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

Just across the border in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, residents eventually had to evacuate while the rail company released toxic chemicals into the air to prevent an explosion.

Shapiro has been working on a unified response with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and federal officials, and said he is “focused like a laser beam” on residents of western Beaver County.

Just hours before he sat down with The Inquirer, Shapiro traveled to Ohio, where he appeared with DeWine and other officials. They announced plans to hold railway company Norfolk Southern accountable and make the company clean up the derailment site.

That response will continue to play out in the weeks and months to come.

Disasters can be defining moments for governors — former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Hurricane Sandy, for example. It’s too early to say whether or how this derailment will define Shapiro, but he acknowledged that it’s already been a test of his leadership abilities.

“We were tested, I was tested as a governor,” he said.

First-year governors typically use budget proposals to lay out ambitious plans that would fulfill campaign promises. Shapiro declined to get into any of the nitty-gritty details of his proposal, which he’ll deliver March 7, but spoke broadly about his top priorities.

For example, Shapiro has pledged to increase access to mental health professionals in Pennsylvania schools. That will be part of his budget, he said.

“You’re going to see the things I campaigned on come to life in this budget,” Shapiro added.

A budget is often viewed as a governor’s wish list, and not all of it will make it through the legislature. Shapiro’s predecessor, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, clashed with lawmakers over his ideas and it took nearly nine months to pass a budget during his first year in office.

Shapiro, however, said it’s not his style to pitch ideas before gathering support.

“My approach is to actually get things done,” he added. “I think the way you get things done is you demonstrate a willingness to work with other people and reach across the aisle.”

As attorney general, Shapiro prioritized seeking justice for child sex-abuse victims. He released a groundbreaking 2018 grand jury report on sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests, and he prosecuted Jehovah’s Witnesses accused of abusing children.

Now, Shapiro has a direct say in whether victims get long-sought relief through a two-year window extending the statute of limitations so childhood victims of sexual assault can file civil lawsuits against their abusers or the institutions that protected them.

Just before leaving office, Wolf called lawmakers into a special session to consider those measures. The House passed two bills Friday that could create that two-year window. The Senate, however, wants to add the legislation to an omnibus package of constitutional amendments, including one to require voter ID that Democrats oppose.

Shapiro wouldn’t say whether he’ll get involved as his predecessor did and call a special Senate session on the bills.

“This is an issue, frankly, which should have been addressed years ago,” Shapiro said. “But I’m not focused on looking back and pointing fingers, I’m focused on how we can bridge the divide between the House and Senate.”

The Commonwealth Court issued a landmark decision this month, ruling that Pennsylvania’s school funding system is inequitable and unconstitutional.

Pending any appeal, the court tasked Shapiro and the General Assembly with finding a system that would be equitable for all students. That means Shapiro could have a big impact on how education is funded for decades to come.

However, Shapiro said it’s going to be a few years before he and lawmakers decide on what fix they should apply and implement it. It’s unlikely he’ll propose a different system in his upcoming budget address, he said, but preliminary conversations with Republicans and Democrats have been promising.

Shapiro also declined to say whether he thinks the state should change “hold harmless,” a controversial policy that prevents schools with declining populations, mostly in Western Pennsylvania, from losing state funding. Democratic lawmakers in Southeastern Pennsylvania, where Shapiro is from, have long advocated for an end to this policy, arguing that it puts additional burdens on their school districts to pay for increasing school populations.

“I don’t want to get ahead of the conversations that we need to have with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, and the advocates, as well,” Shapiro added.

While Shapiro adjusts to his new job, Pennsylvania first lady Lori Shapiro is settling into her new role, too.

The two have been together since ninth grade, and for all of his political pursuits — as state representative, Montgomery County commissioner, attorney general, and now governor.

The Shapiros and their three sons have moved into the Governor’s Home in Harrisburg on the Susquehanna River. (Their fourth and eldest child, Sophia, is a student at the University of Pittsburgh.) That’s a change from his predecessor; Wolf did not live in the mansion and instead commuted from his home in York.

Lori Shapiro has started volunteering around the state, and visited the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank last week to highlight impending decreases in SNAP benefits.

“She’s someone you may not encounter giving speeches and other things like that, but she’s doing a lot and trying to make a difference in people’s lives — and bringing a big heart to it,” her husband said.