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Zeldin Named One of Top Bipartisan Members of Congress

Sara Swann

August 5, 2020

Younger House members are more likely to work across the aisle than their older colleagues, a new study shows.

Bipartisanship is extraordinarily hard to come by on Capitol Hill, one of the main reasons why the legislative branch has devolved into near-total dysfunction and further hobbled the regular operations of democracy. The report provides a glimmer of hope the next generation of lawmaker leaders may be willing to change that.

The findings were released this week by the Millennial Action Project, which was created to champion young legislators committed to bipartisanship, and the Lugar Center, a think tank promoting civility and collaboration across party lines.

For the study, researchers created a formula to quantify the bipartisan tendencies of every current House member. It was based on how often in this term they have signed on to bills introduced by someone of the opposite party, and how many of their own proposals have attracted sponsorship from across the aisle. (The numbers are one of the few ways to quantify behavior that often manifests itself in subjective acts of behind-closed-doors cooperation.)

The results were compared to how members of Congress behaved from 1993 to 2018, a period when partisan loyalties soared while collaborative legislating fell into disfavor and disuse each year more than the last. High scores identified members acting in a more bipartisan way than the average of the previous quarter-century…

Steven Olikara, who runs the Millennial Action Project, said this study affirms that "the next generation of leaders is already redefining how we govern."

Younger members with the highest bipartisanship scores:

1. Democrat Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey

2. Republican Lee Zeldin of New York

3. Republican Elise Stefanik of New York

4. Democrat Joe Cunningham of South Carolina

5. Democrat Abigail Spanberger of Virginia

Read the rest here.

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Lee Zeldin is an Army veteran, Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve, former prosecutor, husband, father of 13-year-old twin girls, and former NY State Senator who currently represents New York’s 1st Congressional District, where he has served since 2015. Learn more about Lee, who was born and raised on Long Island, here: https://zeldinforcongress.com/meet-lee/.