Legislators are seeking opportunities to work together



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Hi Friend,



During this week’s State of the Union address, President Biden kept pounding
the drum for one recurring theme: bipartisanship. In his address, he urged
legislators on both sides of the aisle to come together aroundfour bipartisan
goals
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: fighting cancer, improving veterans’ health care, combating the opioid
crisis, and ensuring access to mental health services — policy areas that
appeal to both Democrats and Republicans.



Further touting a message of unity, President Biden encouraged legislators to
see each other not as enemies but as fellow Americans, praising those who have
actively put country over party to pass policies that better the lives of the
American people, such as the infrastructure law.



“We’re often told that Democrats and Republicans can’t work together. But over
these past two years, we proved the cynics and the naysayers wrong,” he said to
the House chamber. “To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the
last Congress, there is no reason we can’t work together in this new Congress.”



He’s not wrong; that line garnered praise from both sides of the House
chamber, as several Republicans joined in the applause. (Now, just imagine what
Washington could look likeif such words matched the conditions under which
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So, in the spirit of coming together, here are three things to consider this
week:





A new poll indicates more than a quarter of Americans are seeking election
reform
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The McCourtney Institute for Democracy and APM Research Lab asked Americans in
its recent Mood of the Nation Poll to describe in their own words what law they
would choose to enact at the start of the new Congress. Political and electoral
reform earned the top of Americans’ legislative wish list with 28% of
respondents identifying changes including term limits, campaign finance reform,
and proportional representation. Of those, 21% felt that “some sort of change
to our political system was needed to overcome dissatisfaction with America’s
two-party system.”



In an article
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published by the APM Research Lab, Eric Plutzer, Ph.D., the director of the
poll, noted, “... many Americans are prioritizing fixing the system over any
particular policy that might contribute to security, freedom, equality or
prosperity. That’s a symptom of deep frustration with government and how it has
been functioning — or not — lately.”


Check out the AMP Research Lab’s website to read the full report
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A handful of legislators push for bipartisan collaboration
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For the first time since 2013 and 2014, Republicans control the House while
Democrats hold both the Senate and the White House. That means bipartisan
collaboration will continue to be necessary to get things done. Thankfully, a
handful of legislators from both chambers of Congress have started carving out
opportunities to work together.

Here's a breakdown of bipartisan efforts in both the House of Representatives
and the Senate.



Bipartisan efforts in the House of Representatives: Building off the success
of the 117th Congress, theHouse Select Committee on the Modernization of
Congress
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has been re-established. The bipartisan committee of lawmakers will continue
bringing Congress into the 21st century through a wide range of
recommendations, including improvements to outdated technology and addressing
cultural and logistical problems, among many others. Of the 200 recommendations
made by the previous Congress, 45 have been fully implemented, and 87 have been
partially implemented. Check out ourblog post
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to learn more.



Bipartisan efforts in the Senate: The centrist group “No Labels
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last weekend to discuss how the ideological center can break through in a
divided Washington.



“We’re more focused on issues. Now, in focusing on issues, we obviously
discuss the possibility of political agreements and negotiations,” Senator
Susan Collins, R-ME, said in an interview with Politico
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. “In some ways, No Labels is designed for dealing with divided government.”


 


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The “Alaska Model” fosters a bipartisan Freshman Caucus
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Meanwhile, in Alaska, an informal bipartisan caucus of 17 freshman legislators
has been formed, prioritizing collaborating across party lines. In a recent
article published in theAlaska Memo
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,Republican Rep. Justin Ruffridge stated:



“There may be times we vote together, times that we vote apart [...]
Regardless of if we agree or disagree, I know we will maintain the highest
level of respect for one another.”



The article continues on to state that “this particular class of freshmen this
year — produced by the state’s new open primaries and ranked-choice voting —
appears to so far be generally more moderate and open-minded than their
predecessors, who were produced in the rancorous system of the semi-closed
partisan primaries.” The creation of this caucus further illustrates the impact
thatthe “Alaska Model” of voting
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has had on the state legislature.
 


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Regards,



Alana
__
Alana Persson
Unite America

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