Team — The Washington Post just covered Derek's efforts to fix Congress, and we wanted to make sure you had a chance to read it.

Derek proudly chaired the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress to fix the broken process and facilitate bipartisan collaboration. The "Fix Congress" Committee proved (through over 200 bipartisan recommendations!) that Democrats and Republicans actually CAN work together.

Read an excerpt from the opinion piece below, then chip in whatever you can to support Derek's efforts to make Congress work for the American people.

 

---

  Opinion: These radically simple changes helped lawmakers actually get things done

By Amanda Ripley
After the Jan. 6, 2021, invasion of the Capitol, no one would have predicted this kind of [committee], least of all the committee chairman, Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.). He met with all the committee members, one by one, to ask what they wanted to work on. The answer was, basically: Nothing. Most didn’t think Democrats and Republicans would be able to sit in the same room together, let alone work with each other.

"Some of the conversations were really alarming," Kilmer remembers. One Democrat told him: "I feel like not only was I in a relationship with someone who cheated on me; I was in a relationship with someone who cheated on me with someone who was trying to kill me."

Kilmer, a former management consultant and state legislator, is optimistic and fairly earnest by nature. His office is decorated with "Star Wars" throw pillows and a framed copy of the Rotary Club four-way test ("Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?"). But after those 11 conversations, even he felt demoralized.

"We're screwed," he told his chief of staff. "We're going to have to do some stuff differently."

Sometimes, crises make conflicts worse. Other times, they force radical creativity. In this case, Kilmer and his colleagues figured they couldn’t expect to fix Congress if they didn’t start with themselves. So they made a series of blazingly logical changes to their work routines and behaviors that were, in the context of Congress, straight-up radical…

…So the members of the modernization committee did things differently, on purpose. They started the session with a bipartisan planning retreat, which almost never happens. They hired one bipartisan team of staffers together, rather than separate staffs for Democrats and Republicans. That meant they started with twice as much capacity — and everyone rowing more or less in the same direction. They got a lot done in the 116th Congress, which led their colleagues to vote to extend the committee’s life span into the next Congress. "If all of Congress could operate the way that the modernization committee has, the nation would be in a much better place," Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.) said in 2020…

"...My big takeaway," Kilmer tells me, "is we need to have these tough conversations with each other." Otherwise, the resentments and blame ferment underground, and they will come out in some other way.
  READ THE FULL PIECE   SUPPORT DEREK KILMER  

 

 

Derek Kilmer is leading the efforts to reform our democracy and break through the partisan gridlock so that Congress works for the people. Chip in today to support his grassroots campaign.

DONATE

 

---