“A lot is certain to change in Congress following the November elections.  Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will certainly bring new ideas and a new style to Capitol Hill.

 

One thing that surely will not change, however, is that fact that members of both political parties must cooperate in order to get anything accomplished.

 

In order to assure that the next session of Congress is a productive one, even in the shadow of the 2008 presidential elections, representatives on both sides of the aisle must work together.  A central role in carrying out this mandate for cooperation will be played by non-partisan and bipartisan groups of members of Congress.  These groups, caucuses and meetings will be essential to setting an agenda in the next Congress.  They help to ensure that the ideas we discuss when talking politics make it to the table where we talk policy.

 

Some groups function simply to get members of different political persuasions into the same room together.  The House Prayer Breakfast, for example, is a closed-door, weekly meeting of members of Congress from both parties.  It is an important hour for us to put aside political, religious, and even philosophical differences to fellowship together.  My Democratic colleague from Missouri, Ike Skelton, and I have been attending the prayer breakfast together for years.

 

Others among these groups are policy oriented.  In 2006, I started the New Madrid Seismic Zone working group, comprised of members of Congress from our region.  Our purpose has been to focus congressional attention on the possibility for a cataclysmic earthquake in Southern Missouri and nearby states that sit atop the New Madrid fault line.  Using the different committee assignments in our respective parties, this group is working to ensure we have a successful, comprehensive preparedness exercise next year, followed by implementation of an improved plan to respond to a potential earthquake disaster.

 

Still more groups are informal, such as the prescription drug action team I have worked with since my first election to the U.S. House of Representatives.  Primarily, this group of members from states as different as Indiana and Connecticut has worked to facilitate the importation of safe, affordable prescription drugs from Canada to the U.S.  Standing up against big drug companies by my side have been the most liberal member of Congress, a near-Socialist, Bernie Sanders from Vermont, and a near-libertarian from Texas, Ron Paul.  In between, members from across the political spectrum have joined to do something about the oppressively high prices of prescription pharmaceuticals plaguing Americans, especially senior citizens.

 

Yet the call to work together is not heard by all.

 

Some of my colleagues, again on both sides of the aisle, do not share my opinion that a
cooperating Congress is a productive one.  Some of them believe that partisanship drives the congressional agenda.  While they run to extreme positions on the right and the left, the American people are left with few to represent them in the vast middle ground.

 

My position has always been clear on this matter.  Argument is acceptable and different ideas should be encouraged.  However, we get a lot more accomplished when we argue in the same room than we do when we let our differences destroy the dialog between us.

 

It takes two parties to effectively govern in Congress, and it always will.”