Congressional Orientation Should Teach Bipartisan Accomplishments, Could Stop Gridlock, Say Ex-White House and Hill Sr Staff Robert Weiner & Analyst Autumn Kelly in Roll Call

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Currently, orientation for new Senators and Representatives teaches congressional rules and ethics, gives tours around Capitol Hill, takes pictures, provides suggestions on setting up new offices and goes over the process of "How a Law is Made" in its simplest form. In an article in Roll Call, "Congressional Orientation on Bipartisan Legislation Could Stop Gridlock," ex-White House and congressional senior staff Robert Weiner and policy analyst Autumn Kelly assert that what is lacking is education on "how Congress has effectively worked in the past to achieve bipartisan legislation, arguably the most important factor new and current members need to reverse polls showing congressional approval ratings at an all-time low."

Weiner and Kelly write, "Members of Congress are so caught up in their parties that they are oblivious to recent history where politicians have been successful working together to pass some of the nation's most cherished legislation. The just-passed appropriations bill, where everyone wanted to hurry home for the holidays, is an outlier. Members of the House and Senate are probably as rusty as classes of young people who know few leaders of the past."

"Orientation including bipartisanship as an effective strategy in the past just might avoid party gridlock for important legislation on health care, tax reform and immigration," contend Weiner and Kelly.

They say that Chris Matthews wrote about "Tip and the Gipper," but it wasn't just the speaker and President Ronald Reagan who saved Social Security in 1983. Weiner and Kelly point to House Minority Leader Bob Michel, R-Ill.; Sen. Majority Leader Howard Baker, R-Tenn., and leaders of Reagan's Commission on Social Security Reform — notably House Aging Chairman Claude Pepper, D-Fla.; Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and Sen. Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., who worked across party lines.

Weiner and Kelly argue that during the debate, "Pepper fretted about making people wait longer and pay more to get Social Security but he ultimately said, 'There was no [political] alternative or the program would die.' As the bill passed, Reagan said, 'I hope and believe it reflects a bipartisan spirit of putting people before party.'" They say that the bipartisan deal "added solvency for 75 years."

They point out that "Pepper also pushed with Paul Findley, R-Ill., to pass a bill abolishing mandatory retirement at 65, in 1978 for federal workers and 1986 for everyone. Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, then a House Aging Committee member and later chairman of the Senate Aging Committee, along with all the committee Republicans helped move it. Grassley joked to committee chief of staff Weiner at the time at a breakfast, 'I'm a conservative and you're a liberal but we're friends and work well together.'"

They cite the history showing that the Business Roundtable and the AFL-CIO opposed the legislation — both sides wanted control over hiring. "However, because the bill was bipartisan and seen as civil rights legislation against 'ageism as odious as racism or sexism,' it passed the House 359-2 and the Senate 89-10."

They present another example: in 1986, Reagan, with a split Congress, passed landmark tax reform with the help of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., and Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., approving "perhaps the most compressive tax code overhaul in recent history."

They also mention Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., who, though an adversary of Bill Clinton and an instigator of shutdowns, "compromised with Clinton over the 1998 budget and reformed welfare to require jobs."

The writers list more recent examples:  "In 2006, Judiciary Committee leaders John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., and Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., led a renewal of the Voting Rights Act. It passed the House 390-33. Unfortunately, in the political landscape of 2014, their latest renewal is going nowhere."  Conyers told Weiner and Kelly last week, "Bipartisanship plays a more important role than ever before. In the end, that's the only way things get done."

Following a years-long benefits delay and cover-up by the Veterans Administration, its health system was reformed in August this year. Weiner and Kelly say that "perhaps two of the least likely bedfellows made it happen — Independent Bernie Sanders, a Socialist from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats, the Senate Veterans Affairs chairman, and House VA Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla. The scandal was so deep and Republicans so much wanted to attack an Obama administration failure, while Democrats and Republicans alike wanted to do something positive for the sacrosanct veterans issue, that it succeeded quickly." However, "Desperation and stick-it-to-em should not be the only reason for bipartisan action. Pride in carrying out the people's mission should be at least as motivating."

The writers also list Sen. Everett Dirksen, R-Ill., who "ended a filibuster with a compelling speech to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, gaining 27 Republican votes in the Senate. He stated, 'I trust the time will never come when the waters of partisanship will flow so swift and deep as to obscure my estimate of the national interest.'"

Weiner and Kelly conclude by calling on "the House Administration and Senate Rules Committees to instruct the Clerk of the House and Secretary of the Senate to offer sessions early in the new Congress to new and old members on how Congress has worked together in the past to build legislation that has shaped the society that exists today."

Robert Weiner is a former spokesman for the Clinton and Bush White Houses, and was senior staff for Reps. John Conyers Jr., Charles B. Rangel, Claude Pepper, Ed Koch and Sen. Edward Kennedy. Autumn Kelly is senior policy analyst at Robert Weiner Associates.

Contact: Bob Weiner/Autumn Kelly, 301-283-0821 cell 202-306-1200, [email protected]

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SOURCE Robert Weiner Associates; Solutions for Change