Dems Lock Out Republicans on Bipartisan Bills: 'We're in Charge'
House Democrats cut Republican Rep. Richard Hudson out of new workforce legislation he had been working on with them, eliminating another opportunity for bipartisan collaboration.
But Democrats such as Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Penn., express little interest in anything but pushing ahead with Democratic legislation — and after 25 years mostly in the House minority, Doyle thinks it is high time.
“I don’t have thin skin about this, but when they were in charge, they had the rules,” Doyle told Politico.
“Now we’re in charge, and maybe some of them don’t understand that yet.”
Republican Richard Hudson expressed frustration with Democrat Bobby Rush for altering a bill the two had co-authored to introduce workforce training programs.
Rush has effectively removed Hudson from planning this bill.
“He reintroduced it, and he’s added all this money to it, and didn’t consult me,” Hudson told Politico.
“We didn’t mean to exclude you from the process. We’d love to work with you,” Hudson was told when he questioned why he had been excluded.
But Hudson is still waiting to hear when exactly Rush would work with him again.
Republicans such as Hudson fume over the lack of collaboration in areas that would enable Republicans and Democrats to easily compromise.
Other Republicans have also expressed frustration at the short periods of time they are given to look over bills, asserting that this indicates Democrats have no interest in collaboration.
“Bipartisanship is asking for my input, not just for my vote,” Texas Rep. Michael Burgess said.
“Giving a member less than 24 hours to sign onto a piece of legislation they have never seen is discourteous, especially when we have said at each hearing thus far this Congress that we are willing to work in a bipartisan way.”
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