[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 6, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S624-S626]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           CIVILITY AND TRUST

  Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss something 
extremely important to each one of us in this wonderful body, which is 
called civility and trust. I rise to discuss them because they have 
been lost in Washington. I look around and we are all friends, and for 
some reason we lost trust in each other. We don't seem to spend enough 
time with each other.
  I can remember Senator Robert C. Byrd, who was the longest serving 
Senator in the history of the U.S. Senate, and he always told me what a 
place this was. He said that the Senate is something special. He even 
wrote a book about it, about how the Senate was to operate, what the 
Founding Fathers' intent was for the bipartisan, bicameral body that 
George Washington explained so eloquently, and what our role was as the 
most deliberative body in the world. The whole world depends on us kind 
of cooling things off and making things work. But as we have seen, it 
hasn't done what it is supposed to do, and it is not to blame one 
person or the other or one party or the other. I guess we can all say 
that it is all of our fault for letting it denigrate to this point.
  Several years ago, I took a personal pledge. I just knew something 
was wrong. When I first got here, I looked around and I saw that we 
were all expected to make phone calls raising money every day to our 
respective parties, and that money would be used for a couple of 
purposes. The purpose was basically to set an agenda or explain your 
priorities and your policies, but a lot of that money was directed 
toward defeating colleagues on the other side. So being in the 
Democratic caucus, the Democratic money was supposed to be raised and, 
if any one of my friends on the Republican side was up in this cycle, 
that money was supposed to be used against them. I thought that was 
wrong, and I know a lot of my Republican friends feel the same way--
that they are supposed to be making phone calls to raise money to be 
used against me and everybody else who is up in this cycle. I am sure 
they feel the same as I do.
  I have often said that I come to work in a hostile work environment, 
and I try to explain that in terms of how we in West Virginia would 
look upon this. If you go to work every day in my State of West 
Virginia and your colleague or some person with whom you are working is 
trying to undermine and undercut you to get you fired, and every day 
you go to work they are nice to your face but behind the scenes they 
are doing all they can to denigrate your work or to make your 
supervisors believe that you are not doing your job, back home in West 
Virginia, sooner or later, they are going to want a little talk. Can we 
talk in the parking lot? Can we have this disagreement worked out? That 
is just the way it would be settled, and, maybe, that is the way it 
should be settled here too. I don't know. I don't think so.
  I have met too many wonderful people with whom I have been serving 
for the last 7 years who are bright, extremely capable, intelligent, 
and with a wealth of experience, and I would put them up against any 
people whom I have met anywhere in any occupation in the country. But 
for some reason, we are all blocked from doing the right thing or what 
we know is right--sitting down and not accusing each other, not working 
and conspiring against each other, and not getting basically to the 
point that it is so visceral. Perhaps, someone might be talking with me 
one day, but, then, that weekend they might be in my State campaigning 
against me. Then, we come back on Monday or Tuesday, and we are 
supposed to sit down and work through our problems and differences for 
the betterment of our country. I just think human nature doesn't let 
that happen, and it will not produce good results.
  I have always looked forward to working with everybody. I am probably 
one of the most centrist, as far as being on more pieces of legislation 
in a bipartisan way. I have never looked at a Republican or a 
Democratic problem. I just looked at a problem that we had,

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and I always said this: The best form of government--the best policies 
and the best form of politics, if you want to play hardcore politics--
is good government. Everyone can take credit for doing something good, 
and I will assure you, if we do something wrong and we don't fix 
things, we all get blamed. We all get blamed. So nobody looks good when 
we sit and don't work on our differences, and we all get credit when we 
try to work together.
  We are facing a lot of challenges right now. We do things that 
basically shun the other side because we don't want to share the glory 
with someone else if we think there is some good in the piece of 
legislation. Every piece of legislation we have voted for or against 
has good in it. Every piece of legislation has something good and 
worthwhile in it. What happens is that there are ways we can make 
something better, and that is where our differences are. If you can 
make something better, then, I need to sit down and work with you 
because I don't have all the answers, but we both have a desire to make 
the best piece of policy that we can in legislation. So we should be 
working together. I should be open to saying: OK, that makes sense to 
me; let's see if we can amend this and fix it. But it seems that we get 
set in our ways.
  The place that Robert Byrd talked about many years ago was a place 
where people stayed and spent more time in Washington. They didn't come 
in on Monday night and leave on Thursday afternoon. They stayed and 
worked. On the weekends, they would even get together and have dinners 
together. Families would do things together during the days and the 
weekends, and they became friends. It is hard to say no to your friend. 
It is hard. All of us have been in situations that were very hurtful, 
when there was a friend with whom you disagreed. So you tried to find 
the most delicate way to see if there was a pathway forward without 
losing that friendship. It meant that much to us. That is what it 
should be here, too. But when you don't have that relationship--as a 
former Governor, I have my dear friend from South Dakota, and we are 
going to look for a way to stay together and be friends. We are not 
going to look for a way to disagree and diverge from that friendship 
that we built.
  We built that over our terms working together as Governors. I have 
always said that Governors are the most bipartisan people I have ever 
met.
  In our NGA--National Governors Association--when you had an education 
problem, when you had a Medicaid problem, when you had an 
infrastructure problem, when you had a veterans problem, if you looked 
around and you saw someone in one State who had found a pathway forward 
to fix that, you never hesitated to call them and say: Hey, Mike, what 
did you think about it? He would say: Well, I tried this, Joe. Why 
don't you try it? I will send someone or you send someone out, and we 
will work together.
  That is what I was used to doing as far as getting things done, and 
that is what I want to do here again. I think the place is right for 
it. The American people want it solved and want the States we represent 
to have a bipartisan pathway forward and to work together. I know the 
people of West Virginia want to see us get things accomplished.
  I have a wonderful little State that has given their all. I often 
tell people in West Virginia--I tell the children: When someone asks 
you where you are from, I want you to puff up your chest. I want you to 
say: Oh, I come from a beautiful State, one of the most patriotic 
States in the Nation.
  We have answered the call to duty more than most any State. We have 
more veterans per capita than most any State. We have fought more wars, 
shed more blood, lost more lives for the cause of freedom than any 
State. We have done the heavy lifting. We have mined the coal that made 
the steel that built the guns and ships that defend our country every 
day.
  The Good Lord has been so kind to us and blessed us with one of the 
greatest venues that you will ever see in the mountains of West 
Virginia. My little State is called West Virginia, and we hope you will 
come and visit, and maybe you will even stay.
  It is really who we are. And we all have that same pride; each one of 
us does. Whether it be Indiana, South Dakota, wherever it may be, we 
have a pride in our States, the people in our States, and they deserve 
better than what we are giving them right now.
  I don't see anybody in public service, who is willing to put their 
name on the ballot, as my enemy. If you are willing to serve, then I am 
your comrade. I am going to work with you. If you are willing to take 
the heat that comes with these jobs, then let's make sure we get the 
results that the jobs should produce. These jobs should produce results 
so that the whole world can have a hope that America is the right 
place. They are the people who can solve the problems that we all have, 
and they still can lift us up and be the hope of the world.
  With that, I am pledging to the people of West Virginia and to the 
American people that I will not campaign against a sitting colleague, 
that I will not directly fundraise against them, that I will not 
distribute any direct mail against them. I will not appear or endorse 
any advertisements directed at them. I will not use or endorse social 
media campaigns that attack them.
  Washington will be dysfunctional until we all draw the line of truce 
and say that we are here for the same reason. We take the same oath. We 
swear on the Bible to the same Constitution--that we will uphold it. 
That is what we are here to do.
  Since that civility has broken down because the system has changed 
and we are not here and we don't know each other's families, spouses, 
children, we better control ourselves, hopefully through the rules we 
can change and the ethics laws we should live by, to treat each other 
in the manner that we would want to be treated.
  With that, I am going to sign this pledge, and I would hope that all 
of my colleagues would consider signing the pledge the same way. We are 
the only ones who can change it. The power has changed. The pressure 
that comes within has changed. The way this place works has changed. 
The only way we can change it is to say we are not going to participate 
in denigrating each other and attacking each other anymore.
  With that, I am going to sign the pledge. It says here:

       Pledge to Return to Era of Bipartisan Cooperation and 
     Agreement.
       In order to restore civility to the United Senates Senate 
     and our political discourse, we must pledge to return to an 
     era of bipartisan cooperation and agreement.
       I, Joe Manchin, pledge to the people of West Virginia and 
     to the American people that I will not campaign against a 
     sitting colleague, not directly fundraise against them, not 
     distribute direct mail against them, not appear or endorse 
     advertisements directed at them, and not use or endorse 
     social media campaigns that attack them.

  I would hope that each one of you would consider this. I think we 
have to take this into our own hands right now and make sure that we 
look at each other, that we look at each other with sincerity. You are 
my friend. We might disagree, but we can work through this, Mr. 
President. We can definitely work through this and remember what our 
purpose is for being here. The people want us to succeed. They depend 
on us to succeed, and that is the policy they need. Whether in Indiana, 
South Dakota, or West Virginia, they all want the same--they want 
America to be the hope of the world.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.
  Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, let me respond to my colleague and good 
friend from West Virginia. He and I served as Governors at the same 
time. We have a friendship that has now lasted more than a decade. A 
lot of what the Senator has indicated I feel as well in terms of the 
reason why we came here and the focus we should have. In fact, I think 
one of the most important things we can do as Members of this 
institution, Members of this body, is to show respect for one another 
and defend one another in our responsibility to try to find a way 
forward. Until we have that respect for one another, it will be very 
difficult to expect others to have that same respect for us or for this 
institution.
  I most certainly appreciate the sentiments expressed by my colleague 
from West Virginia, and I appreciate his bringing them to the floor 
today.

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