[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3126-3133]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         THE BLUE DOG COALITION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Curbelo of Florida). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 6, 2015, the gentleman from California

[[Page 3127]]

(Mr. Costa) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the 
minority leader.
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, my name is Congressman Jim Costa from Fresno, 
California. Since I was first elected over 10 years ago, I have been a 
member of the Blue Dog caucus. This afternoon, members of the Blue Dog 
caucus that stretch the width and the breadth of this great country of 
ours are going to speak about what brings us together, about the 
passions that they have and the people that they advocate for and why 
they believe that their efforts at being a constructive and a very 
positive member of the Blue Dog caucus adds value to their ability to 
represent their constituencies and to the vision that I think we, as 
Americans, all share together, which is to make our Congress, to make 
our representative democracy, a more functioning system. Because 
clearly today, the American public, in poll after poll after poll, 
demonstrate their frustration with the inability of the United States 
Congress to come together and to work on common solutions for our 
country, solutions that share our common values but also involve the 
art, the art of the political compromise, too often I believe an art 
that has become lost here in our Nation's Capital in Washington, D.C.
  So among the first of the members of our caucus that will speak is 
the gentlewoman from Arizona's Ninth District, Kyrsten Sinema, a 
colleague of mine who always is advocating for her constituency in the 
most positive ways.
  Ms. SINEMA. Thank you, Mr. Costa, and thank you today for organizing 
this Special Order.
  Mr. Speaker, this is an important opportunity for us to come together 
and show how bipartisanship can fix our broken system.
  At home in Arizona, I hear from everyone that Washington is broken. 
There is too much time spent playing political games and too little 
time spent working together to get things done. Most people are sick 
and tired of Congress' failing to do its job because of partisan 
politics. That is why I joined the Blue Dog Coalition, because they 
prioritize the people they represent more than their party leadership.
  Everybody knows that Congress is not working effectively, and the 
Blue Dogs are trying to change that. They are focused on ending 
political polarization, reforming Congress, stopping reckless 
government spending, and creating economic opportunity for Americans 
who have been left behind by this recession.
  Mr. Speaker, I come to work every single day to get things done for 
Arizona. I have a proven record of reaching out to members of both 
political parties to find common ground on issues ranging from jobs and 
the economy to reducing spending and government waste. As a cofounder 
of the United Solutions Caucus and a No Labels Problem Solver, I have 
worked with members of both parties to get things done. At home, 
Congressman Matt Salmon and I work together to help Arizona veterans 
get the care they deserve, and I have worked with Congressman Michael 
McCaul to introduce legislation that puts an end to automatic pay 
raises for Members of Congress.
  Neither party is always right. In fact, both parties are often wrong. 
It is time for us to listen to each other and work together to grow our 
economy, help our country's families, and honor our veterans. Recently, 
we came together to pass bipartisan legislation to prevent veteran 
suicide and improve access to mental health care and health services 
for veterans. Just this week, we agreed on legislation to expand 
college savings plans and make higher education a reality for students 
and their families. We need more of these kinds of accomplishments in 
Congress.
  In Arizona, the voters established an independent redistricting 
commission that allows for an open and transparent process and creates 
competitive districts where neither party has a monopoly. We Blue Dogs 
have proposed similar reforms to create impartial, fairly drawn 
districts across the country to cut back on the polarization that 
cripples our system.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people deserve leaders who do whatever it 
takes to come up with practical, commonsense solutions that help us 
move forward. It is time for us to focus on areas of common ground and 
come up with real answers to our country's most pressing problems. So 
let's put aside the finger pointing and the fighting. Let's roll up our 
sleeves and get back to work.
  Mr. COSTA. I thank the gentlewoman from Arizona.
  Mr. Speaker, our next Blue Dog colleague who will speak is a 
gentleman whom I have served with both in the California State 
Legislature as well as here in Congress. He and I are good friends. We 
both represent wonderful parts of California, and he is one of the 
longer serving members in the Blue Dog caucus, the gentleman from 
northern California, Congressman Mike Thompson from California's Fifth 
District.
  Mr. THOMPSON of California. I thank the gentleman, and my friend, for 
yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, Members, I came down to the floor this afternoon to join 
my Blue Dog colleagues in calling for all of us in Congress to come 
together and do the work that we have been asked to do, the work that 
we have been sent to Washington, sent to Congress to do on behalf of 
the people that we represent. I came to Congress to get things done, to 
get things done for the people that I represent, and to get things done 
for the great country that we are all so privileged to live in and to 
participate in.
  As Mr. Costa mentioned, he and I served together in the State 
legislature in California, and I am very proud of the work that we did 
there. We were able to get a lot of things done. In the time that I was 
there, the majority of the time, I chaired the Senate Budget Committee. 
That was one of the reasons why I was so proud to be a Blue Dog, 
although the common thread that holds all Blue Dogs together is the 
issue of fiscal responsibility.
  In my time in Sacramento chairing the Budget Committee, we always had 
a balanced budget. Fiscal responsibility was important, and it is 
equally as important here in Congress. Nobody likes the fact that we 
have huge deficits or huge debts. We understand that some things are 
unavoidable, but there has to be an understanding of and an intentional 
effort on the part of all us to make sure that we are fiscally 
responsible and that we manage that debt, we manage that deficit, and 
we bring it down to a level that won't burden our children and our 
grandchildren in the years to come.
  So I was stunned when I came to Congress and found out that it was 
very, very difficult to get anything done, to get people to work 
together. As Jim pointed out, I am one of the longer serving Members, 
so I was stunned a long time ago in what you can probably refer to 
today as ``the good old days,'' when we were actually able to work 
together and get things done, but we didn't have a high level of that 
cooperation even back then.
  Last week, I was with the Aspen Institute on a trade conference. 
Anybody who is familiar with them knows that they are able to bring 
together a bipartisan and bicameral representation of Congress, Members 
from the Senate and Members from the House, Democrats and Republicans. 
They also bring together some of the most famous scholars to talk about 
whatever the issue of the conference is. I was struck, at this trade 
conference, when one of the new Members that we serve with, now 
starting his sophomore term, after the scholars spoke and he was 
recognized, said: I came to Congress to involve myself in this type of 
problem solving, when people came together, talked about issues, talked 
about problems, and talked about solutions. He said: And this is the 
first time since I have been here that we have been able to engage in 
that type of dialogue.
  That is not right, Members, and we all know that. We are here to work 
on the problems that face our great country, and we need to get down 
and do that work.

[[Page 3128]]


  Mr. COSTA. I appreciate your explaining your experience in the 
California Legislature because we not only worked together in a 
bipartisan fashion, but we also worked together with the lower house 
and the State senate, because you could never get anything done if you 
didn't work together with both houses. Of course, that is part of our 
problem here today.
  Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is correct. 
That is how the legislative process works. You don't just punt 
something over to the other Chamber and then say, ``We have done our 
job''; because you haven't done your job until the President, in the 
case of Congress, signs his name on the line making that bill or that 
job come to fruition, making it the law.
  You are right. In the State capitol, we did that. We knew we had to 
work together because the same piece of legislation had to pass both 
houses and had to meet there for the Governor's signature in order to 
become law. The same thing happens here.
  I know it can be done. One of the things that I did in some of my 
earlier years here, Mr. Speaker, is I was successful in getting a 
wilderness bill passed, a wilderness bill that protected into 
perpetuity 350,000 acres in my district in California. Wilderness bills 
have passed before, so that, in itself, was not the biggest thing that 
has ever happened here. But I am particularly proud because I was in 
the minority then.
  The chair of Natural Resources was Richard Pombo from California, 
someone whom I consider a friend, although not a political ally. He was 
not someone who was favorable to approving wilderness legislation. But 
I worked with him and his committee. He had the bill up in for a 
markup. We had it on the floor. We passed it. I compromised; he 
compromised. That bill went through the House. The companion bill went 
through the Senate, as Mr. Costa was explaining has to be done, and it 
went to then-President George W. Bush, who signed it into law.
  So it is incongruent with the way we work today. Today you would just 
start by saying: An unfriendly chairman, an unfriendly President, we 
can't get anything done. That is just absolutely not true.
  If we come together and if we work together, we can find solutions to 
the problems that we face. There are any number of issues that need to 
come together and need to be put on this floor for a vote. You can look 
at immigration reform, tax reform, gun violence prevention, and 
certainly one that everyone can agree with is an infrastructure bill.

                              {time}  1630

  There is not a person that any one of us represents who doesn't know 
that we need to invest in America's infrastructure--in our roads, in 
our highways, in our broadband, in our overpasses, in our bridges. And 
now with the new Panama Canal coming on line and the bigger ships 
coming into this country, we have huge investments that need to be made 
in our ports and our harbors. These are investments that not only put 
Americans to work generating more revenue, but put better jobs and make 
our economy stronger than it has ever been before.
  I submit, Members, that these are things that we can do. As has been 
said before, the things that bring us together, the things that bring 
us together as Americans, are far greater than the things that divide 
us. I will plead, let's get together, let's roll up our sleeves, let's 
work together on addressing the major issues that face America.
  I thank you, Mr. Costa, for bringing us here today.
  Mr. COSTA. I thank the Congressman from California.
  Congressman Mike Thompson, I think, expressly indicated why he is a 
Blue Dog and, over the years, his efforts to bridge the gap, to reach 
across the aisle, to get something done; because he recognizes, as do 
all of us Blue Dogs, that the political dysfunction that is occurring 
here in our Nation's Capital is real. It has measurable costs, and it 
is preventing our country, sadly, from solving the problems that our 
constituents send us here to solve, whether it is the economic recovery 
that could be stronger, whether it is fixing our Nation's deficit, 
whether it is fixing a broken immigration system, or an array of other 
issues that are pressing, that are important to the people back home.
  The next gentleman who would like to address our Congress is the 
gentleman from the great State of Illinois, Congressman Dan Lipinski, 
my colleague and classmate from Illinois' Third District.
  Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Costa for putting this 
together today.
  The reason I came to Congress, the reason I ran for Congress, was to 
get things done. I think that is what all our constituents are 
expecting us to do.
  Unfortunately, when I am at home, I am constantly reminded that my 
constituents are wondering why we don't get more done, what is 
happening in Washington. When I am shopping at Menards or at Jewel, 
people come up to me and say: Why can't everyone work together there in 
Washington?
  They know that I have been doing that. That is why I am part of the 
Blue Dog coalition, because we want to bring people together here in 
Washington--in the House, the Senate--bring everyone together to work 
out the many, many problems that our Nation has.
  We just had Mr. Thompson talking about a transportation bill. 
Everyone talks about the need to fix our transportation infrastructure. 
We have roads and bridges that are crumbling. Our public transit also 
has infrastructure that is crumbling. We all need a good transportation 
system to get wherever we need to go during the day.
  Our Nation, for the sake of having an efficient economy, needs a good 
transportation system. We can put people to work immediately fixing our 
transportation system, yet we haven't been able to come together to 
solve this problem. That is one thing that we need to do, and it is 
something I think that we can do.
  We have just seen all the trouble that we had run into here with the 
Homeland Security bill, an issue that should be easy. We all want to 
protect our homeland. We all know the threats that we are facing. And 
although we may have disagreements on many issues, protecting our 
Nation is not one of those. Yet, unfortunately, we do run into issues, 
and we really need to instead focus on what can we work together on and 
what is possible.
  We have a divided government now. It used to be that after an 
election, everyone would come together, look around and say: Okay. This 
is who is the majority in the House, the majority in the Senate, who is 
in the White House. What can we agree upon? How can we work together to 
solve problems? Where can we find our agreement? Instead, we seem to 
focus on how our party can get control of everything in the next 
election. Mr. Speaker, this is not the way that the American people 
want us to work. They want us to come together.
  Now, some of the previous speakers talked about electoral reform and 
redistricting reform. Those can certainly help. Those are things that 
we support and that the Blue Dogs are working to get done. But even 
before we get those things done, we can work together and accomplish 
great things here. The American people aren't demanding that of us. 
They are demanding that we change the way that Washington is working 
right now. That is what the Blue Dogs are doing.
  That is the only way we are going to be able to face so many of the 
problems that we face, including the issue that is really at the heart 
of the Blue Dogs, has always been, and continues to be: dealing with 
our fiscal situation. We need to be fiscally responsible. The American 
people understand this. They know we need to make the tough choices 
here in Washington to get our fiscal House in order.
  The Blue Dogs have always led on that. We continue to lead on that, 
but it is going to take bipartisan cooperation to get that done because 
we have a divided government. But we need to do it. We need to take 
care of these

[[Page 3129]]

issues. The Blue Dogs continue to work on these things. We really need 
the support of everyone to come together here in Washington and across 
the country to solve these great problems that we have, that we face.
  Mr. Speaker, I am sure there are people who may be out there watching 
this on C-SPAN, and probably a lot of people who are just so happy to 
finally turn on C-SPAN and hear people talking about working together, 
not talking about what is wrong with the other side, how I am right and 
the other side is wrong, but the need to work together. That is what 
the Blue Dogs are about. That is what it continues to be about, and 
that is the way that we are going to make America the greatest Nation 
on the face of the Earth--but a Nation that faces, as we all 
understand, many issues, many problems, just as our families are facing 
many issues right now. By working together, we can make our Nation even 
greater, and only by working together will we get there.
  I am very happy to join my Blue Dog colleagues here tonight and every 
day working to help make America a better place to live. So let us all 
come together, Mr. Speaker, and work on some of these problems. 
``Compromise,'' I know, sometimes is a dirty word. You don't have to 
give up your principles to compromise. Stick to your principles, but 
compromise. Get done what we can get done, and make this Nation a 
greater place.
  I thank my Blue Dog colleagues very much. Thank you, Mr. Costa, for 
this. We are going to continue to bring the message to the American 
people and get things done.
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois, 
my classmate, for his good words. Clearly, I think he speaks on behalf 
of not only the Blue Dogs, but the majority of Americans who believe 
that we need to be working together to solve problems, whether it is 
our budget, our fiscal deficit, or whether it is our transportation 
system, as the gentleman from Illinois so succinctly pointed out. It 
can never be ``my way or the highway,'' because if that is the case, we 
will never get anything done, as has been witnessed here for the last 
couple of months. But when we do work together, as the compromised 
bipartisan vote that we saw this afternoon on Homeland Security, we can 
get something done.
  My next friend and colleague is the gentleman from Georgia, 
Congressman Sanford Bishop, from the Second District. He has 
distinguished himself over the years and has been a member of not only 
the Blue Dog caucus, but he represents some of the best parts of 
Georgia--Fort Benning and agriculture, like I represent.
  Sanford, we are glad to have you here this afternoon to tell us the 
thoughts of the people of Georgia's Second District on the terrific job 
you do on their behalf.
  Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for putting 
together this Special Order, and I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Martin Luther King, Jr., once said: ``Ultimately a genuine leader is 
not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.''
  Debate is a natural consequence of representative democracy. 
Gridlock, on the other hand, is not.
  Sitting down with those across the aisle is not just an act of 
placing faith in political or ideological adversaries, but an act of 
placing faith in our egalitarian democratic system, a system, as it 
was, founded on the art of creating consensus in order to move forward.
  All of us here speaking from the well this hour believe in working 
together for better government, working for responsible government, 
working for transparent government. The moderate Blue Dogs are here not 
only to find common ground between lawmakers, but to forge an 
understanding of what it is to truly work together.
  The Blue Dog Coalition is dedicated to a core set of beliefs that 
transcend partisan politics. We represent the center of the House of 
Representatives and appeal to the mainstream values of the American 
public. The coalition develops substantive proposals and positions 
distinct from those advocated by the extremes in both parties. Needless 
to say, we Blue Dogs are less swayed by the leadership of either party 
and more persuaded by the needs and the concerns of mainstream 
Americans.
  But this is nothing new. Twenty years ago, the Blue Dog Coalition was 
formed following the 1994 election. Over the past 20 years, many of our 
proposals have been praised as fair, responsible, and positive 
additions to a Congressional environment too often marked as partisan 
and antagonistic.
  Throughout those years, the Blue Dogs have been dedicated to solving 
problems based on five principles of political leadership: tell the 
truth; govern for the future; put the country first; be responsible; 
work together.
  My job is to represent the interests and the values of the people in 
my district in middle and southwest Georgia. As a Blue Dog Democrat, I 
push for commonsense measures that will make government work better for 
my constituents.
  The people of Georgia's Second Congressional District, like all 
Americans, deserve a government that puts their needs ahead of partisan 
politics. We seek to use the legislative process to create a higher, 
better quality of life for all of our citizens. Eliminating government 
waste and inefficiency are crucial to achieving this goal.
  We work with our colleagues on the right and the left, on both sides 
of the aisle, to pass commonsense reforms that will make government 
work for the people of our great Nation. As Members of Congress, it is 
our responsibility to ensure that government works for the American 
people.
  I am committed to working together with my colleagues to pass 
legislation that eliminates Federal waste and inefficiency. If we can 
do this, it will give us a better chance at getting things done. That 
is how we rebuild trust with the American people, by showing them that 
we are doing the job we were sent here to do.
  Today, many folks might suppose that bipartisanship is dead. The Blue 
Dogs have been here and are still here to say that it is not dead. We 
are committed to working--not to finger point, not to fight, but to 
fix. I believe that problem solving together across both sides of the 
aisle we can make that happen.
  So I am delighted that my colleague, Mr. Costa, and my colleagues 
from the Blue Dog Coalition have come together with this Special Order 
so that we can say to each other, say to the American people, that we 
cry out for a government that will work for the people to get the 
needs, the common goals, the common hopes, and their common aspirations 
addressed.
  We may have differences, but we have more similarities than we have 
differences. If we find those common denominators of experience that 
combine us, we can get the job done for the American people.
  I thank you for this time.

                              {time}  1645

  Mr. COSTA. Congressman Bishop, my friend, I could not have said it 
better: for the people and by the people.
  Mr. Speaker, for those who are watching on C-SPAN this afternoon, we 
welcome your input, and we welcome your comments. For those of you who 
are interested, please sign onto our Web site, which is www.bluedog
.schrader.house.gov, as a way by which you can communicate with us. We 
all have our Web sites. Obviously, not only our constituents from our 
respective districts but people from throughout the country, we would 
urge you to weigh in. Let us know how you feel, which is an appropriate 
segue for our next speaker.
  The Blue Dogs every 2 years select three leaders to represent them 
and to organize our agenda. We have a policy individual who will be 
speaking in a moment, Congressman Jim Cooper. We have the 
communications director, which is the position I serve, and then we 
have our chairperson. Our chairperson is a gentleman whom I have the 
honor and privilege to serve with. He is my friend, and he is doing an 
excellent job, the gentleman from Oregon's Fifth District, 
Representative Kurt Schrader.
  Mr. SCHRADER. Thank you very, very much. I want to thank my friend,

[[Page 3130]]

the gentleman from California, for hosting this particular Special 
Order.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it is important for America to realize that we 
all don't hate one another. We actually get along pretty well on a 
personal level, and there are those of us on both sides of the aisle 
who want to work together to solve our country's problems. You have 
heard a little bit about that already.
  I think, at this time, more than ever, it is important for Congress 
to come together. The little debate we had last week or a week and a 
half ago on the Department of Homeland Security, I think, drives that 
point home. Oftentimes, within families, there are disagreements. 
Whether it is a Republican family or a Democratic family, we are not 
going to agree on all of the issues all of the time. That doesn't make 
one side wrong and the other side right. What it does mean is there is 
an honest difference of opinion. In the way our forefathers set the 
system up, we are supposed to work through that. There are checks and 
balances. No one party, no one Chamber, no one individual is supposed 
to have ultimate veto over the rights of everyday, Main Street 
Americans.
  What we in the Blue Dog Coalition try to do is to bridge those 
differences, to provide a forum to find ways to agree, not to disagree 
with the other team. As for the Homeland Security bill, whatever you 
think about some of the attachments to the bill or about some of the 
actions by the President of the United States, it is important to fund 
Homeland Security more now than ever. With the stuff that has gone on 
overseas that could possibly threaten our own shores, it makes it 
imperative that we work together. I am actually proud, despite the 
sausage-making look of it in the media and, perhaps, to a lot of 
Americans, that there were Republicans and Democrats who came together 
to solve that problem.
  We will live to fight another day on immigration reform and on some 
of the other issues which we have genuine, legitimate differences of 
opinion on, but it should not be lost on the American people that it 
was Democrats and Republicans coming together to solve a very basic 
problem that our Congress and Nation are charged to solve, which is to 
provide for the security of the American people.
  The Blue Dogs have been doing this for years. You heard of our 
inception after the 1994 elections, when the Blue Dogs felt we were 
getting choked. We were regular Southern Democrats, if you will, at 
that time. It has branched out, like Mr. Costa has indicated, to 
include the whole country now. Yellow Dog Democrats were getting 
``choked blue'' by their rather liberal leadership that they felt did 
not respect or, frankly, represent some of their interests, so out of 
that came the Blue Dogs.
  The body has grown and decreased in numbers with every election 
cycle. There has been a consistent drumbeat, however, for folks like us 
in moderate districts, not just on the Democratic side, but on the 
Republican side. We actually have quarterly meetings with a Republican 
group called the Tuesday Group, where we try and get together and share 
ideas about things we can work together on--not in opposition to but 
work together on. Boy, I wish leadership would work in that same vein. 
We would be a lot better off.
  Mr. COSTA. We have talked a lot about this among our fellow Blue 
Dogs, but I think the point that you raise there is worth repeating 
because, frankly, I think there are a lot of Members on both sides of 
the aisle who, if they had the opportunity, would like to figure out 
how they could work together. I know, as the chair of the Blue Dog 
Caucus, it is your desire to reach out and continue to make that 
effort. I just want to applaud you for that.
  I also want to ask: Are there other ways in which constituents can 
make their Congresspeople feel more comfortable about doing that? With 
this notion of ``it is my way or the highway,'' I think the majority of 
my constituents wonder what is going on there. I mean, ``What are you 
folks thinking in Washington? because that is not the way we do it at 
home.''
  Mr. SCHRADER. I totally agree with the gentleman from California.
  I think, sometimes, there is that bubble we operate under here in 
Washington, D.C., and we forget that the people back home, frankly, are 
sometimes not watching C-SPAN. They are busy trying to put food on 
their tables, seeing if their kids can get great educations. Frankly, 
in recent times, they are just trying to keep their bloody jobs. So I 
think it is important for us to relate to the people who are paying our 
salaries. This is their Chamber--this is their building--not a bubble 
of Washington, D.C., types. It is important for us to sit down and 
represent what they are talking about.
  When I went home in this last election cycle and, frankly, in every 
election cycle, the big issue for Americans in the Congressional Fifth 
District in the great State of Oregon--the Willamette Valley-central 
Oregon coast--is not any one issue. It is: ``Will you please work 
together.'' This is complicated stuff--some of these bills are pretty 
darned complicated--but I think everyday Americans understand. ``Okay. 
That is why I hired you. Work it out. Figure it out.'' To their credit, 
they don't give me a lot of room for excuses.
  ``Well, gee. I am not in the majority. I don't control it.''
  ``Kurt, I elected you. I want you to figure out a way of how to work 
with folks.''
  We can do that. The farm bill in the last Congress was a classic 
example of how we actually worked together, Republicans and Democrats. 
You could not tell a Democrat or a Republican based on what they were 
talking about, because they were representing different districts, 
different geographies around this country, lobbying hard for their 
farming interests or nutritional programs that they felt passionately 
about. That is the way Congress is supposed to work. That is what the 
Blue Dog Coalition is all about--building those relationships.
  If you have noticed in the 114th Congress, in the first 2 months, 
while DHS, the Affordable Care Act, and sometimes choice or abortion 
have gotten a lot of the headlines from the media, I would urge you to 
look at the votes for the big, important bills that have come forward. 
There are a number of bills that leadership--and I give the Republican 
leadership credit for this--brought forward that moderate Democrats had 
voted for in past Congresses or had expressed interest in, and they got 
overwhelming and sometimes significant Democrat support. That is not 
talked about by the media, folks.
  You have got to realize that there are many opportunities like that 
that go below the radar screen. It may not be the sexiest topic in the 
world, but it is stuff like making sure the Affordable Care Act works, 
making sure that small businesses are able to function properly, making 
sure that the Dodd-Frank financial reform actually is workable and 
respects the interests of the different members of the community out 
there, even the Keystone vote. I mean, we have to be thoughtful about 
it, and Democrats and Republicans need to work together and find areas 
they can agree on. We have tried to do that time and again. It is the 
heartbeat of the Blue Dog Coalition.
  Basically, what we are standing for, as you have heard, is fiscal 
reform and fiscal responsibility. It has been a hallmark of the Blue 
Dogs over the last 20 years. We are generally a government efficiency 
organization. We believe government is not evil, but it could sure work 
a heck of a lot better. Every one of the folks out there in America 
understands that some government rule is making a problem for them, and 
it shouldn't have to happen. We as Blue Dogs try and cut through that 
government regulation.
  We are also business friendly. Yes, Democrats can be business 
friendly, believe it or not. They are called ``Blue Dogs.'' There is 
another group called New Democrats. There is another group growing 
outside this that wants to include all Americans, which is called No 
Labels. Most Blue Dogs are, frankly, members of No Labels. There is 
another group that works together, Democrats and Republicans. Yes, 
folks. There are a lot of different people in this Congress who are 
very interested in trying to work together to make

[[Page 3131]]

your Congress work and deal with your lunch bucket issues that mean the 
most to you--job creation, educational reform, infrastructure--as was 
alluded to. These are values, I think, every American holds dear, and 
those are the issues we should be working on.
  Senator Lieberman said at one point that it is kind of ironic that 
everyone is interested in bipartisanship, but if you don't agree with 
somebody 100 percent of the time, you don't agree with them any of the 
time. The real world is: life is complicated, and you are going to have 
times when you agree and times when you disagree. One of the basic 
axioms of politics is: you don't have enemies or friends; you have 
allies and adversaries at the end of the day because issues change over 
time, and you will find that the ebb and flow of interests will 
conflate with party, geography--all of those issues.
  The Blue Dog Coalition is dedicated to trying to bring people 
together across this country--Republicans and Democrats, business 
interests, individuals--trying to make your government more responsible 
and more efficient with electoral reform, congressional reform, getting 
back in this great, august Chamber to regular order--to where your 
interests are represented through the committees, through the elected 
Representatives you have. That is what is important here, and that 
binds Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives and 
moderates, like us. That is the hallmark of the Blue Dog Coalition.
  I won't belabor the point. I thank the gentleman for bringing us to 
the floor here. I think it is important for America to be a little 
inspired that there are people who care about this country, who cut 
through the partisan politics and even go against our respective 
leaderships to try and solve the problems you want us to solve. I 
think, at the end of the day, that is where America is. To get back to 
a greatness, which was alluded to before, it is going to require more 
members of the Blue Dog Coalition and of the Tuesday Group on the other 
side of the aisle to be elected to Congress and hope America gets mad 
as hell and starts to hold their Members accountable for working 
together and making America great again.
  Mr. COSTA. I want to thank the gentleman from Oregon for his 
leadership as the chair of the Blue Dog Coalition.
  Your efforts to reach out to the Tuesday Group and to the No Labels 
Caucus and your efforts to take difficult positions and cast hard 
votes, I think, are all examples of political profiles in courage, and 
we commend you for your leadership and your efforts.
  Mr. Speaker, the next Blue Dog Coalition member who will speak is one 
of our newest members. He hails from the great State of Nebraska, and 
we are honored to have him as one of our newest members of the Blue Dog 
Coalition. He is Brad Ashford from Nebraska's Second District. A lot of 
agriculture and a lot of good people Congressman Brad Ashford has the 
opportunity to represent, and we appreciate the fact that he is here.
  Mr. ASHFORD. Thank you, Mr. Costa. I am privileged to have the 
opportunity to speak today.
  Mr. Speaker, you mentioned, just briefly, the concept of ``Profiles 
of Courage.'' John Kennedy, in writing that book, wrote about a great 
Nebraskan, George Norris. George Norris was a Senator from Nebraska, 
and prior to that time, he served in this House. In 1908, he led a 
bipartisan effort in the House to change the rules of the House in 
order to make the House more transparent and more accountable to the 
American people.

                              {time}  1700

  In that regard, in John Kennedy's book he wrote about Congressman 
Norris, and then, subsequently, Senator Norris. In the 1930s, Senator 
Norris, who had worked to create the Tennessee Valley Authority, worked 
across the aisle with FDR--he was a Republican--to pass the Rural 
Electrification Act that electrified the country. He did so working 
across the aisle.
  And in the 1930s--and 1934, specifically--he reached out to the 
people of Nebraska and said to them: We can do better. We can have a 
more transparent government. We can have a bipartisan, nonpartisan 
government that will address the tough issues of Nebraska in the 
Depression of the 1930s. And he recommended to the voters: Look, let's 
do this. Let's have a unicameral, nonpartisan legislature.
  And the lobbyists and the special interests said: George, you should 
go back to Washington. This isn't going to work in Nebraska.
  Well, the voters of Nebraska, in 1934, voted for a unicameral, 
nonpartisan legislature, and I am proud to say that we have such a 
legislature today.
  I am so proud and honored to be here. There was a discussion earlier 
by prior speakers about relationships. And what is so interesting to me 
and amazing to me--not amazing, really, but gratifying--are those 
relationships, are the relationships that I have been able to achieve 
through my association with the Blue Dogs and relationships with 
Republicans and Democrats alike. It is very, very gratifying that that 
exists. That is what I am used to in Nebraska.
  When I first arrived here, I went to a Democratic Caucus. I served in 
the Nebraska unicameral legislature for 16 years. I never went to a 
caucus in my life. I didn't really know exactly what a Democrat or 
Republican really was. I suppose I would have to look, but of the 49 
members of the Nebraska Legislature, I would have to think long and 
hard about what party they belonged to.
  And in the 16 years that I served there, we had many tough issues. In 
fact, one of the toughest issues we had in the State was the pipeline 
issue, and that was referenced earlier--the TransCanada pipeline. Well, 
it goes through Nebraska. As originally routed, it would have gone 
through some of the most sensitive areas of our State, the Sandhills 
area and the Ogallala Aquifer.
  We spent a year together, the 49 of us. Not every day. We would kill 
each other if we spent every day together, but we spent a lot of time. 
At the end of the day, we came up with a process to reroute the 
TransCanada pipeline to move it away from the most sensitive parties of 
the Ogallala Aquifer. We did it with a vote of 49-0, environmentalists 
and those on the other side of the issue coming together to pass a 
routing bill.
  So the idea that George Norris had was, number one, be transparent. 
Let the people of Nebraska know exactly what you are doing.
  What is interesting about the 16 years that I was there--and, quite 
frankly, if you do count Republicans and Democrats in the unicameral 
legislature, you will find that there are a lot more Republicans, 
traditionally, than there are Democrats, at least during the 16 years I 
was there, and I don't think that at any time I was there, any year, 
any legislative session I was there, that there were not an equal 
number of committee chairs that were Republican and Democrat. There was 
nothing magic about that. It was just the way we balanced things out in 
our State. We did it and do it intuitively. We do it intuitively.
  I don't suggest that we are going to decide tomorrow or even next 
year or 10 years from now to have a unicameral, bipartisan, nonpartisan 
legislature, but the lessons that I learned there are the lessons that 
I have brought here. And when I had the opportunity, Mr. Costa, to meet 
the Blue Dogs, it reminded me of home. It reminded me of the Nebraska 
Legislature and the idea that Republicans and Democrats make that 
decision for themselves.
  But as my good friend and former Senator from Nebraska Ed Zorinsky 
used to say, there are no Republican Senators or Democratic Senators. 
There are only American Senators, U.S. Senators. It is in the water in 
Nebraska. That is how we think. That is how we are. And what is great 
about this place is those same relationships, those same committed 
people are there to make those kinds of relationships work in a 
bipartisan way. We have heard examples of that today.
  When I ran for this office, I said to the voters of the Second 
Congressional District of Nebraska, Sarpy County and Douglas County, 
Nebraska, the two most populace counties: I'm going to

[[Page 3132]]

go to Washington, and I'm going to make 25 friends. Because in 
Nebraska, if you make 25 friends, you get 25 people to vote for a bill, 
it passes.
  You know what? I found more than 25 friends. I found a lot of 
friends, a lot of great people who sit in this body, this place, every 
single day, Republicans and Democrats.
  I just got back--and then I will conclude, Mr. Costa--from a trip to 
Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, the Emirates, and Kuwait. I went with three 
other Members: Elise Stefanik, who is a freshman Republican from New 
York; Joe Wilson, who is a veteran Member from South Carolina; and Seth 
Moulton, who is a freshman from Massachusetts. What great people. What 
great committed Americans to have gone on that trip.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I commend the Blue Dogs to the country, to those 
that are watching, in furtherance of the old tradition of transparency 
and working together and making things happen.
  Mr. COSTA. During your visit, on a bipartisan basis, in Afghanistan, 
Iraq, and Jordan, you were visiting some of the most challenging 
hotspots in the world today, and I suspect you got an opportunity to 
visit and see American men and women serving abroad and the heroic and 
difficult jobs that they are doing and the great sacrifices of their 
families. I suspect you had an opportunity to tell them that in 
Washington we are trying to do all we can to support them.
  Mr. ASHFORD. Thank you for the comment. Yes, I was fortunate enough 
to visit with Nebraskans who were serving in Iraq and serving in 
Afghanistan. I was on a C-130. We were traveling over the Strait of 
Hormuz area. The navigator in the C-130 said to me: Sir--because he had 
to call me ``sir''; that is the protocol--get behind us. We're doing 
the best we can over here, and we need your support.
  And they are going to get our support and have our support. Thank you 
for the question. I was so deeply appreciative of the opportunity to 
meet with my fellow Nebraskans who were there as well.
  Mr. COSTA. Well, I have made that trip several times, and we can 
never say thank you enough to the American men and women who serve in 
our Nation's military.
  I would just ask you, every week, I know you go back to your district 
and the good people in Nebraska--and that good water you are drinking 
there, bring more of it here to Washington because I think, if we can 
drink some more of that water, it certainly wouldn't hurt us here in 
our Nation's Capital.
  I want to thank the gentleman from Nebraska for his good words.
  As I prepare to close, I want to thank my fellow Blue Dog colleagues 
for coming down to the well of the House of Representatives this 
afternoon to talk about the common interests that we as Blue Dog 
Coalition members have, the efforts that we are making to reach across 
the aisle, the efforts that we are making to work with the No Labels 
group, as well as others, on a call to service to repair the engagement 
of civic dialogue, understanding that, frankly, if we tone down our 
rhetoric and we have a better understanding of how the different 
congressional districts that we all represent are, we can find the 
common threads, the common bonds to bring together solutions that we 
can agree upon for all of America. After all, we all believe that is 
what we have been sent here for, I believe, in one way or another.
  Another effort that the Blue Dog Coalition is engaged in with No 
Labels and others is congressional reform. Clearly, many Americans, 
when they look at Washington and they see the news of the evening, they 
think: Jeez, there must be something broke there. It ain't working 
right. It's not working the way we read in our textbooks.
  We are trying to restore efforts in congressional form in terms of 
regular order, in terms of our budget process and producing all 11 
budget bills every year and go to a conference as we are supposed to 
do. We haven't done that in 12 years in Congress, whether it is the 
Democrats in the majority or the Republicans in the majority, so there 
is a lot of fixing. Obviously, finger-pointing doesn't fix the problem.
  In addition to that, we have electoral reform. I think we all know 
that last year, last November, we had the lowest recorded turnout in 
America since 1942. What does that tell you? What does that tell you 
when the majority of Americans, regardless of whether they are 
registered as Republicans or Democrats, identify themselves as 
Independents?
  It tells you that America is looking toward people in Washington to 
provide the leadership to solve problems. They don't expect us to solve 
all of them--they are not unrealistic--but they would like us to 
prioritize on getting a budget on time, getting our fiscal house in 
order, on trying to fix a broken immigration system, produce a 5-year 
transportation bill, improve government accountability, and 
transparency. That is what they would like us to work on.
  As I said when I began earlier this afternoon, I am Congressman Jim 
Costa. I represent the 16th Congressional District in California, 
including all of Merced County, half of the flat land of Madera 
County--a lot of agriculture in both Merced and Madera Counties--and 
Fresno County. Fresno is, of course, my home.
  The wonderful people that are part of the San Joaquin Valley that I 
have had the honor and privilege to represent over the years are what 
all Americans are like. They are some of the best and brightest. They 
are tenacious. They are hard working. They represent the story of 
America.
  What is that story? Immigrants past, immigrants present--people come 
in from all over the world, striving to have a better life, a better 
opportunity for themselves and for their families.
  That is why we are working to solve the water problems in the San 
Joaquin Valley--because, if we can solve the water problems in 
California and in the West, with the planet clicking 7 billion people 
last year and soon to have 9 billion people by the middle of this 
century, our solutions to water problems in California can be a 
template to solving water problems around the world because where water 
flows, food grows.
  Clearly, we know that that is a daunting challenge, just like our 
energy problems are--but guess what. We are making progress on our 
energy problems. When I first came to Congress 10 years ago, we 
imported over 60 percent of our energy needs. Today, we import a little 
over 40 percent.
  If we continue on the current path, in the next 10 years, we will be 
importing around 20 percent or less by using all the energy tools in 
our energy toolbox, just as we must use all the water tools in our 
water toolbox.
  There is a lot to do. I would like to thank my colleagues in the Blue 
Dog Coalition for their time today, and their continued efforts over 
the year. Clearly, we have a lot of work to do together, and we want to 
reach out to work with everybody in the House of Representatives, the 
people's House.
  The Blue Dog Coalition is ready and willing to work with everyone. We 
look forward to creating bridges, not cul de sacs, working with our 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle to advance commonsense policies 
that are physically sound, that benefit our entire Nation.
  You could also call the Blue Dog Coalition the commonsense caucus 
because we reject the notion of gridlock in Washington. It is 
embarrassing; it is inexcusable.
  Every day, when we put politics ahead of policy, we put our Nation at 
risk, and we stand to lose. Therefore, Congress must come together to 
address the critical issues as I said before: tax reform, immigration 
reform, and ways to further our Nation's economic recovery.

                              {time}  1715

  There is no problem in America, if we work together, that we cannot 
solve. We are here to represent and advocate for our constituents.
  Please, for those of you who enjoyed the comments made by my fellow 
Blue Dog Coalition members this afternoon, you can go to www.bluedog
.schrader.house.gov for more information.

[[Page 3133]]

  The Blue Dog Coalition will continue to work to make a difference by 
advocating for sound legislation and working together with our 
colleagues on a bipartisan basis. That is what I have always done.
  Today, as with my Blue Dog Coalition partners, we have the honor and 
the privilege to represent our constituents from throughout the land; 
and I would ask that my colleagues continue to make that effort because 
I think, at the end of the day, that is what all Americans want us to 
do.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________