The Blue Dog Coalition
Floor Speech
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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.
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