Legislative Collaboration Quotes

Working in a bipartisan manner, with Congress and the support of the American people, Trump can, in fact, make America great again.

Before the nineteen-seventies, most Republicans in Washington accepted the institutions of the welfare state, and most Democrats agreed with the logic of the Cold War. Despite the passions over various issues, government functioned pretty well. Legislators routinely crossed party lines when they voted, and when they drank; filibusters in the Senate were reserved for the biggest bills; think tanks produced independent research, not partisan talking points. The "D." or "R." after a politician's name did not tell you what he thought about everything, or everything you thought about him.

Legislators have a formal set of responsibilities to work together, but there's no hierarchy.

In the first weeks of the Obama administration, 'bipartisanship' was the reigning buzzword, and when the Beltway thinks 'bipartisan,' it pictures President Reagan and Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill putting aside their differences and forging a legislative partnership, a ruddy pair of genial patriarchs bonding over the Blarney Stone.

Tom Daschle and I worked together on Families First every step of the way, making sure that Democrats in both the House and Senate were involved in putting the agenda together.

What will most certainly happen is that there will be very clear and full communication between the government and independents and minor parties. The precise mechanisms will evolve over time, but we certainly intend to keep the minor parties and the independents very much in the loop. We have to if we want our legislative agenda to have a reasonable chance of success and that's what we intend to do.

The way I've gotten things done is by working with Democrats and Republicans. I worked with Jay Rockefeller, for example, on highway safety issues.

I think it's fair to say that there's a lot of conversations between House members and Senate members on a regular basis, and I think that's what our constituents would expect, is to have bicameral conversations throughout the process.

[Donald Trump] has had the good judgment and common sense to get back with all these people, who have written the legislation already.

We have a lot of talented people in this Congress, and we can avoid a lot of unintended consequences if we just included them.

I don't think Steve Scalise has a racist bone in his body. Steve and I have worked on issues that benefit poor people, black people, white people, Jewish people. I know his character.

People have to recognize that it’s going to take some time for trust to be built not only between Democrats and Republicans, between Congress and the White House, between the House and the Senate. You know, we’ve had a dysfunctional political system for a while now.

If Donald Trump wants to pass comprehensive immigration reform, I will work with Donald Trump.

I think the administration can do a lot of good by telling folks that are on their side of the aisle, look, we may have lost the election on the Democrat side, but it's time to come together.

ALEC has forged a unique partnership between state legislators and leaders from the corporate and business community. This partnership offers businessmen the extraordinary opportunity to apply their talents to solve America's problems and build on our opportunities.

I reiterate that I am strongly committed to working with those on all sides of politics to improve how Parliament operates.

In the House, I was named one of the most bipartisan members of Congress, and that's a title I plan on continuing to hold in the Senate.

I think women bring a different perspective and that we tend to be more collaborative in our approach. I served in the Iowa Senate back in the '90s, when there weren't a lot of us. At the time, I think there were five or six women, and two or three of them were Republicans and two or three were Democrats.

I have worked closely with my Democratic allies. Elijah Cummings is a good friend.

I think the relationships that we [with Donald Trump] developed on Capitol Hill are the reason why he's asked me to be a part of the team that's working to move our agenda forward in the House and in the Senate.

What happens in committee if the committee functions, more often than not, not every time but more often than not, a bill comes out with bipartisan support.

In New Mexico, I inherited the largest structural deficit in state history, and our legislature is controlled by Democrats. We don't always agree, but we came together in a bipartisan manner and turned that deficit into a surplus. And we did it without raising taxes.

I like a lot of my Republican colleagues, starting with my friend from Indiana, Senator Lugar. We've had an excellent relationship.

I've tried for years to get Republicans to help us fix some of the mistakes that we made in the Affordable Care Act. There are things we can do to shore up the exchanges, to make those pools healthier, to bring down costs. I would like to see us work together on that.

I'm very proud to have joined with conservatives in both the Senate and the House to reform how we target bad guys.