Ami Bera: “Thank you to my colleague from Wisconsin for organizing this, and thank you to my colleague from New York. I am honored…”

“Thank you to my colleague from Wisconsin for organizing this, and thank you to my colleague from New York. I am honored to be here with colleagues from both sides of the aisle. As you've heard us talking about the Problem Solvers, that's what we're elected to do--to solve problems. One of the first organizations I joined when I got here was the No Labels organization. One of the first bills that I had the honor of cosponsoring was the No Budget, No Pay legislation. What a novel idea--putting together a budget. That was a bill that was an idea that came out of the Problem Solvers. We sponsored that bill, we put it forth, and lo and behold, the House of Representatives has a budget, the Senate has a budget, and the President has a budget. We've got to continue moving forward, and that is exactly what this organization allows us to do. It brings Democrats and Republicans together to have a conversation, to listen to one another and to solve problems. We're not going to agree on everything. In fact, in divided government, it isn't necessary that we agree on everything. You want to have all the ideas, but we're not asking anyone to give up their convictions. What we are asking, though, is for us to listen to one another, to hear the ideas that are being put out there and then to find common ground so we can start working together on that common ground, moving forward and addressing the challenges that our Nation faces.…”