Ron Kind: “last weekend we had the second bipartisan congressional retreat in Hershey, Pennsylvania. A lot of people helped in…”

“last weekend we had the second bipartisan congressional retreat in Hershey, Pennsylvania. A lot of people helped in pulling that together. I want to commend the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. LaHood), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Sawyer), the planning committee, the staff at Hershey, the Pew Charitable Trust and the Aspen Institute who all helped in bringing Members on both sides of the aisle together, but I want to especially commend my colleagues who took the time out of their busy schedules to bring the family and the children and their spouses to the retreat so that we could get to know one another a little better and talk to one another. The goal of the retreat was simple, to try to make this great institution a more civil place in which to conduct the Nation's business. The format was also simple, get out of Washington, away from the media, bring the families in and the children and the spouses so that we could have some honest conversations across the aisle of how we could improve this great institution. Because it is a fundamental rule of human nature that the better you know someone and their spouse and their little children, a lot harder it is going to be to demonize that person than during the hot debates of the day. I think we made a good, honest attempt last weekend, Mr. Speaker. I hope we can now build upon that for the sake of this great Nation.”