House Democrats cut Republican North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson out of new workforce legislation he had been working on with them, eliminating yet another opportunity for bipartisan collaboration.
House Democrats express no interest in anything but pushing ahead with Democratic legislation and after 25 years of being mostly in the House minority, Democratic Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Doyle thinks it is high time.
“I don’t have thin skin about this, but when they were in charge, they had the rules,” Doyle told Politico.
“Now we’re in charge, and maybe some of them don’t understand that yet.”
Hudson expressed frustration with Democratic Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush for altering a bill the two had co-authored to introduce new workforce training programs. Rush has effectively removed Hudson from planning this bill.
“He reintroduced it, and he’s added all this money to it, and didn’t consult me,” Hudson told Politico.
“We didn’t mean to exclude you from the process. We’d love to work with you.” Hudson was told when he questioned why he had been excluded. But Hudson is still waiting to hear when exactly Rush would like to work with him again.
Republicans like Hudson fume over the lack of collaboration in areas that would enable Republicans and Democrats to easily compromise. Other Republicans have also expressed frustration at the short periods of time they are given to look over bills, claiming that this indicates Democrats have no real interest in collaboration. (RELATED: House Democrats Are Lining Up Behind What Could Be The Largest Expansion Of Government In Decades)
“Bipartisanship is asking for my input, not just for my vote,” said Republican Texas Rep. Michael Burgess.
“Giving a member less than 24 hours to sign onto a piece of legislation they have never seen is discourteous, especially when we have said at each hearing thus far this Congress that we are willing to work in a bipartisan way.”
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