Another unique slice of history today when Congressman Fred Upton of St. Joseph joined members of the bi-partisan Problem Solvers Caucus where he is a Vice-Chair in a floor debate in the U.S. House of Representatives that was a virtual event through Zoom technology.
As he participated in the virtual floor debate with the caucus, he urged members to work together on funding for local and state governments.
You can click the link to watch his remarks or find a transcribed version below:
https://twitter.com/RepFredUpton/status/1258501142448877571
“I’d normally ask for regular order, but the noise you might hear in the background is not from the gallery, but it’s from Michigan beginning to open up. Yes we have folks working in landscape who are landscaping yards across the street. There’s a construction crew across the street as well. Those are good news, and, as much as we all wanted to open up by Easter, that simply was not the case.
Mr. Speaker, as one of the vice chairs of the Problem Solvers Caucus, we have made the point that this group is committed to working together. Like it or not, we have divided government, and the only way we’re going to get something done is get it through this House, a Republican-controlled Senate, and to the President’s desk. Our group, the Problem Solvers, a number of us met with the Vice President and Dr. Birx back in March to begin to outline a strategy of what we needed to do as a country to work together to really go after this pandemic.
As we talk a little bit today about the need to help our states and localities, all of us have been working from our kitchen tables and homes. We have been listening to our Governors, our state representatives, our county treasurers, and other local officials, about the real needs that frankly we have to deal with.
We’ve had conference calls, the Problem Solvers Caucus, over the last couple of weeks, with members of leadership from both sides and members of the Cabinet, listening and talking with each other, trying to come up with a solution that really does move the country forward, and I was pleased to hear in our discussion yesterday with the Speaker, Speaker Pelosi, that she is committed to working on a package that works with our state and local governments because, we know and as she said, they have increased outlays because of COVID and they have decreased revenues because our stores’ sales taxes, payroll taxes – all of those are diminished.
So let’s come together, let’s work on a package that’s bipartisan – not partisan – and be able to get a bill to the President’s desk that we can all be proud of and vote in support of.”
For the last several weeks, Members of the bipartisan Caucus have been working hard to advance the interests and needs of their constituents from districts across the country, while also looking to enable opportunities to legislate remotely. Last month, the Caucus sent a letter to House leadership urging them to begin planning and approving ways for Congress to function during the present COVID-19 emergency.
Upton continues to operate from his kitchen table at his home in St. Joseph.
