As House Republicans travel around their districts and meet with their constituents over this August district work period, they should be proud of their many accomplishments over the last eight months.
From passing the first real entitlement reform in two decades, to new reforms to strengthen veterans’ health care, to new efforts to combat human trafficking, to legislation aimed at improving life-saving medical innovations, House Republicans have a record of accomplishment that will make a real difference in the lives of all Americans. This also includes the passage of trade promotion authority, legislation to review the president’s Iran deal, a blueprint to balance the budget, cuts to wasteful government spending and legislation to strengthen American energy production.
{mosads}It should not go unnoticed, however, that at the heart of virtually all these legislative successes were the more than 65 House Republicans who are members of the Republican Main Street Partnership. Main Street is the governing wing of the Republican Party and our membership is comprised of mainstream fiscally conservative elected officials who are committed to getting things done for the American people.
Unfortunately, all too often, the media prefers to focus its attention on the few rabble-rousers in Congress who meet in the basement of Tortilla Coast, hold bombastic press conferences, and attack Republicans leaders while rarely, if ever, offering their own serious, legislative alternatives. Inter-party drama may be good for ratings and website clicks, but it doesn’t square with the many accomplishments by the Republican-led House over the last eight months.
Consider for example, the 21st Century Cures legislation sponsored by Energy & Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) who is also a member of Main Street. This was sweeping legislation, developed over many months of hard work, that will bring our health care innovation infrastructure into the 21st Century, deliver hope for patients and loved ones and provide necessary resources to researchers to continue their efforts to uncover the next generation of cures and treatments. Of course for reasons they couldn’t fully explain the rabble-rousers and their friends on the far right opposed it, but it still overwhelmingly passed the House by a vote of 344 to 77.
And we’ve seen this from day one of this Republican-led Congress when there was talk by some about shutting down the Department of Homeland Security over ObamaCare. Of course all Republicans oppose ObamaCare but this would have been a disastrous course of action for many reasons. It was the members of the Republican Main Street Partnership who stepped up and made sure that this Congress funded DHS, including the border patrol and all of the other critical agencies within the department.
Real leadership is not bowing to the phony voting scorecards of special interest groups in Washington, but standing up for what’s right and delivering for your constituents every day.
In order to protect and grow the House Republican majority, Members need to demonstrate that they are ready and willing to govern. That’s exactly what we’ve seen from Speaker Boehner (R-Ohio) and the members of Main Street, as well as many other courageous Republicans in recent months. While much hard work remains they have a record of accomplishment to share with their constituents this August.
Chamberlain serves as the chief operating officer and chief financial officer for the Main Street Partnership. (republicanmainstreet.org)