Original Article via East Valley Tribune
The East Valley Partnership’s annual Statespersons’ Luncheon brought together two members of Congress from across the aisle who bridged the partisan divide to discuss NAFTA and other issues that affect Arizonans.
Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, whose District 9 includes parts of Ahwatukee, Tempe, Mesa and Chandler, and Republican Andy Biggs, who represents a large swath of the East Valley in District 5, participated in the event for the second-straight year.
Sinema previously took part in the luncheon series for several years alongside former Rep. Matt Salmon.
Sinema and Biggs did not always agree, but they remained cordial – reminding attendees on multiple occasions that they are good friends – throughout the hour-long conversation.
That geniality was in stark contrast to the acrimonious relationship between the Republican and Democratic parties in Washington, D.C. – a point not lost on Biggs and Sinema.
Both representatives spent a good deal of time talking about the need to improve the relationship between the two parties in order to end the gridlock in Congress.
The two representatives have different ideas about how to get there, though.
Sinema said that she believes in retaining the Senate’s cloture rule, by which 60 senators can circumvent a filibuster and quickly end debate on a bill.
Instead of doing away with the oft-used maneuver, she said the country needs more senators who won’t invoke cloture in order to avoid debate.
“I think the solution is to get senators who are more willing to work together across the aisle to solve problems and get things done, because we used to have a Senate that worked,” Sinema said.
Biggs disagreed, arguing that cloture “dilutes representation” and is an arcane rule that “needs to go.”
He blamed cloture for the last-minute spending additions that ballooned the price tag for Congress’ $1.3 trillion omnibus budget bill and the fact that hundreds of other bills passed by the House currently sit untouched in the Senate.
The bills, he said, “are sitting there with no action, and it’s because of the 60-vote cloture rule.”