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Returning to Regular Order: GOP Priority

October 15, 2015 - 9:30am

During the past few weeks and recent days,‭ ‬the House Republican Conference has experienced a ripple of change in our congressional leadership,‭ ‬causing us to refocus the future of our party.‭ ‬In assessing a resolution to this situation,‭ ‬the answer is not merely to rearrange‭ ‬the faces of our leadership and expect that our problems will be solved.‭ ‬In fact,‭ ‬the answer is quite the contrary.‭ ‬Because there is a clamor across our nation for strong,‭ ‬conservative leadership,‭ ‬we need a fresh start,‭ ‬not just fresh faces.‭ 

We need to restore a legislative process where all members are included,‭ ‬where legislative ideas are debated and considered well in advance of deadlines,‭ ‬and where the American public can witness government in deliberation,‭ ‬not deadlock.‭ ‬In other words,‭ ‬we need to exercise what our Founding Fathers gave us:‭ ‬regular order.

For years,‭ ‬crisis-to-crisis governing by this Congress has become the norm.‭ ‬The American people are rightfully fed up,‭ ‬watching legislative cliffs come and go and‭ ‬action on important matters taking place at the last minute.‭ ‬Members of Congress,‭ ‬on both sides of the aisle,‭ ‬are frustrated with not having their ideas heard,‭ ‬and without having a vision of leadership,‭ ‬that frustration will continue.‭ ‬Our‭ c‬onference has deviated from governing in an orderly system whereby bills progress through committees in‭ ‬a defined and consistent manner.‭ ‬Instead,‭ ‬we constantly legislate in panic,‭ ‬dividing our conference and country even more.‭ ‬There is‭ ‬no reason to continue ignoring legislation that enjoys majority support.‭ 

We need to‭ ‬return to regular order procedures so members are more aware of and included in the legislative process.‭ ‬Returning to regular order will allow‭ m‬embers the ability to carefully vet,‭ ‬amend,‭ ‬and strengthen legislation throughout the entire process.‭ ‬Most importantly,‭ ‬regular order respects the will of the House and provides members more opportunities‭ ‬for‭ ‬their districts and states.‭ ‬The House of Representatives cannot control the priorities of the Senate or the president,‭ ‬but we can control ours and ensure they are in line with the will of the American people.‭ 

As Republicans who were elected to change the way Washington operates,‭ ‬we were also elected to advance strong conservative legislation that empowers the American people to thrive,‭ ‬instills fiscally-responsible values,‭ ‬and promotes longstanding traditions and freedoms granted to us by our Constitution.‭ ‬However,‭ ‬if these principles are never allowed to be heard in the legislative process,‭ ‬what good are such principles‭?

It is time to advance conservative priorities in a positive way by passing legislation that forces the president to either sign bills into law or explain to the American people why he vetoed them. 

Although a number of internal disagreements took place‭ ‬last week,‭ ‬I have faith House Republicans will emerge a more unified conservative party.‭ ‬Out of this confusion will come something good.‭ ‬I have no doubt vision,‭ ‬inclusivity and leadership will prevail.‭ ‬To achieve this,‭ ‬however,‭ ‬we must return to‭ ‬regular order and‭ ‬a more inclusive form of governing and legislative business.

I pray‭ ‬God‭ ‬continues to watch over and bless our great nation as Congress embarks on a more cohesive and regulatory process that better represents the American people.

First elected to Congress in 2010, U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., is part of the congressional leadership as senior deputy majority whip. 
 

Comments

The house isn't conservative, it is corporatist and just plain crazy with little grip on reality and just keeps inflicting wounds to our economy time and time again.----------------------------------------- What you need to do is to govern which you, they are not doing.------------------------------------------- Take energy you Dennis have kept the oil, coal companies in $600B/yr in corporate welfare from the pollution, healthcare and military costs the taxpayers have to clean up.------------------------------- This comes to a 20% income tax cut or balance the budget repub FF corporate welfare has caused a lot of.------------------------------------------------------------------- Next you, repub block a free market in electricity that would create 50k fla and 5 million national jobs replacing FF's . Is that conservative to block a free market?--------------------------------------- Pandering to bigots, preaching us against them, anti women, etc is coming back to haunt you and you'll likely not just lose the presidency, but likely both the Senate and House between the House screwing up the economy, governing proving repubs can't and the candidates showing everyone what the repubs truly are.

Fresh faces, fresh start, regular order? Will make no difference as long as the wing-nuts disrupt everything they dislike. How about updating the party platform? Get rid of the hateful pinheadedness and start putting people, not big business and big donors, first. Try governing for all Floridians instead of a few! Even though Republicans rule, they are a minority of Floridians. Continue down this path and the GOP will become an inkspot in history.

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