Earlier this month, the 114th Congress passed its first 100 days of Republican rule in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Rep. John Katko, the freshman Republican from central New York’s 24th Congressional District, admits things didn’t get off to a good start, with GOP leadership missteps on votes involving abortion and immigration.
"There were some bumps in the road starting out, but I think we’re starting to find our groove a bit,” Katko says.
He says there have been votes that show a growing bipartisanship in the legislative body lately, like the so-called “doc fix” legislation approved in March, that reforms Medicare’s physician payment system.
“It took 17 years to fix this problem,” Katko says. “In years past, there would be a patch and then we would limp on to the next year, and now we have a permanent fix to it. And things like this are happening that are kind of flying under the radar, but are kind of seeds of bipartisanship."
Now whether this more congenial Congress continues is unclear, as lawmakers gear up for re-election next year, and the presidential election takes much of the oxygen out of Washington, D.C. Approval ratings for Congress still hover in the teens, and the Democratic National Committee has called the first 100 days of Republican rule a study in dysfunction.
But Katko, in his own first 100 days in Washington, believes the more radical portions of each party aren’t holding as much sway anymore, and that will be evident in the next round of elections.
“If the candidates strike moderate tones, I think it’s going be a very interesting campaign because I really, truly believe Congress is coming together as a team more than it has in a while, and I think that’s going to continue,” Katko says.
