By: Allison Gerth

The US House of Representatives committee has been working on climate disaster relief for citizens of the United States throughout the past two committee sessions. While electing representatives to lead the different political parties throughout the weekend, multiple campaign slogans were created. One popular slogan was “ding dong, Dingell for Democrats!”, although she is not representing the democratic party she made it through the first round of elections before losing the race. 

The definition of bipartisan means “of or involving the agreement or cooperation of two political parties that usually oppose each other's policies”. Throughout the committee, a common theme between both parties was talk of bipartisanship, even if it was discussed more than necessary. Arguments between the two parties would happen when bills “leaned toward” one party over another, leading to people of different parties being upset with each other. Lois Frankel, a Democrat representing Florida, stated, “We are currently struggling to figure out a way to adhere to bipartisan principles while also helping our constituents”. During the Democratic party caucus Frankel tried multiple times to have some Representatives focus more on the preparations, responses and short and long term solutions in the same bill for natural disasters. This would be instead of focusing on funding and bipartisanship. While the Democrats were trying to think of short and long term goals for the climate disasters, Republicans were busy working on merging their numerous bills. 

Throughout the party caucus’ happening during the committee, several Republicans wrote bills to try and send to the Senate. Having over ten bills, the Republican Representatives had to work on merging the bills. The Representatives were working to merge a majority of the current bills into one that would be composed of the best qualities of each bill. Overall, the House of Representatives has been especially stuck on the topic of bipartisanship, but many representatives want to further the discussion.