GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate clinched the top spot in a new list of the most bipartisan members of Congress, but Republicans also came in dead last.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, Pennsylvania Republican, and Sen. Susan M. Collins, Maine Republican, earned the top spots in their chambers in the Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy’s latest ranking of bipartisan members of Congress.
Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, and Sen. Katie Britt, Alabama Republican, scored the bottom positions for the House and Senate.
The index, which came out Monday, takes into account lawmakers’ efforts to broaden the appeal of their bills, not the quality of the legislation. That means lawmakers were scored on how they got members from both sides of the aisle to support their measures and entertain tweaks to the bills.
“Bipartisan cooperation on legislation in 2023 was deficient by historical standards, though there were some marginal improvements in scores from the previous Congress,” said Lugar Center Policy Director Dan Diller.
Indeed, the latest list in the series that dates back to 2015 comes as Congress has struggled to function with such acts as funding the government.
The House in particular has been marred by partisan infighting that brought the lower chamber to its knees in October during the saga of removing former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and eventually finding his replacement in House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, who ranked at 423rd on the list.
While the GOP took the bottom spots, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, is second to last in bipartisanship in the House and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, Washington Democrat, is the fourth-least bipartisan senator.
Maria Cancian, dean of the McCourt School of Public Policy, noted, “In these deeply divided times, and with an increasing amount of misleading information online, we need tools like the Bipartisan Index more than ever — an evidence-based and nonpartisan approach for measuring how well policymakers work across the aisle to get things done.”
If lawmakers are disappointed in their scores, the Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy suggested on their website that they “more frequently open themselves to the possibility that colleagues from the opposite party may have good ideas that are deserving of consideration.”
The top 10 House bipartisan members:
The top 10 bipartisan senators:
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.