Forward Janesville - TheReport - Second Quarter 2019

Forward Janesville has been leading an annual pilgrimage to Washington, DC for six years now, and the trip evolves every year. In many ways, this year’s trip was my favorite; I’ll get to why in a moment. While the trip is different every year, some themes stay the same: Don’t Believe EverythingYou Read: I’ve thought a lot about the concept of media bias since the Trump Administration began. While I’m not quite ready to declare a ‘fake news’ emergency, the truth is simple: the media loves headlines—any headlines— about President Donald Trump: good (rarely), bad (mostly), or indifferent (almost never). If you stick to certain publications, you’d think that Donald Trump, the only person in Washington. The refreshing part of our trip is that we meet and talk to dozens of smart, dedicated Americans who are working their tails off on our nation’s biggest challenges. But…Congress is Still Pretty Broken: We hear this every year, and it’s only going to get worse under divided government (Democratic House, Republican Senate). Partisanship is nothing new inside the beltway, but there’s an edge there now that wasn’t always present. The reality of today’s government is that there is no synergy whatsoever between the House of Representatives and the Senate. On the day we visited Capitol Hill, the House was voting on a sweeping campaign finance, and voting reform bill called the “For the People Act of 2019.” Well, at least that’s what the Democrats called it…the Republicans were calling the bill the “Democrat Politician Protection Act.” Call it whatever name you want, but you can call it “Dead on Arrival” in the Senate. The same goes for most other priorities of Speaker Pelosi’s Democratic House and the “Raucous Caucus” of freshmen (and women) Members of Congress. The House has a bold agenda that will make a lot of headlines, but the Republican-led Senate and the president will prevent any of those bold items from becoming law. So what might Congress actually get done this year? As referenced above, Congress will do a lot of work this year that ends up going nowhere. The same goes for President Trump’s budget proposal, which is also DOA in its current form.While the President often (not always) submits a budget proposal, it is ultimately up to Congress to formulate and pass a series of appropriations bills that keep the government moving along. These are THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME Forward Janesville’s 2019 Washington, DC Trip Dan Cunningham • Vice President of Government Affairs and Education • danc@forwardjanesville.com