Courtney shows bipartisanship is alive and well

In his nearly 20-year career in Congress representing Connecticut's 2nd District, Joe Courtney has governed from the middle. The latest example of that was his ranking as the most bipartisan House member from Connecticut in a bipartisan index ranking from the Lugar Center, which works with Georgetown University's McCourt School on the index.Courtney, now in his ninth term and seeking a 10th in November, ranked 72nd overall of the 436 members of the House in 2023.The top of the rankings is filled with House members — both Democrat and Republican — you've probably never heard of, while the bottom of the index is full of the people you see on FOX and MSNBC daily. That dichotomy stands out. It means there's an incentive to be partisan, but that has never been Courtney's way."It's a pretty rough moment right now in Congress," he said last week during a phone interview. "You can feel the middle getting stressed on both sides. That doesn't mean you just go into a crouch and stop trying."For Courtney, it has always been about the work. While he said legislation can get done with one party, the 'meat-and-potatoes stuff' requires a more centrist coalition.In that spirit, Courtney helped pass the Long Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship Act, his third bipartisan bill to pass the House in the last 90 days. That bill, which Courtney co-sponsored with New York Republican Nick LaLota, re-authorizes Long Island Sound programs to ensure its protection and preservation. He highlighted a $1.3 million grant as part of the bill that will help reduce nitrogen in the Sound by managing farm waste at North Stonington's Valley View dairy farm. The House also passed Courtney's bill to prevent Coast Guard personnel from punishment for minor offenses when reporting an incident of sexual assault.Further, the congressman co-authored a bill that President Joe Biden signed into law late last month to make updates to help the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) better respond to crimes affecting children, support youth who are missing and prevent child sexual exploitation and victimization. That bill is one of only 64 passed thus far to become law, in one of the least productive Congresses in decades. That is less than half of what Congress passed into law during the same 18-month time period in the previous session. As Courtney said, "it's not a result of a lack of ideas or bills to advance."Courtney and LaLota, co-chairs of the Long Island Sound caucus, are also working together on proposed legislation to designate Plum Island as a national monument. The Plum Island Animal Disease Center is in the process of being decommissioned and moving to a new facility in Kansas. Courtney said the normal government process would have put it up for bid. He said conserving and protecting it offered a unique opportunity and they were able to remove the government mechanism that would have put it up for sale."My Republican counterpart has a constituency that is just as interested in that (as mine)," Courtney said. "Those are the kinds of calculations and pathways that you look for to make sure stuff doesn't get lost. I personally believe you have to make the effort. The math dictates that you have to look for bipartisanship."It's easy to get distracted with news out of Washington these days, whether it's Supreme Court ethics, the president's potential unfitness for office or his opponent's felonious activity.Which is why it's nice to know that in an era of hyper polarization, with constant stalemates between parties and in a country with a rapidly vanishing center, there are men and women in Congress like Joe Courtney, focusing on the task at hand.