CommonSense American has an opportunity to work with a bipartisan group in the Senate and one in the House on choosing the same issue to work on in 2025. It’s an exciting development that could significantly boost our capacity to bring common sense to Washington.
Each chamber of Congress has a group of Republicans and Democrats who work together to advance bipartisan solutions. These groups have been key to passing many of the most consequential pieces of legislation in the last five years, including the Electoral Count Reform Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill, gun safety legislation, and the CHIPS and Science Act. In many cases, these groups are the driving force for major legislative success in Congress.
These groups are interested in considering CommonSense American members’ views in their selection of an issue to work on in 2025. They also hope that we will consider their views in our choice of issue because they recognize how valuable it is to know where there is bipartisan grassroots consensus on the issue they work on. To be clear, if we join in a process with the Senate and House bipartisan groups to explore whether we can agree on the same issue to work on, each group, including CommonSense American, retains their independence to ultimately pick their own issue even if it’s not the issue the other groups choose. As in the past, the final choice on what issue we work on is yours.
As we prepare to choose our 2025 issue, we also want to consider whether we should take on a bigger, more consequential issue. With our three-for-three track record in Congress, many of you have suggested that we should be willing to take on a tougher issue where our impact might be greater. The question about a tougher issue is related to the bipartisan congressional groups question. If we’re working with those groups on the same issue, our capacity to take on a tougher issue successfully increases significantly.
It will be helpful to hear your views on these questions as we begin the process of developing our Top 10 Bipartisan Issues list for you to rate early in the new year.