Commentary - September 23, 2024 - by Ray Hagar

Editor's note: This is the third in a series of policy interviews with members of Nevada's federal delegation in Washington D.C.

Some conservative Republicans have recently complained about the "Uniparty," where members of Congress in the Democratic and Republican parties merge into one to make deals. To them, the "Uniparty" is a derogatory word.

Nevada's 3rd U.S. House District Rep. Susie Lee, D-Las Vegas, doesn't see it that way. For her, politics is played in the middle of the field. She loves working with Republicans because in Congress, if any bill is going to succeed, it usually needs bipartisan support.

"The most beneficial and long lasting way of us passing legislation is to work in a bipartisan manner," Lee said recently on Nevada Newsmakers. "And, I just think that's the way to do it."

She's all about bipartisanship. Last year, Lee was named the most bipartisan member of Congress by the Common Ground scorecard.

"That's why I am the vice-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus," she told host Sam Shad. "I'm the co-chair of the bipartisan Women's Caucus and I'm the co-chair of the bipartisan Colorado River Caucus."

Right now, Congress is deeply divided, she said. So bipartisanship can get awkward -- like you're commiserating with the enemy when you're only trying to get things done for the folks back home.

"You can't build a relationship with people unless you talk to them," she said. "And I will tell you that this place makes it somewhat difficult to do that. And you have to find those spaces where you can have those conversations, where you can figure out how you can work together on something. And so ... the way politics are in this country, they're so polarized at this moment."

Lee focuses on things her Democratic and Republican colleagues can agree on. Especially in this election year, there's much that divides the Blue and Red teams.

"I just think you got to find those areas where you have common ground with someone and be able to have a relationship so you can chat with them about it," she said.

She points to the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill as a crowning achievement of two parties working together.

"Look at the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which literally means $4.2 billion of investment so far for the state of Nevada, 140,000 jobs. (It also includes) Brightline West, the first high-speed rail project in this country that will alleviate the bottlenecks or help alleviate the bottlenecks on I-15," Lee said.

"That was a bill that was stuck," she recalled. "I mean, it was sort of a joke here in Washington that every week was infrastructure week, right? But it was a bipartisan group of people with several of us House members, Senators, Sen. Jacky Rosen was in the group, and four governors.

"We all went to went to Annapolis, Md., with (GOP) Gov. Hogan and sat down and said, OK, let's not talk about where we don't agree. Let's talk about where we do agree.

"It's not a Republican or a Democratic issue," Lee said. "Our infrastructure was crumbling and we needed to get this investment done. And so it's that type of work that is so important."

Lee then summed up her philosophy nicely:

"You know, I don't want to live in a country where you have to wait for the political tides to swing to get things done."

Lee credits her family and earlier endeavors for shaping her bipartisan philosophy in Congress.

"I grew up in a big family, I'm one of eight kids," she said. "And I ran nonprofits for 25 years. I never asked anyone what party they were. I just knew we had a homeless problem and a dropout problem and that the only way to get things done with people is to build a relationship with them."

YET EVEN WHEN bipartisanship is working, politics can enter its ugly head and ruin everything, Lee said.

Some Senate Republicans, according to CNN, and many Democrats were furious earlier this year when GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump had U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson kill a comprehensive, bipartisan immigration/border security deal over US-Mexican border.

Trump reportedly had the bill nixed so that he could use the southern border   as an issue in his presidential campaign.

"Let's just look at what happened when the Senate had been working for over a year to put together a bipartisan border package and the former president tweeted that Republicans shouldn't pass that," Lee said. "So literally, Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, is sitting on this bill, and sitting on it because of something political."

Lee said she will continue to work on comprehensive immigration reform, despite recent setbacks.

"So, let's just say I'm going to do my part to work across the aisle to try to get
something passed," Lee said. "We all should be doing that. And, you know,  our immigration system is broken because for so long it has been used as a political football."