Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By LARRY HOLCOMBE
Ironwood — As U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, returns to Washington for his second term representing Michigan’s First District in January, he’s hoping to shine a light on the good that Congress has done and he hopes will continue.
While Washington gets low marks in the public eye for being highly partisan and having a lack of civility, Bergman sees things a little differently.
“The one thing I feel bad for the American people is they don’t seem to see the bipartisan work that is done on a daily basis — Democrats and Republicans literally starting early in morning with breakfast, talking about issues,” said Bergman in an interview with the Daily Globe last week.
He’s a member of a couple of non-statutory groups, including one talking about bipartisan policy reform. “We’re asking, ‘How do we actually get Congress to work, function?’”
Bergman was part of the Republican majority for two years and will now be in the minority. “Timing is everything. I think the country is ready for debate in a more partisan way,” he said.
Civility is key to communication and governing, he said.
“Three weeks after we were sworn in the freshmen — Democrats and Republicans — authored and signed a commitment to civility,” he said. “We’ve made that commitment, we carried out that commitment; created the Civility Caucus. We’re going to argue the point, that’s what you do, but you don’t attack the other person. Civil discourse.”
Along the lines of bipartisanship, Bergman continues to enjoy a relationship with Democrat Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida’s Seventh District, which includes Orlando. They were both freshman Congress members in 2017 and paired up to learn from each other. He visited her district last spring and she’s coming to Michigan’s First District in late February. Bergman said their districts are very different from each other, but they still have things to learn from each other.
Murphy’s whirlwind tour of the First District will include a tour of a mine in Marquette County, a visit with some tribal officials and a puck drop at a Northern Michigan versus Michigan Tech hockey game.
“She’s really going to see a variety of things here in the U.P. — business, industry and the people, and see what it’s like in February in the U.P.,” Bergman said.
Bergman said he spent much of his first term learning about how Congress works, including legislating and budgeting. He called the learning curve steep.
While he spent his first term on the Veterans Affairs, Natural Resources and Budget committees, he has yet to learn his committee assignments for the coming term.
Veterans issues
He was pleased to chair the Veterans Affairs subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. He said he was one of a few freshmen to chair a committee. He was also able to hold roundtables in Iron Mountain on veterans issues and in Alpena on natural resources.
Bergman pointed to veterans’ issues as a place where bipartisanship shines, as well as the First District.
“We have a very significant number of veterans here,” he said, and pointed to more than 80 veterans-related bipartisan bills passed by the House of Representative this past term. “I had two bills recently passed by unanimous consent; one allowing the VA to fire bad actors.”
The other dealt with the VA purchasing medical surgical supplies. “Doctors and nurses used to make the decisions, but that power had been, over time, given to purchasing where they would simply buy the cheapest product. But while we want the best, affordable products, we need the clinicians to really be part of that decision process.”
Veterans’ education was also improved with the passing of the GI Bill Forever, ensuring for new members of the armed forces their GI Bills will never expire.
Budget problems
Bergman was frustrated by the way the budget process works and his recommendation is that all members of Congress should serve on the Budget Committee somewhere in their first two terms so they know how it works. “We have too many folks that come in with great ideas but have no idea how the money is (appropriated), whether it’s discretionary or mandatory spending; how you actually prepare a budget.
“They gave us a fanciful document when we first checked into the Budget Committee called ‘The Evolution of Federal Budgeting.’ It was 26 pages long and I retitled it, ‘When 2 and 2 cease to equal 4,’” said Bergman.
“I’m not a fan of deficit spending,” he said. “I was blessed to be on the Budget Committee and gained an understanding of how we got to where we are. ... We really need to look at our spending across the board... You’ve got mandatory spending, which Congress doesn’t touch, approaching 70 percent of the federal budget. So when you’re talking about things like defense and education, all these other things, that’s discretionary. It’s only 30 percent of the federal budget.”
Bergman said Congress needs to look at mandatory spending and make some tough choices. “We need to get our teeth into that in such a way that we wisely spend taxpayers’ dollars,” adding Congress needs to think about “what are we leaving for the high schoolers or the grade schoolers of today.”
New Soo Lock funding
Bergman called movement on building a new $922 million lock at Sault Ste. Marie “exciting.”
He was pleased to bend President Trump’s ear during a limousine ride with the president last spring downstate, recalling the president as engaged with the details and needs for a new lock alongside the existing Poe Lock.
A second Poe-sized lock would improve the shipping connection of Lake Superior with Lake Huron, and thus the rest of the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. Bergman also called it a matter of national security.
In May, the state appropriated $52 million for the project and Bergman said he recently heard the Office of Management and Budget accepted that money into the federal budget. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also got $32 million for a 2019 work plan for the new lock. This study will help create the bid specifications for the new lock.
“Now we’re looking to get language for the new lock into the President’s proposed budget due sometime in February,” he said, adding that just improving the Poe Lock won’t do the job needed.
“Modernizing the Poe won’t be good enough. If that’s all you do, you still have a single point of failure,” he said. “The Poe still has to be modernized, but we’re going to learn things in the construction of the new lock that will then apply to the Poe lock. That will save money and be wiser use of current technology.”
