By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves sees reason for optimism as Congress gets set to operate as a divided government once again.
While Republicans took control of the House, the Senate remains in the hands of the Democrats.
Graves, a Republican, says House Republicans need to begin the next session of Congress by reaching out to their Democratic colleagues in the Senate.
“This isn’t the first time that I’ve worked with a Democrat Senate,” Graves tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “We’ve been in the majority in the House before with the Democrats in the Senate. We were able to get a lot of things done when I was chairman of the Small Business Committee.”
Graves, who first won election to Congress in 2000, says he worked well with former Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat who chaired the Senate Small Business Committee at the time. He says, together, they were able to draft legislation that cleared both chambers of Congress.
Graves says that by working together, the two chambers should be able to send President Joe Biden bills he can sign.
“He’s running for re-election as well,” Graves says. “So, he’s going to be looking at legislation. He’ll be very careful about what he vetoes and what he doesn’t veto. But with the Senate in Democrat hands, there will be a lot of compromises that are made and hopefully he’ll be able to see the good in a lot of this legislation and sign it.”
Graves, who is the senior member of the Missouri Congressional delegation, says he’s worked in a split government before and has been able to reach across the political aisle to craft legislation with Democrats.
“That’s one area that I’m very capable of, is being able to work with the other side and find common ground,” according to Graves. “I’m cautiously optimistic. I think that we’ll be able to have a productive couple of years.”
Graves is expected to become chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the new Congress.
The first session of the 118th Congress convenes on Tuesday, January 3rd.