Two dozen members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, including Wisconsin's Reid Ribble, gathered in New York Monday to try to take some small steps in bridging the partisan divide that exists in Congress.
Ribble (R-Sherwood) says the effort -- organized by the national group 'No Labels' -- is moving ahead because the American people are asking that members of Congress "lay down their sword" and begin working together.
Ribble says one of his top goals going into the process is refining the way Congress operates.
"I think most Americans would be exasperated like I was to watch how it operates," says Ribble. "Committees break into their separate rooms and then they come out in front of the public in their hearings with starkly, staunchly divided lines."
The 8th District representative says growing the movement will take some time because they want to grow it equally between Republicans and Democrats.
"Because what you don't want is creating a scenario where there's not parity," says Ribble. "Otherwise one side has a tendency to dominate the other. What we want to do is listen to each other, find those places where we agree -- we've got plenty of things we disagree on -- but there are also things we can agree on. Let's find those places of agreement and advance those things."
Ribble says those interested in learning more can go to the No Labels website (http://www.nolabels.org/) to see some of the policy and reform ideas that have been suggested and weigh in with their own opinions.
