Daily Freeman: U.S. Rep Pat Ryan Optimistic in Face of Divided House

Freshman U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan said despite the sharp partisan divide in the House of Representatives, he remains optimistic that lawmakers can come together for the good of the country.

“If we don’t stay optimistic, if we don’t stay optimistic in the face of all these challenges, then we’ve given up,” Ryan, D-Gardiner, said to the more than 200 business leaders who gathered Wednesday for the Ulster County Regional Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting.

Ryan pointed to the accomplishments of the 117th Congress, which, under Democratic control, passed several pieces of significant legislation, including the Invest and Protect Act, the National Defense Authorization Act, the Chips and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act as examples of what Congress can accomplish, if, he said, lawmakers approach their jobs as patriots rather than partisans. In the previous Congress, Ryan represented the old 19th Congressional District from August to December. He now represents the 18th Congressional District, which covers parts of Ulster and Dutchess counties and Orange County.

“If folks come there with the broader sense of being American, being someone who believes in the promise and potential of our country and coming to actually accomplish some mission greater than their personal ambition, if we all come with that mindset of patriotism as a way to govern and bring us come together, I do think we can do it,” he said.

He said he was “disappointed” by what he called an embarrassing show on the House floor over the speaker’s vote and had harsh words for the handful of Republicans who, in Ryan’s words, held the House “hostage” in order to extort promises from U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a Republican legislator from California who was finally elected speaker of the House after a record-breaking 15 votes held over the course of five days.

“It was extremely disappointing to see a small group of extreme ideologues on either side of the political spectrum take hostage an institution that needs to work,” he said. “I try to be optimistic, that was really disappointing to me, but I hope we can get our act together.”

Ryan said that over the course of the next term, he hopes to be able to deliver needed federal resources to Ulster County while working to restore some “fiscal sanity” to the nation and through his actions to help rebuild the trust in the government that has been lost over the past several years. He said that because of divisions in Congress – Republicans hold a five-member majority in the 435-member body – he will focus on those areas where he believes bipartisan consensus can be reached, while also working to address issues facing the residents of the 18th Congressional district.

He urged those attending the breakfast to bring concerns and challenges to him and to hold him accountable for his promises.

“I think everything that’s happening in our country right now and in politics, in particular, comes back to trust and the lack of trust in so many institutions,” he said. “Everything that I do, everything our team does every single day … we’re just going to try to rebuild that trust from the bottom up by listening, by delivering.”

“That’s kind of the mission I’ve set for the team is rebuilding that trust one conversation, one constituent at a time,” he said.