The Problem Solvers Caucus: Bipartisan Progress in Action
- Independent Times News
- a few seconds ago
- 4 min read
Fifty Members, Two Parties, One Table
Bipartisanship gets talked about a lot more than it gets practiced. One place it still happens, every single week, is a meeting room on Capitol Hill where roughly fifty members of the House of Representatives, split evenly between Democrats and Republicans by design, sit down together to argue, listen, and find common ground. They call themselves the Problem Solvers Caucus, and the name is the whole mission st
statement.
Who They Are and What They Stand For
Founded in January 2017, members of Congress discovered, over coffee and without cameras, that they could actually talk to each other. The structure they built enforces the balance. Membership stays split 50-50 between the parties, and the caucus is always led by two co-chairs, one from each side.
Today those co-chairs are Republican Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, a former FBI agent who has led the caucus's GOP side since 2021, and Democrat Tom Suozzi of New York, who won his suburban swing seat by campaigning on exactly this kind of cooperation. For Suozzi, bipartisanship isn't a slogan; it's his electoral math. His philosophy, as he put it when the caucus elected him co-chair: "I'll work with anyone who wants to genuinely solve problems," without ever abandoning his values. For Fitzpatrick, it's something closer to a creed. "Our group makes the choice to see the world through the other's eyes," he told the Ripon Society last year, even when it's hard to do, because that kind of empathy is the foundation of every successful relationship.
The mechanics are simple and unfashionable: weekly meetings, respectful debate, and formal caucus endorsements that signal to House leadership when a bill has genuine votes waiting on both sides of the aisle.
Breaking the COVID relief deadlock. In late 2020, with pandemic aid stalled for months in partisan gridlock, the caucus unveiled its "March to Common Ground" framework: 25 Democrats and 25 Republicans backing one plan. Working with a bipartisan group of senators, they turned that framework into the deal that broke the impasse, leading to $900 billion in emergency relief for families, small businesses, and health care providers when the country needed it most.
Chips, science, and American jobs. The caucus was instrumental in passing the CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law in August 2022, rebuilding American semiconductor manufacturing and reducing dependence on foreign chips. It was an economic security priority both parties claimed, and for once, both parties delivered.
Laying track for infrastructure. Months before the bipartisan infrastructure law passed, the caucus released a detailed $1.25 trillion framework covering highways, bridges, broadband, water systems, and the electric grid. It was proof that a cross-party consensus on rebuilding America existed before leadership caught up.
Protecting people online. The caucus endorsed the TAKE IT DOWN Act, which became law in May 2025 and now requires platforms to remove non-consensual intimate images within 48 hours. This March, it endorsed the follow-up: the DEFIANCE Act, which would let victims of sexually explicit deepfakes sue their abusers directly. Fourteen caucus members have already cosponsored it.
Tackling affordability. In February, the caucus released a Bipartisan Affordability Agenda targeting the cost-of-living pressures that consistently top the list of independent voters' concerns.
To be clear, caucus endorsements aren't binding, and members don't always vote as a bloc. Critics have called the group more symbolic than muscular, and there's a fair debate about how much any fifty members can bend a polarized House.
But in a Congress where the parties barely share elevators, fifty members who share a table every week, and periodically drag a stalled deal across the finish line, is nothing. It's a start. And you don't have to take our word for it, or theirs. The caucus publishes every endorsement, framework, and announcement as it happens, and maintains a running list of all the legislation it has backed. Browse the record, track the current agenda, and judge the impact for yourself. That's what independents do.
Why It Matters
Ask Americans what they want from their leaders and the answer rarely changes: work together, get things done. Seventy-seven percent of us say exactly that. The Problem Solvers Caucus is one of the few institutions in Washington that treats it as a job description rather than a talking point.
These aren't the loudest members of Congress. You won't see most of them in viral clips. What you'll see instead is a Republican former FBI agent and a Democrat from a swing district co-hosting a podcast called 'Problem Solvers Caucus' on YouTube, whipping votes for the same bills, and insisting that the other side is worth talking to.
Independent voters spend a lot of energy identifying what's broken in Washington. This is what working looks like. It deserves to be noticed, and the members who practice it deserve to be rewarded.
Learn more about the Problem Solvers Caucus, its endorsed legislation, and whether your representative is a member at problemsolverscaucus.house.gov/about.
Independent Times News
Less Party. More Country.
A Newsroom Built for America's Largest Voting Bloc
Don't Miss Out! Visit our newsroom and subscribe to our dispatches:
Find Us Everywhere! Follow us on all social media platforms:
📱 @IndyTimesNews
How to Listen! Available on all podcast platforms:
🎧Search Independent Times News on your favorite podcast app
These are not the best of times, nor the worst, but these are undoubtedly Independent Times.