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Good afternoon, Press Pass readers. Government shutdowns alter the experience of the flow of time on Capitol Hill, so I hope you’ll understand this newsletter going out a few hours earlier than usual. Get access to today’s reporting plus all my other coverage of the latest goings-on in the Capitol by upgrading to a Bulwark+ membership today. You’ll also unlock everything else we produce at The Bulwark, including ad-free versions of our podcasts. Sign up here:
Today’s edition is brought to you by my espresso machine. The government shut down at midnight on Tuesday, and no one has budged since. While the Senate took repeat funding votes, all yielding the same results, I’ve started to wonder where the Problem Solvers Caucus has been. The bipartisan brood often emerges in moments of gridlock promising to help forge a resolution. This time around, however, they’re pretty quiet even as the House is in a standstill and the Senate continues to, well, stand still.
I’ve also got some campaign news. Multiple former GOP congressmen with criminal histories have packed up and moved to the Free State of Florida™ in hopes of mounting comeback bids. I guess criminality and carpetbagging just aren’t the political inhibitors they used to be. Lastly, I want your opinions on socks. I also want your opinions on my opinions on socks. And I have many. All that and more, below.
Washington’s Problems Might Be Too Big for the Problem Solvers Caucus
The bipartisan group is on the sidelines while negotiations sputter.
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Once upon a time, the House Problem Solvers Caucus had a genuine role in Congress. The bipartisan group was organized to find solutions to seemingly intractable problems through compromise and broadly palatable centrism. And in moments of governing friction, they’d often emerge with some sort of proposal for a path forward.
Their results did not always measure up to their goals, however. In fact, the caucus became a bit of a punchline on the Hill, where lawmakers and journalists alike have come to dismiss them as preaching bipartisanship with little to show for it. As the Trump administration has taken to acting unilaterally and with almost complete disregard for the impotent and adrift Democratic opposition, the Problem Solvers have receded further, virtually disappearing while the problems they sought to address have grown and grown.
Take the government shutdown underway right now. Thanks to House Speaker Mike Johnson, the House is still in recess; Democrats are idling in their offices and demanding a return to session while House Republicans are uninterested in wading into the funding fight before seeing how the Senate acts.¹
It’s the type of moment that, in the past, the Problem Solvers would have jumped on: demanding meetings between leadership, offering shopworn critiques of the hyperpartisan nature of modern politics, and even charting out some sort of middle ground.
Now, well, we’re not seeing that...
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