Problem Solvers Caucus

Problem Solvers Caucus
Co-Chairs	Josh Gottheimer (D) Brian Fitzpatrick (R)
Founded	January 23, 2017; 7 years ago (2017-01-23)
Ideology	Centrism[1] Bipartisanship[2]
Political position	Center[3]
Colors	Red and   Blue
Seats in House Democratic Caucus	32 / 213
Seats in House Republican Caucus	27 / 217
Seats in the House[a]	59 / 435
Website
problemsolverscaucus.house.gov
Politics of United States Political parties Elections

The Problem Solvers Caucus is a group in the United States House of Representatives that has included members equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, with the Caucus' stated goal of fostering bipartisan cooperation on key policy issues. The group was created in January 2017 as an outgrowth of meetings held by political organization No Labels as early as 2014.^[4] It is co-chaired by Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) as of 2021^[update].^[5]

The Problem Solvers Caucus developed over time as an outgrowth of informal meetings organized by group No Labels. No Labels spent years on Capitol Hill working to get members in a room to talk with colleagues from the other party. These informal "get to know you" meetings led to more substantive cooperation across the aisle, including the introduction of nine bipartisan bills to reduce government waste and inefficiency, and the introduction of the No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013^[6][7] and the Medicare "doc fix" in 2015.^{[citation needed]}

Over time, No Labels continued to organize members into a more cohesive group and eventually branded the group the "Problem Solvers" and recruited its first two co-chairs, Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI) and Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR).^[8] This group of members organized by No Labels also signed a resolution (H.R. 207) calling for both parties to unify behind a National Strategic Agenda with four goals: job creation, balancing the budget, securing Medicare and Social Security, and energy security.^[9]

Then co-chairs Reed and Gottheimer said in 2017, "We all knew the partisanship in Washington had gotten out of control and felt the need to create a bipartisan group committed to getting to 'yes' on important issues. We have agreed to vote together for any policy proposal that garners the support of 75 percent of the entire Problem Solvers Caucus, as well as 51 percent of both the Democrats and Republicans in the caucus."^{[10][better source needed]} To ensure party balance, a new member can only join the caucus when a member of the opposing party joins at the same time.^[11]

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During the week of August 4, 2017, the 43-member House Problem Solvers Caucus released a compromise to shore up the struggling insurance exchanges. The proposal focused on the skyrocketing cost of individual health insurance premiums. At the time, the Trump administration considered suspending cost-sharing payments that defray out-of-pocket payments like deductibles and co-payments, a move which insurers said could cause premiums to rise by 15 percent or more.^[12]

The second part of the Problem Solvers plan would have provided relief to help states deal with the high cost of pre-existing and chronic conditions. The relief is provided through a dedicated stability fund that states could use to reduce premiums and limit losses for providing coverage for these high-cost patients. The third part of the plan provides relief to certain businesses from the mandate that they provide insurance to full-time employees. It also defines "full time" as a 40-hour workweek to discourage businesses from manipulating employees' weekly hours to skirt the mandate.^[10]

The plan would have also eliminated the Medical Device Tax, an excise charge of 2.3 percent, which opponents claim is passed onto consumers and reduces funds for research and development.^[12]

After the 2018 midterm elections, the Problem Solvers Caucus and House Democratic Leadership negotiated a package that reformed the rules of the House. The Washington Post's Editorial Board predicted that those new rules should "ease consideration of bipartisan amendments, create a 'consensus calendar' to reserve time for bills with wide bipartisan support and make it harder for extremists on the House’s wings to threaten to oust the speaker."^[13] Some on the left argued against the changes saying they would essentially weaken Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats in the House.^[14][15]

In September 2020, the Problem Solvers released their "March to Common Ground" COVID-19 relief package, an outline for a Congressional bipartisan compromise that showed that members of both parties were willing to listen to each other in order to craft legislation.^[16]

On May 18, 2021, the Problem Solvers Caucus endorsed bipartisan legislation to investigate the attack on the Capitol.^[17] However, the next day only 18 of 28 Republican Problem Solvers voted in support of creating a bipartisan commission to lead the investigation.^[18]

After the 2023 October Continuing Resolution was passed on September 30, 2023, Congressman Matt Gaetz presented the motion to vacate against Speaker Kevin McCarthy on October 3, in which all Democrats voted to vacate alongside eight Republicans. Republican members of the Problem Solvers Caucus criticized their Democratic counterparts for not defending McCarthy after he passed a bipartisan bill, considering it an undermining of bipartisanship credibility, although Nancy Mace, a Republican member of the Problem Solvers Caucus herself, also voted alongside Democrats to remove McCarthy.^[19][20] Within the caucus, the Republican argument that defending the Speaker would protect the institution was met with the Democratic rebuttal that McCarthy refused to certify the 2020 election. The schism formed from this event persisted long after the vote, with the caucus acting only in small groups rather than as a 64-member bloc for bipartisan issues. Republican members were looking at removing less-than-cooperative Democratic members, while Democratic members believed the caucus were not doing enough to combat the far-right influence in the general GOP.^[21]

This group includes 59 members as of May 16, 2024: 32 Democrats and 27 Republicans.^[22]

• Salud Carbajal of California
• Ed Case of Hawaii (vice-chair)
• Jim Costa of California
• Angie Craig of Minnesota
• Henry Cuellar of Texas
• Don Davis of North Carolina
• Debbie Dingell of Michigan
• Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington
• Jared Golden of Maine (co-whip)
• Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey (co-chair)
• Josh Harder of California
• Steven Horsford of Nevada
• Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania
• Dan Kildee of Michigan
• Greg Landsman of Ohio
• Susie Lee of Nevada (vice-chair)
• Wiley Nickel of North Carolina
• Donald Norcross of New Jersey
• Jimmy Panetta of California
• Chris Pappas of New Hampshire
• Scott Peters of California
• Brittany Pettersen of Colorado
• Dean Phillips of Minnesota
• Mary Peltola of Alaska
• Brad Schneider of Illinois
• Hillary Scholten of Michigan
• Elissa Slotkin of Michigan
• Darren Soto of Florida
• Abigail Spanberger of Virginia
• Haley Stevens of Michigan
• Emilia Sykes of Ohio
• David Trone of Maryland

• Don Bacon of Nebraska (co-whip)
• Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon
• Juan Ciscomani of Arizona
• Ben Cline of Virginia
• John Curtis of Utah
• Anthony D'Esposito of New York
• Chuck Edwards of North Carolina
• Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania (co-chair)
• Andrew Garbarino of New York
• Tony Gonzales of Texas
• Jenniffer Gonzalez of Puerto Rico^[b][c]
• John James of Michigan
• Dusty Johnson of South Dakota (vice-chair)
• David Joyce of Ohio
• Thomas Kean Jr. of New Jersey
• Young Kim of California
• Nick LaLota of New York
• Mike Lawler of New York
• Nicole Malliotakis of New York (vice-chair)
• Daniel Meuser of Pennsylvania
• Marc Molinaro of New York
• Blake Moore of Utah
• James Moylan of Guam^[c]
• Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida
• Bryan Steil of Wisconsin
• David Valadao of California
• Brandon Williams of New York

• Lou Correa of California
• Vicente Gonzalez of Texas
• Mark Pocan of Wisconsin
• Tom Suozzi of New York

• Anthony Brindisi of New York (lost reelection in 2020)^[23]
• Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia (lost renomination in 2022 due to redistricting)
• Joe Cunningham of South Carolina (lost reelection in 2020)^[24]
• Elizabeth Esty of Connecticut (did not seek reelection in 2018)^[25]
• Kendra Horn of Oklahoma (lost reelection in 2020)^[26]
• Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania (did not seek reelection in 2022)
• Daniel Lipinski of Illinois (lost Democratic nomination in 2020)^[27]
• Elaine Luria of Virginia (lost reelection in 2022)
• Tom Malinowski of New Jersey (lost reelection in 2022)
• Ben McAdams of Utah (lost reelection in 2020)^[28]
• Stephanie Murphy of Florida (did not seek reelection in 2022)
• Richard Nolan of Minnesota (did not seek reelection in 2018)^[29]
• Tom O'Halleran of Arizona (lost reelection in 2022)
• Jared Polis of Colorado (elected Governor of Colorado in 2018)^[30]
• Jacky Rosen of Nevada (elected to United States Senate in 2018)^[31]
• Max Rose of New York (lost reelection in 2020)^[32]
• Kurt Schrader of Oregon (lost renomination in 2022)
• Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona (elected to United States Senate in 2018)^[33]
• Peter Welch of Vermont (elected to United States Senate in 2022)^[34]

• Mark Amodei of Nevada
• Mike Bost of Illinois
• Pete Stauber of Minnesota
• Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania (previously a member, but membership status is uncertain.)
• Chris Smith of New Jersey
• Nancy Mace of South Carolina
• Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania

• Mike Coffman of Colorado (lost reelection in 2018)^[35]
• Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania (did not seek reelection in 2018)^[36]
• Carlos Curbelo of Florida (lost reelection in 2018)^[37]
• Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania (resigned in 2018)^[38]
• John Faso of New York (lost reelection in 2018)^[39]
• Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin (resigned in 2024)
• Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio (did not seek reelection in 2022)
• Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington (lost renomination in 2022)
• Will Hurd of Texas (did not seek reelection in 2020)^[40]
• Lynn Jenkins of Kansas (did not seek reelection in 2018)^[41]
• Bill Johnson of Ohio (resigned to become president of Youngstown University in 2024) ^[42]
• John Katko of New York (did not seek reelection in 2022)
• Tom MacArthur of New Jersey (lost reelection in 2018)^[43]
• Patrick Meehan of Pennsylvania (resigned in 2018)^[44]
• Peter Meijer of Michigan (lost renomination in 2022)
• Tom Reed of New York (resigned in 2022)
• Reid Ribble of Wisconsin (did not seek reelection in 2016)
• Tom Rice of South Carolina (lost renomination in 2022)
• Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida (did not seek reelection in 2018)^[45]
• Van Taylor of Texas (did not seek reelection in 2022)
• Dave Trott of Michigan (did not seek reelection in 2018)^[46]
• Fred Upton of Michigan (did not seek reelection in 2022)
• Steve Watkins of Kansas (lost Republican nomination in 2020)^[47]
• David Young of Iowa (lost reelection in 2018)^[48]

The New York Times reported in May 2023 that the Democratic wing of the caucus is in "open revolt" over No Labels' progress in pursuing a third-party presidential ticket for 2024.^[49]

Tom Reed, former Republican co-chair said in 2019, "The Problem Solvers Caucus has been finding itself in the middle of several key battles and make common cause with its natural Senate allies".^[50]

Mark Pocan, a former caucus member and co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a left-leaning organization, said in 2018 that he was "duped" by No Labels and the PSC, saying that rather than "breaking gridlock", it was "a fast track for special interests and lobbyists."^[51]