Beautiful, Boring Bipartisanship Marches On

“Fix Our Forests is a case study in how we can get things done.”

Senators John Curtis (R-UT) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) talk about what’s working at Heatmap’s Energy Entrepreneurship 2025 during DC Climate Week.

A Democrat and a Republican took the stage together at DC Climate Week in early May. They talked about what’s working. As you might imagine, this did not grace the pages of The New York Times or make manospheric news — not enough clicks in this game, I suppose. Thankfully Heatmap brought this rational, positive story to light through its coverage (“Senators Curtis and Hickenlooper on Why the IRA Will Survive”).

I had the honor of emceeing the day. The tone was constructive, pragmatic, and hopeful. They used the word “we” quite a bit, and both complimented and jokingly ribbed one another. A standout, personal highlight was Senators Curtis’ and Hickenlooper’s articulation of a path ahead for our country, based on an emergent success story:

“[The bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act] is a case study in how we can get things done,” Senator Curtis said.

Wait, what was that?

Search the news on FOFA. There’s not much out there (one story here). It’s boring, bipartisan, and beautiful — the bill passed the House (twice) with big bipartisan support, and is now in the Senate — which is exhilarating for Americans like me that want to see progress on any issue directly impacting millions of people every year.

What makes this a potential case study? The answer hearkens back to the second half of 20th Century American politics, when the Greatest Generation was legislating and doing meaningful work. Their political differences were stark, but their bonds of WWII and their American pride won the day:

“They passed landmark civil rights legislation and voting rights laws, enacted environmental and consumer protections, and crafted legislation that shared federal research with the private sector, providing the seed corn for dozens of today’s successful companies.”

Today’s policymakers may not have been in the literal trenches (some have), but dealing with environmental catastrophes, polarized political whiplash, and both geopolitical and economic uncertainty might be bringing today’s centrists closer together than at any time in recent memory.

I listened and learned, especially about what may make for more case studies like this in the future. While these may seem obvious or well-trodden tropes, making them happen is hard work:

1. “Toss out the litmus tests.” We need good faith actors getting together in the room, not taking potshots from the sidelines and social media. It’s hard to defend this to anyone’s “base” but then again, what good is pandering to a base whose M.O. is obstruction? Finding common ground is more productive than purity tests.
2. “Innovation over ideology.” Seems obvious, but is difficult in practice. Example: in order to build a resilient, reliable, affordable energy system that powers America, solely relying on wind, solar, and storage won’t work. Not even close, but influential organizations and people still assert this. We can leave it there.
3. “Action needs to happen now.” Serious people understand the challenges we must take on with what type of urgency, where we cannot afford partisan bickering for years at a time. FOFA is a serious bill written by serious people to tackle this problem with that kind of urgency.
4. “Take a commonsense approach.” This sounds like a punchline, but so much commonsense legislation gets killed for all the wrong reasons. In order for commonsense approaches to work, the center-left and center-right must hold and coalesce around…commonsense ideas. We are nearly always closer than we realize.
5. “Cut unnecessary red tape.” Excessive regulation has gotten our nation into big trouble. Just ask California — we wrote the book on unnecessary red tape, and have lost nearly 1.5 million people (and in 2030, 4–5 electoral college votes) as a result. Totally unregulated markets aren’t the answer though (Houston, we have a problem). There’s a happy medium here, but it’s clear there is much to cut.

Conservative leader Heather Reams (President of CRES), Democrat Congressman George Whitesides (CA-27), and ACORE CEO Ray Long talking about nailing the narrative for energy companies today.

The rest of the day included more bipartisan conversations. The panel on nailing the narrative, with conservative leader Heather Reams (CRES), Democrat Congressman George Whitesides (CA-27), and ACORE’s Ray Long, was equally inspiring.

Heather specifically called out how we create a culture of winning in Washington, and you could feel spirits in the room rise together.

Bipartisanship is happening. It may be boring, and it may not be reported in the big outlets, but it is happening.

And I think it’s beautiful.