The Last Bridge in Washington
The Problem Solvers Caucus and its commitment to bipartisanship.
By Brandon Crivillaro
Too often in the current state of American politics do we see party devotion blocking any opportunity for compromise. Whether it is the self-interested prioritization of their own financial gain, or the stubborn inability to concede even secondary or tertiary priorities to reach a middle-ground consensus, bipartisanship in our country is too few and far between. The shining exception to this polarizing trend in Congress remains the Problem Solvers Caucus, co-led by Pennsylvania’s 1st District Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (R) and New York’s 3rd District Representative Tom Suozzi (D).
Founded in 2017 through the efforts of No Labels, the Problem Solvers Caucus (PSC) has been committed to its gridlock-breaking agenda in Congress ever since. As of October 2025, there are 23 Republicans and 26 Democrats currently serving on the PSC, with co-chairs from both parties. This near-perfect split of partisanship highlights their values and serves as evidence of their fidelity to them. Since 2019, co-chair Fitzpatrick has not only been ranked first in bipartisanship among all House members, but also received the highest Bipartisanship Index score ever recorded by the Lugar Center since its creation in 2014. For nearly a decade, Brian Fitzpatrick has set the standard for Bipartisan cooperation in Congress.
However, their implementation of aisle-crossing does not stop at the 49 members of the caucus. Since 2017, the PSC has been involved in various key pieces of legislation, including topics such as immigration, infrastructure development, healthcare reform, congressional accountability, and promoting American industry. These efforts reached across the aisle to pull in non-PSC members of both parties to pass what they viewed as common-sense solutions to these issues. One recent example that has inspired bipartisanship in Congress is the introduction and push for the Restore Trust in Congress Act.
Introduced early this year was the Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act, led by PSC co-chair Brian Fitzpatrick (R), and Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D), Cory Mills (R), and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D). This legislation would limit the ability of members of Congress and their immediate family from owning or trading individual stocks. In an attempt to limit conflicts of interest in Congress, this bill sought, as its name implies, to restore the public’s faith in their government representatives.
After struggling to gain traction for some time, the bill was revised and reintroduced as the Restore Trust in Congress Act by Representative Chip Roy (R), alongside the cooperation of sixteen original cosponsors, which still included the likes of Fitzpatrick, Ocasio-Cortez, and Krishnamoorthi. The revision emphasized legal practicality and the ability for consistent enforcement. Now totaling 75 cosponsors, the support for the updated bill shows a stark contrast to the original bill’s eleven cosponsors and exemplifies the PSC’s impact in bridging the partisan gap in Washington.
Speaking about the newly introduced bill in early September, Ocasio-Cortez stated, “I also want to thank Brian Fitzpatrick for some of the work that we’ve done in co-sponsoring our original bill on this.”
“It’s very rare I feel in Washington, that when we bring multiple stakeholders and folks together to negotiate on a bill, that you leave that room feeling like the bill got better … But I genuinely feel in this process that in putting all of our bills together, we’ve actually ended up with a product that is legitimately stronger than the sum of its parts.”
Addressing insider trading in Congress will always be an uphill battle. For at least some of our elected officials to come together and craft legislation that tackles this issue is a significant step toward rebuilding trust in our government. A staggering 85% of Americans say elected officials don’t care what they think. It is not the public that needs to be convinced of bills like this, but rather the representatives themselves.
PSC leadership spearheading this movement represents a much-needed and necessary presence in Washington. In recent years, we have seen more and more extremism and party allegiance that have only further entrenched our polarized political system. Bipartisan efforts that genuinely serve the needs of the American people, rather than the interests of politicians or their ideological party affiliations, are key to fixing our broken system. The Problem Solvers Caucus might just be the template we need for restoring public faith and functionality to our nation’s Congress.