Bipartisan, bicameral body that George Washington explained so eloquently, and what our role was as the most deliberative body in the world and the whole world kind of depends on us cooling things off and making things work. But as weve seen, it hasnt done what its supposed to do, and its not the blame of one person or the other or one party or the other. I guess we can all say its all of our fault for letting it denigrate to this point. Several years ago i took a personal pledge. I just knew something was wrong. When i first got here and i looked around and i saw we were all expected to make phone calls, raising money every day to our respective parties, and that money would be used for a couple of purposes. The purpose of basically setting an agenda or explaining your priorities and your policies. But a lot of that money was directed towards the feeding colleagues towards defeating colleagues on the other side. Me being in the democrat caucus and the Democrat Money was supposed to be raised, and if any one of my friends, any one of my friends on the republican side was up in cycle, that money was supposed to be used against them. I thought that was wrong, and i know my republican friends, i know a lot of them feel the same way, that theyre supposed to be making phone calls to raise money to be used against me and everybody else thats up in cycle. Im sure they feel the same as i do. Ive often said that this that i come to work in a hostile work environment, and i tried to explain that in the terms of how we in West Virginia would look upon this. If you go to work every day in my state of West Virginia and your colleague or some person that youre working with is trying to undermine and undercut you and get you fired, and every day you go to work they are nice to your face but behind the scenes theyre doing all they can to denigrate your work or make your supervisors believe youre not doing your job, back home in West Virginia, sooner or later theyre going to want a little talk. Theyll say can we talk in the parking lot . Can we have this disagreement worked out . And thats the way it would be settled. Maybe thats the way it should be settled here too. I dont know. I dont think so. Ive met too many wonderful people that ive been serving with for the last seven years that are bright, that are extremely capable and intelligent, that have a wealth of experience. And i would put them up against any people that i met anywhere in any occupation in the country. But for some reason were all blocked from doing the right thing, what we know is right, sitting down and not accusing each other, not working and conspiring against each other, and not getting basically to the point that its so visceral that someone might be talking with me one day but then that weekend they might be in my state campaigning against me. And then we come back on monday and tuesday and were supposed to sit down and work through our problems and differences for the betterment of our country. I just think human nature doesnt let that happen. And it wont produce good results. Ive always looked forward to working with everybody, and i am probably one of the most centrist as far as being on more pieces of legislation in a bipartisan way. Ive never looked at a republican or a democrat problem. I just looked at a problem that we had, and i always said this the best form of government is the best policies and the best form of politics, if you want to play hardcore politics, is good government. Everyone can take credit for doing something good. I assure you, we do something wrong or we dont fix things, we all get blamed. Nobody looks good when we sit and dont work on our differences. We all get credit when we try to work together. We face a lot of challenges right now and when we do things that basically shun the other side because we dont want to share the glory with somebody else if we think there is some good in a piece of legislation. Every piece of legislation we voted for or against has some good in it. Every piece of legislation has something good, worthwhile in it. What happens is there are ways we can make it better, and thats where our differences. If you can make something better, i need to work with you because i dont have all the answers but we both have the desire to make the best piece of policy we can in legislation, so we should be working together. I should be open to saying that looks good to me lets see if we can amend this and fix it. But it seems we get set in our ways. The place robert byrd talked about many years ago was the place where people stayed, spent more time in washington they didnt come in on monday night and leave thursday afternoon. They stayed and work. On the weekends they would get together and have dinners together. Families would do things together during the days on the weekends, and they became friends. Its hard to say no to your friend. Its hard. If all of us had been in situations that its very hurtful that a friend that you disagreed with, you would try to find the most delicate way to see if there is a path forward without hurting your friend, it meant that much to us. Thats the way it should be here too. But if you dont have that working relationship, as a former governor i have my dear friend from south dakota, who is my dear friend, were going to look for a way to Stay Together and be friends. Were not going to look for a way to disagree and diverse from that friendship we built. We built that during our terms working as governors. Our n. G. A. , National Governors association, when you had a medicaid problem, when you had an infrastructure problem, when you had a Senior Citizens problem, a veterans problem, you looked around and looked at a state that found a pathway to fix that and you never hesitated to call them and, hey, mike, what did you think about this. I tried this. Ill send someone out and well are work together. Thats what i was used to doing as far as getting things done and thats what i want to do again. I think the place is right for it. We want our states to have a bipartisan pathway forward to work together. I know the people of West Virginia want to see us get things accomplished. Ive got a wonderful little state that has given its all. I tell the children, when someone asks you are where you are from, i want you to puff your chest and say i come from a wonderful state, we have more veterans per capita, we have fought in more wars, shed more blood, lost more lives for the cause of freedom than any other state. We have done the heavy lifting. We mined the coal and built the ships that defend our country every day. Our country has blessed us with one of the greatest went views you will ever see. My state is called West Virginia. We hope you come and visit and maybe you will even stay. We all have that pride. Whether its n indiana its indiana or wherever it may be. We have pride in our state. I dont see anybody in Public Service thats willing to put their name on the ballot as an enemy. If youre willing to take the heat that comes with these jobs, then lets make sure that we get the results that these jobs should produce. These jobs should produce results that america is the right place to solve the families we all have and lift us up and be the hope of the world. So with that im pledging to the people of West Virginia and to the American People that i will no i will not direct fundraise against them. I will not distribute any direct maim against them. I will not appear or endorse any advertisements directed at them. And i will not use or endorse social Media Campaigns that attack them. Washington will be dysfunctional until we all draw the line of truth and say were here for the same reason. We swear to the same constitution, take the same oath, on a bible that he will uphold. Since that civility has broken down because the system has changed, were not here, we dont know our spouses, we dont know our children, we better control ourselves through the hopefully through the rules that we could change and the ethic laws that we should live by to treat each other in the manner we would want to be treated. With that, im going to sign this pledge, and i would hope that all of my colleagues will consider signing the pledge the same way. Were the only ones that can change it. The power has changed. The pressure that comes from within has changed. This place has changed. And the only way to make a difference is to stop attacking and denigrating each other. With that, i will sign the pledge. It says, pledge to return to an era of bipartisan cooperation and agreement in order to bring back civility to the united states, we must pledge to have a bipartisan cooperation an agreement. I, joe manchin, pledge to the people of West Virginia, and to the American People that i will not campaign against a sitting colleague, not directly fundraise against him, not distribute direct mail against him, not pay peer, endorse advertisements directed at them, and not use or endorse social Media Campaign that attacks them. I would hope that each one of you all would consider this. I think we have to take this in our own hands right now and make sure that we look at each other with sincerity. We might disagree, but we can work through this. Remember our purpose of being here. The people want us to succeed. They depend on us to succeed. Thats the policy they need whether its indiana, south dakota, or West Virginia. They want the same. They want america to be from ar. Mr. Flake mr. President , last fall i had the honor to stand in this chamber and deliver remarks on the subject of a great and growing concern to me, the stewardship of our democracy at the hands of the most powerful figure in our government. I stand again today to sound the same alarm. Mr. Pde