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Republican Camillus Rep. John Catko won his election to Congress eight years ago by promising voters that he would be a compromise and a bipartisan force. When he left Washington, Katko largely kept that promise as he sought solutions to the country’s crumbling infrastructure, opioid addiction crisis, broken immigration system, and holes in airport and internet security. We evaluate that.
Katko has amassed a solid bipartisan voting record befitting his evenly divided swing district. He kept his promise not to vote to shut down the government or to repeal the Affordable Care Act unless there is a suitable alternative. Katko often crossed party lines to stand by the laws he believed in and benefit central New York. Most recently, his vote passed his CHIPS Act, paving the way for Micron Technology’s proposed $100 billion investment in semiconductor manufacturing in Onondaga County.
For four terms, Katko emerged as a moderate Republican leader and took the leadership seat. As its chairman, he elevated the status of the Republican Governing Group, the governing arm of the self-proclaimed Republican Party. He consistently ranked high on the Lugar Center’s list of the most bipartisan MPs. The Center for Effective Legislation ranked Katko his third most effective member of Congress as a Republican.
As co-chair of the bipartisan Caucus of Problem Solvers, Katko helped shape the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill Congress passed last year. The vote gave President Joe Biden a “victory,” so he got into trouble with House Republican leaders. Katko defended the vote in a commentary on those pages, saying funding roads, bridges, water systems and ports was “a win for our entire community.”
In 2018, Katko was one of 20 Republican moderates to fund tougher border security, ban parent-child separation, and kill “dreamers” who were brought here illegally as children. negotiated a sweeping immigration reform bill that would pave the way for citizenship. President Donald Trump and Republican hardliners ruined the bill, much to Katko’s dismay. None of the Democrats voted.
Katko leaned into a career as a federal prosecutor and later became the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee. was. We have repeatedly called on legislators to pay more attention to pressing community issues such as poverty, gun violence and lead poisoning. He did not, but called a city hall rally to voice public concerns and used his position on the House Transportation Committee to argue for funding.
History will remember Katko with one vote to impeach President Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Katko was one of ten Republicans who voted to impeach the Republican president. Sure enough, only two of his ten will return to Congress next year. The rest either failed to run for re-election or, like Katko, chose to retire.
Speaking at Syracuse University on Nov. 28, Cattko said he felt a sense of calm even though he knew he was unleashing a threat to him and his family ahead of the vote to impeach Trump. said.
“It was difficult,” he said. “But I knew it was the right thing to do.”
During the Trump era, Katko often had to juggle the demands of the Republican leadership and the people of the Purple District he represented.
After declining to endorse Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2016, he endorsed the president in 2020, overlooking personal scandals and the administration’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. voted against Trump’s impeachment. He courted figures from right-wing parties like Devin Nunes and became a frequent guest on Fox News. . He voted against creating a House Select Committee to investigate, saying it would be a partisan exercise. The committee’s meticulous work proved him wrong.
To his eternal credit, when it really mattered, Katko turned against the president and his party and stood up for the values of central New York.
In his farewell speech on the floor on December 14, Katko warned his colleagues: In a way that solves big problems. He urged them to reach out across the aisle for the benefit of voters and the country.
Central New Yorkers would rather Katko represent them in Congress, especially when democracy is at stake.
About Syracuse.com Editorial
Editorials represent the collective opinion of the Advance Media New York editorial board. Our opinions are independent of news reporting. Please read our mission statement. Members of the Editorial Board are Tim Kennedy, Trish LaMonte, Katrina Tulloch and Marie Morelli.
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