Thursday, January 16, 2014

BEYOND HYPER-PARTISANSHIP, READ: Arizona Reps. Barber, Salmon Take Lead Urging "Permanent Bipartisan Seating" At State of the Union Address

Arizona Reps. Matt Salmon (R-CD5) and Ron Barber (D-CD2) joined a bipartisan pair of Senators today in urging Congressional leadership to make "bipartisan seating" a permanent tradition at the President's annual State of the Union address.  Barber and Salmon joined Senators Mark Udall (D-NM) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in sending a letter to leadership, and encouraging their colleagues to continue the recent symbolic tradition.

Arizona's Congressional delegation was front and center at the State of the Union address three years ago when the idea first started to catch on; it was three weeks after the shocking assassination attempt on southern Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords which took 6 lives and injured 12 others (including Barber), and the entire Arizona delegation sat together during President Obama's speech.  Barber has continued the bipartisan tradition since succeeding Giffords, sitting last year with Salmon.

The text of the letter is below:



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