Annie Grayer, Molly English, and Alex Leeds Matthews at CNN:
Rep. Michael McCaul — who is retiring after two decades in the House, where he has served as chairman of the Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs Committees — told CNN that Congress has changed for the worse over his tenure.
“The level of partisanship, rancor, vitriolic debate, demonizing the other side of the aisle, not willing to work across the aisle to get good things done for the American people, and just the overall toxic environment. And then we are chained to the floor here on votes that will never become law in a lot of cases,” the Texas Republican said.
Another GOP lawmaker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely, went even further to describe how the dysfunction of Washington makes it impossible to get simple things accomplished.
“It’s historic to be there. It’s an amazing honor. But boy, they suck a lot of the life out of you sometimes,” the lawmaker said. “For some people, it’s like, what am I doing this for?”