Matchmaking for Congress

 
 

In the 1980s, Jonathan Perman worked on Capitol Hill for a Republican Senator from Illinois...he was a Democrat...and that was not entirely out of the ordinary. Increasingly frustrated by partisan gridlock in Washington, in 2016 Perman teamed up with the Bipartisan Policy Center to create the American Congressional Exchange. The program matches pairs of Republican and Democrat Members of Congress and facilities visits to each other's districts. Combining his passions for politics and travel, his hope is to help build trust in Congress. It's already working -- bipartisan legislation has resulted from ACE's work that has been signed into law.

“Over the past several years, like many people, I got very despondent about what had happened to our legislative branch of government. And so I decided I wanted to do something about it. ”
— Jonathan Perman

Episode Notes:

  • Learn more about ACE here.

Audrey Scagnelli