Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has a message for Sen. Ted Cruz: “Let’s make a deal.”
The freshman congresswoman was responding to a tweet Thursday from the Texas Republican in which he said he agreed with her that it should be illegal for former members of Congress to become corporate lobbyists.
“If you’re serious about a clean bill, then I’m down. Let’s make a deal,” Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most prominent members of her party’s progressive wing, tweeted in response to the conservative senator.{mosads}
“If we can agree on a bill with no partisan snuck-in clauses, no poison pills, etc – just a straight, clean ban on members of Congress becoming paid lobbyists – then I’ll co-lead the bill with you,” she added.
“I have long called for a LIFETIME BAN on former Members of Congress becoming lobbyists,” Cruz had tweeted earlier Thursday. “The Swamp would hate it, but perhaps a chance for some bipartisan cooperation?”
Later that day he replied to Ocasio-Cortez with two words: “You’re on.”
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who is running for president, also voiced his support for the idea. He invited the two to sign onto his legislation banning members of Congress from becoming lobbyists, saying it would “slam the revolving door shut once and for all.”
“It’s not every day you see the three of us on the same page,” he wrote.
Bennet had gone viral in January for a Senate floor speech during the partial government shutdown in which he accused Cruz of having “crocodile tears” for first responders going without paychecks during the shutdown.
Cruz hit back earlier this month after Bennet announced his presidential bid, saying the Colorado Democrat had mounted “a campaign about nothing.”