Topline: The ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus opposed this year’s $1.7 trillion federal budget, urging lawmakers to vote against the bill and trigger a government shutdown because it was “loaded with hundreds of pages of earmarks.”

For just over a year now, the Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been investigating the CCP’s actions and weighing their competitive threat with the need for America’s response. The bipartisan Select Committee, led by retiring Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI), has been largely successful at not only accomplishing this objective by providing strategic recommendations to counter China’s threats, but it’s also proven to be a model of success in how committee members work together. At a time when lawmakers overwhelmingly refuse to cooperate, we need to admire the Select Committee’s work and emulate that bipartisanship where we can in Congress.