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This week, at the dedication of a statue of President Gerald R. Ford, our 38th President, former vice president, U.S. Representative for 25 years and House Minority Leader for eight , he was praised as a bipartisan leader, a man who brought a country together in an economic and politically turbulent time.

“Politics is a clash of ideas, not a blood sport,” Ford himself once said in a speech long after his Presidency.

It is especially fitting that his statue was revealed in another, similar era: a divisive political climate as we fight over the best way forward on a budget, as our nation struggles with economic difficulties that have now surpassed those even Ford faced.

As Members pass through the Rotunda, we now have a reminder that calm leadership, listening instead of shouting, and forging relationships across the aisle that brought solutions while not compromising his core principles is how Ford moved our country forward during that tumultuous time.
Perhaps the most telling reminder of how effective Ford was at relationship-building is that one of the inscriptions on the statue’s pedestal is from a Democrat: former House Speaker Tip O’Neill, “God has been good to America, especially during difficult times. At the time of the Civil War, he gave us Abraham Lincoln. And at the time of Watergate, he gave us Gerald Ford — the right man at the right time who was able to put our nation back together again."

Equally important to building relationships across the aisle, Ford knew actions spoke louder than words, and the American people put more stock in results than polls. As his former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger recalled at the dedication ceremony on Tuesday, Ford wasn’t fixated with polls or focus groups. “I'm not one of those oratorical geniuses. I have to be myself,” Kissinger said Ford told him early in his presidency.

In his inspirational speech at the rededication of his presidential museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, just outside my district, Ford called upon politicians to turn the mirror on themselves when looking for solutions to partisanship, and reiterated his conviction that it was tough decisions, not polls, that led to solutions. “Anyone can read a poll; only a leader can move the nation,” he said.

And combining that philosophy, he helped restore confidence to America.

The unveiling Ford’s statue is perfectly timed, as it represents calm, bipartisan leadership that helped move America forward in a time of political and economic turmoil. It is a fitting reminder for the politicians of this and future eras as they too traverse the Rotunda.

To see his statue now in the halls he was most comfortable in, where he spent 25 years as a Representative and the Rotunda he used to play hide-and-seek with his kids, is a reminder that the policies we pass today, our words, actions, and attitudes, will have a lasting legacy.

On the other side of the statue from O’Neill’s quote is Ford's own, from his swearing-in address: "Our constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule."

It’s a fitting reminder that as Congress continues to work on the challenging issues of today, we must work for future generations, not just future elections; that fact-based conversations across the aisle, not shouting matches, lead to the common sense solutions and measurable results the American people are thirsty for.