Kelly: Collaboration the key freeing Fogel, passing legislation
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, said he works with representatives from both parties on legislation and issues, including recent efforts to advocate for the release of Butler County native Marc Fogel from a Russian prison.
Those bipartisan collaborations led to Fogel’s release on Feb. 11 after he had been detained since Aug. 14, 2021, when he was found at an airport in possession of medical marijuana that he used to treat a back injury.
Fogel, who worked as a teacher in Russia, is back in the United States after being released in a prisoner swap a little more than a month ago on Feb. 11. Fogel was sentenced to serve 14 years of hard labor.
For years, Kelly said he’s been working with House members in both parties from Pennsylvania to urge the U.S. Department of State to include Fogel and other U.S. detainees in any prisoner exchange with Russia.
Others who represent Pennsylvania in Congress, too, played a role in Fogel’s release — a moment that’s been touted as bipartisan amid a time when division seems synonymous with politics.
Pennsylvania senators with differing political parties, John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Dave McCormick, R-Pa., also played an active role in advocating for Fogel’s release. Both were among members of the Pennsylvania House Delegation, who signed a January letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asking for Fogel’s release.
McCormick, newly sworn into office at the start of the year, wasted no time advocating for Fogel, questioning Rubio about Fogel in a Rubio’s confirmation hearing.
Fetterman, however, like Kelly, was involved previously in the fight. In July 2023, he cosponsored a bipartisan concurrent resolution calling for Fogel’s release that was later unanimously agreed to in the Senate on June 4, 2024.
Despite the collaboration and agreement from leaders on both sides of the aisle, that resolution took nearly a year to pass — and Fogel was left waiting in Russian prison until just last month.
Fogel’s story ended with his return to Pennsylvania, but Congress’s efforts — even ones with bipartisan support — don’t always come with happy endings.
According to Kelly, it is more difficult to get a law passed than people think.
He explained how it took three years and two sessions of Congress to pass another less-than-controversial bill that named the Butler post office in honor of Civil War officer Andrew Gomer Williams, Kelly said.
However, that doesn’t mean there’s quite as much disagreement as it may seem, according to Kelly.
“There's much more collaboration than people think,” Kelly said. “People would be pleasantly surprised.”
He said TV programs tend to sensationalize debate on the House floor.
“If it looks like we're getting along, people think we're not doing our jobs, or if we're together in a restaurant, we're colluding,” Kelly said.
That’s not the case, he said.
“I'd rather be called colleagues than Republicans and Democrats,” Kelly said.
The legwork involved in drafting a bill is done by the staff of representatives, who then report their efforts to the representatives, Kelly said.
“It's staff talking to staff, then members get briefed by staff,” Kelly said.
The representatives' work to get the bill signed into law by the president begins when a bill is ready to be introduced.
Kelly said the representative who proposed the bill will get as many members of his or her party to sign on as cosponsors as possible, and then approach members of the other party for sponsors before introducing the bill.
The bill is then sent to the bipartisan Rules Committee for a review before it goes to the Senate, which could add amendments.
“The rules committee is kind of the fine filter,” Kelly said.
From there, the bill is returned to the House for a vote. If approved, the bill is sent to the president, who might or might not sign it into law, he said.
