Republicans push Obama on bipartisanship

Republicans Saturday called on U.S. President Barack Obama to find bipartisan solutions for initiatives he touched on during his Srate of the Union address. During the weekly GOP address, House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, of Michigan, said several bills introduced in the House cover four topics he believes Democrats and Republicans could agree on, the Hill reported. Those areas included increasing federal research funding, giving workers comp time in lieu of overtime pay, consolidating job training programs and fast-tracking permitting for natural gas pipelines. "These are all areas where the House has already acted and we can move the ball forward without delay," Upton said. Rep. Greg Harper, R-Miss., said Saturday he supports taking government money used to pay for political party conventions and giving it to medical research teams. "We're talking about everything from cancer, autism and Fragile X Syndrome to the rarest genetic disorders," Harper said. "Creating a lifetime of hope and opportunity for our most vulnerable kids is more important than subsidizing weeklong political pep rallies." In her portion of the weekly address, Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., voiced support for a bill that gives private sector employees the option to choose between comp days and overtime, CNN said. "Government employees already have this option, so why not give private sector workers the same choices," Roby asked. "We believe that this can be a year of bipartisan action, a moment when speeches give way to solutions," Upton said. "The American people never let us down, and we cannot let them down either."