Patricia R. Doxsey reports for the Daily Freeman that freshman U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan said that despite a recent coup attempt and a sharp partisan divide in the House of Representatives, he is optimistic that lawmakers can pass legislation. “If we don’t stay optimistic, if we don’t stay optimistic in the face of all these challenges, then we’ve given up,” said Ryan to the more than 200 business leaders who gathered Jan. 18 for the Ulster County Regional Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting. In the last Congress, under Democratic control, the Invest and Protect Act, the National Defense Authorization Act, the Chips and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act all passed. Ryan participated in the final weeks of that Congress, representing the 19th Congressional District, but this year is in the 18th Congressional District. And now Republicans run the chamber. “If folks come there with the broader sense of being American, being someone who believes in the promise and potential of our country and coming to actually accomplish some mission greater than their personal ambition, if we all come with that mindset of patriotism as a way to govern and bring us come together, I do think we can do it,” Ryan said. So far, though, the House of Representatives has been a divisive body. “It was extremely disappointing to see a small group of extreme ideologues on either side of the political spectrum take hostage an institution that needs to work,” Ryan said about the long process to choose a Speaker of the House. “I try to be optimistic, that was really disappointing to me, but I hope we can get our act together.” Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.