美国国家公共电台 NPR Bipartisan 'Bromance' Blossoms As 2 Texas Congressmen Make D.C. Road Trip（在线收听）

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

A late winter storm has been dumping snow on the Northeast since yesterday. Thousands of flights have been canceled. That will not stop two Texas congressmen from making it back to Washington.

BETO O'ROURKE: We are in a Chevy Impala, stuck just outside of Waco in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

That's Democrat Beto O'Rourke in the car with Republican Will Hurd from neighboring districts along the southern border.

WILL HURD: Beto's driving right now.

MARTIN: In between bathroom breaks and taco stops, they've had plenty of time to thrash out the health care bill. Here's Congressman O'Rourke.

O'ROURKE: And I think we came to some common ground. We want to see more people be able to afford health care. But I think we have some differences of opinion on expansion of Medicaid. But we have 20 more hours of driving to go. So I'm going to try to bring Will a little bit closer to my point of view. I know he's going to try to do the same.

INSKEEP: So this is either bipartisanship or a buddy movie, I'm not sure which. You get a Republican and a Democrat and trap them both in a car.

HURD: There's some pieces of legislation that I'm going to look about helping with.

O'ROURKE: Like veterans' health care. And then here's a real big one. We're currently in our 16th year of war in Afghanistan. And we started a really good conversation about what victory looks like and what we are willing to do as a country to secure our goals and aims overseas. This might be an area that we come up with something to work on together.

INSKEEP: And there's yet another area where they might be able to work together.

O'ROURKE: It's been a bipartisan effort. We've got some Kenny Chesney on right now. But earlier, we were listening to a great station out of San Antonio, 90.1. It's more independent, alternative rock 'n' roll So we're just going to take turns I think.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WINNEBAGO")

KENNY CHESNEY: (Singing) Why don't we hook up the old Winnebago, baby.

MARTIN: Ah, the unifying powers of Kenny Chesney. Congressman Beto O'Rourke, Democrat of Texas, we reached him and Will Hurd, Republican congressman, as they drove from Texas to Washington, D.C., after storms caused their flights to be canceled.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WINNEBAGO")

KENNY CHESNEY: (Singing) As soon as we get there.