Rep. Buck: Happy to Leave ‘Dysfunctional’ Congress

Former Rep. Ken Buck told ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday that he has no regrets about resigning from his seat on Friday before the end of his term.

The Colorado Republican stepped down the same day that his GOP colleague, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, filed a motion to vacate from his post Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

Reacting to the coincidence of the two events on the same day, Buck said it did not cause him to rethink his decision “at all,” adding that there is “no rear-view mirror” and saying he is “happy to move on” from such a “dysfunctional place.”

Buck criticized his GOP colleagues in the House for having trouble “setting priorities,” emphasizing that the Republican conference in the House spent time focusing on messaging bills “that get us nowhere” rather than tackling serious problems.

He cited examples of what he called “serious problems with setting priorities,” stating, “Since this Congress started, there have been efforts to impeach the secretary of State, the secretary of Defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the president, the attorney general, the FBI director, and, in fact, [the House] did impeach the secretary of Homeland Security.

“We have a very tragic circumstance in Ukraine. We have spiraling debt, all kinds of out-of-control problems. And we focus on messaging bills that get us nowhere,” he said.x

The Hill pointed out that Buck, during his more than nine years in office, was among the most conservative lawmakers in Congress, but displayed an independent streak and a willingness to vote against his party on positions in which he disagreed with its official position.

During the past year, for example, Buck slammed election denialism by his fellow Republicans and was one of the three GOP lawmakers who opposed impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, which derailed the first try to impeach him and was an embarrassing blow to the Republican conference.