Overland Park ? There’s a big gap between the way Congress ought to work and the way it really works, three members said Tuesday at Johnson County Community College.

For starters, said U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., there is no real debate.

“If a Social Security reform bill reaches the floor, as a third-term congressman, my time to speak would be limited to 30 seconds,” he said.

Debate in the committees isn’t much better, said U.S. Rep. Joanne Emerson, R-Mo.

“Committee members are punished if they don’t toe the party line,” said Emerson, who serves on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. “They’re scared to death of getting kicked off the committee, so there’s no debate.”

The fates of most bills, she said, are decided by the committee leaders who rely on their staffs and Washington’s ever-growing corps of lobbyists to work out the details.

So it’s no surprise, said U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan., that prescription-drug bills favor big drug companies or that well-intended mandates such as special education go underfunded.

Congress, he warned, is “as divided as I’ve ever seen it.”

Moore, Emerson and Israel used the town hall-style meeting Tuesday to call attention to the Center Aisle Caucus, a newly formed group intent on promoting respectful dialogue and meaningful debate.

Formed in June by Israel and U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Ill., the caucus includes at least 22 Democrats and 21 Republicans.

“We can disagree without screaming at each other,” Israel said.

Moore said he and Emerson relied on the caucus to introduce a bill aimed at reducing the cost of prescription drugs by giving the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services the authority to negotiate lower drug prices on behalf of Medicare. The bill passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate.

“We did it because it was the right thing to do,” Emerson said, referring to her working with Moore.

Moore said the caucus also had a hand in passing bills to increase gratuity payments to families of soldiers killed in the line of duty since Sept. 11, 2001, and to underwrite the travel costs of soldiers on leave from Iraq.

“I’m convinced that 80 percent of the issues we deal with in Congress should not be partisan,” Moore said.