Besides wrapping up loose ends of a week with two Public Hearings with our subcommittees, and preparing documents that will help the next intern learn our routine faster, my big adventure was to the US Capitol. It is a little known fact that the Capitol has no actual address, just: US Capitol, Washington, D.C.. The Capitol Building, like many federal agencies and office buildings, has its own zip code as well. Anyway, trivia aside, I was to deliver a letter to Speaker Pelosi's offic etoday, and I had no clue where it was. It ends up being just off the tour route, between the old House of Representatives (Now called Statuary Hall because a large number of state statues reside there) and the Hall of Columns (names for its columns). The hallway that leads to the Speaker's Office includes a US Capitol Policeman (to check that you are staff and have your badge on) and high quality red carpet. The Speaker's office actually is composed of two large offices, with receptionists sitting outside. Only a few other Representatives get their offices in the Capitol, including Steny Hoyer (the Majority Leader), but they still have satellite offices back in the house office building (such as Hoyers, just 4 floors directly above the office I work out of.
In other news, 1301, our main Committee Room, is nearing completion, but will be done about half a month after their projected March 15 deadline. The carpet is down and the chairs and tables have been moved back in, now we just need to test the 15" LCD screens that will be placed in front of members when technology is used during a hearing or briefing.
For the weekend, I plan to hit some of the sights enjoying our (hopefully) warmer weather, including the Zoo, Arlington National Cemetery and the National Cathedral. On the side I hope to start studying for a midterm for MacroEconomics.
3/8/07
Learning Lots
The Livestock, Dairy & Poultry Subcommittee held their hearing today, which was again packed for the first panel with two representatives from the USDA (and their posse trailing behind) creating chaos inside and outside of the room. We were packed to the brim, when one extra member of the press showed up and was not very happy with me not letting him go in. After we finally found a place where he could stand in a corner of the room, that disaster was solved with the help of my own staff. Once the first panel let out, animal organizations and a researcher from the U of M took the stage providing testimony and answering questions. With USDA's convoy out, everyone left was let in, and Gabe and I even got in on the last 45 minutes. It is an odd scene, as there were about 25 places with names of members on the subcommittee, only the Chairman has to be there for business to take place. During the meeting, Members of Congress and their staff will be going in and out to other meetings. So while most everyone shows up and says a few words at the microphone at some time during the hearing, for the majority of the time I was there, the subcommittee Chairman, Mr. Boswell, conducted business with just two other Members listening and asking questions. Of course, the testimony is recorded and can be analyzed back in the office, but you only get to ask questions if you are there. Also, at the end of the meeting, they stated that any questions that could not be adequately answered would be allowed 10 days to try to be resolved by the witnesses.
After we cleared the room out, things were a little less stressful all around. At 2:30 I was able to sit in with the Minnesota Farm Bureau and listen to both Representatives Walz and Peterson talk about everything agriculture, fielding some tough questions from the crowd during their 20 minutes each alone with the group of about 30 constituents. I was also able to personally talk to Mr. Walz when he was waiting for one of the 4 elevators on our floor to show up so he could be on his way to the hearings about Walter Reed. I actually learned a lot during the two 1-on-1 sessions, as they talked about possibly finding a fix for the disaster in MN's Red River Valley Region in 2005-2007 (drought), and also possibly making sure that MILC will continue along with the rest of the Farm Bill until September 1 (it is now scheduled to end a month short). As talked about in some places earlier, they would both be attached onto the
It again ended up being a very informational day, and I began doing some research for a paper comparing Mr. Peterson with 1-3 other Congressmen, which gets very interesting when you take into account vote counts and conservative or liberal tendencies. Tomorrow I think I will be working construction and secretary, as not too much is scheduled and we should in recess in the house at about noon.
3/7/07
Peace
I was there!----------------------------->Okay, so I am not in this picture, but I was sitting to the right of this picture in the gallery upstairs, during this joint session (both the House and the Senate) of Congress to hear the address by King Abdullah II, the King of Jordan, talk about Peace in the Middle East. This was close to the same kind of security associated with the State of the Union address, because minus the President, all the same people were there. So how does an intern like me get invited to a big event like this? That is a great question. Actually, again, it is all because of a personal relationship. A former Minnesotan, who still works on the hill, is a friend of a friend. A few weeks ago she contacted me and said that she read this blog, and long story short, she called me about 8 minutes before it started, which gave me just enough time to get up to the gallery level and into the door during the final standing ovation before King Abdullah II spoke. (So, if you're reading this, THANK YOU!) It lasted just under an hour, and I was just a few hundred feet from almost all members of Congress as well as Vice President Cheney. The process was made faster when a staffer for the Ag. Committee told me to "lose my phone" for the time being, allowing me to walk right through all the metal detectors, and show my ticket to a Secret Service agent.
What King Abdullah II spoke about, was ending the Palestinian-Israeli tensions, because to him, without it no other conflicts would be solved. It was an interesting speech, as most people were expecting it to be about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
After I was done with my fanfare of the day, I was a bodyguard for close to 3 hours. The Conservation, Credit, Energy and Research Subcommittee held a hearing about financing renewable fuels. The first table held representatives from the Departments of Energy and Agriculture, and the state of Pennsylvania. During this time, the room was packed with press and the public, because when administration is around, everyone wants to hear. The second group was people from the industry, so half the room left, and I was able to let in the people who had been waiting a couple of hours (an hour before plus an hour of the hearing) to hear what was left. Another dilemma arose, as the canola reception (one of the best on the hill as I'm told) wanted to start setting up at 3:30, while our 1:00 hearing looked to be getting done by four. They started setting up outside, and the reception still went off without a hitch and the food that I tasted was very good (they basically had a wide variety of food and said "see, you could use canola oil to cook all of this".)
I luckily did not have to stay late to set up (others did) for our hearing tomorrow morning, which is on feed costs for livestock under the Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Subcommittee's jurisdiction. It will again be a packed house at 10:00 am, featuring a Deputy Secretary from the USDA as well as panel from the industry and academia, including one from a world-class institution, the University of Minnesota. His name is Gerald C. Shurson, and he is a professor of swine nutrition and management. I hope to try to sneak in, but will most likely have door duty. He has done some research on DDGS and will be the only academic on the panel tomorrow (the rest are from animal organizations). After that, I think the pace of the week will be very downhill, to a nice quiet 60 degree weekend.
3/6/07
Drug Deals
I was designated handyman for the day, which made it go by rather fast. I was put in charge of sound-proofing an unused door, by placing foam panels on it, an am about 4/5 done with layer 1 of 2. (I ran out of caulking glue).
Legislatively speaking, I attended a great meeting on using antibiotics in animals for about an hour today. While I knew most of the information, it was great to see the American Veterinary Medical Association get together the agriculture staff to flight this bill. The current issue is that a bill, which has been beat in Congress twice before, is going to be reintroduced by Representative Louise Slaughter, to try to do what the European Union has already done with antibiotics, by eliminating most antibiotics labeled as "subtherapeutic" that are used in livestock. The reasoning Rep. Slaughter uses looks to be misguided, and from a political aspect and not from science, in my opinion. In Denmark's pork industry for example, while the overall use of antibiotics has dropped because of this, 30% to 40%, the use of the therapeutic drugs has increased over 130% because more applications are needed more often. This could create resistance faster as repetitions are increased. Behind all of the science, the moral of the story is, the drugs we have go through the same standards, plus two additional requirements, that the FDA puts human drugs through. While I do not know much about Rep. Slaughter myself, it would seems she lives in a relatively urban district, which could possibly be affected by higher food prices as one of the unforeseen risk to adopting this legislation.
Other than that, everything seems to have settled down, and I feel almost like a 'lifer', as they call them out here. Unfortunately my short stay has almost reached its halfway point, and sometime I think it will kick in that me being out here will probably be one of the best learning experiences of my academic career, no classes included.
Tonight, there was a nice reception held, so I snacked there and met some of the people of academia in the forestry industry. And before we left, we were warned that tomorrow may be a long day. We start setting up for our afternoon hearing at 9 am, and will have to set up for Thursday's hearing after a reception ends tomorrow night at 8 pm.
Legislatively speaking, I attended a great meeting on using antibiotics in animals for about an hour today. While I knew most of the information, it was great to see the American Veterinary Medical Association get together the agriculture staff to flight this bill. The current issue is that a bill, which has been beat in Congress twice before, is going to be reintroduced by Representative Louise Slaughter, to try to do what the European Union has already done with antibiotics, by eliminating most antibiotics labeled as "subtherapeutic" that are used in livestock. The reasoning Rep. Slaughter uses looks to be misguided, and from a political aspect and not from science, in my opinion. In Denmark's pork industry for example, while the overall use of antibiotics has dropped because of this, 30% to 40%, the use of the therapeutic drugs has increased over 130% because more applications are needed more often. This could create resistance faster as repetitions are increased. Behind all of the science, the moral of the story is, the drugs we have go through the same standards, plus two additional requirements, that the FDA puts human drugs through. While I do not know much about Rep. Slaughter myself, it would seems she lives in a relatively urban district, which could possibly be affected by higher food prices as one of the unforeseen risk to adopting this legislation.
Other than that, everything seems to have settled down, and I feel almost like a 'lifer', as they call them out here. Unfortunately my short stay has almost reached its halfway point, and sometime I think it will kick in that me being out here will probably be one of the best learning experiences of my academic career, no classes included.
Tonight, there was a nice reception held, so I snacked there and met some of the people of academia in the forestry industry. And before we left, we were warned that tomorrow may be a long day. We start setting up for our afternoon hearing at 9 am, and will have to set up for Thursday's hearing after a reception ends tomorrow night at 8 pm.
3/5/07
Early Arrivals
I had a great weekend back home, spending it with my girlfriend and 50 or so closest friends (fraternity bros.) near Grand Rapids. We spent the weekend playing broomball, huddling around a bonfire, and dancing until the music ran out. Getting to Minnesota was quite an adventure. I ended up being just under 12 hours later than I should have been, mostly because US Airways decided to not tell me and 4 other MN-bound passengers that our plane was not going to continue on as originally planned until we landed in Philadelphia. So we got bounced around and ended up going to Milwaukee before making it to my destination very early in the morning, around 4 am.
On the way back I had better luck, the plane was aided by a strong tailwind, allowing me to just make the next flight to D.C., three hours earlier than scheduled, and I was in bed at about the time I should have been leaving Philadelphia, for a total 5 hours of travel, and 6 with the time change.
This morning, I arrived early for work, an hour to be exact. I wish I could just kind of bank in and out my letness, but that was not my intent. My dad called me at seven, to make sure I was awake after a weekend of little sleep, and put me into thinking that I should be to work at 8 am, like I would be in the Central timezone. Well after I realized there was no line to get into my building at 8 am, I remembered when work usually started, and treated myself to a breakfast in our cafeteria.
Today at work I wrote letters to two very important people, the Secretaries of State and Defense, Condoleezza Rice and Robert M. Gates, respectively. I don't think I can go into details about what the letter said, but basically it needed to be perfect, so I printed it like 30 different times as we called and understood the format and content it should have. Another interesting thing is the addresses that Cabinet members have. I have written to Johanns and the DOE Secretary Samuel W. Bodman, and just a name, big building name, and zip code (most buildings have their own zip code for federal departments). We have two hearings coming up this week, on Wednesday and Thursday, so there will again be a herd of press waiting outside our doors nice and early. Then Thursday is a full committee meeting for our budget views and estimates.
It is a little chilly here, but temps look to inch towards 60 by the weekend, which is what I am looking forward to.
On the way back I had better luck, the plane was aided by a strong tailwind, allowing me to just make the next flight to D.C., three hours earlier than scheduled, and I was in bed at about the time I should have been leaving Philadelphia, for a total 5 hours of travel, and 6 with the time change.
This morning, I arrived early for work, an hour to be exact. I wish I could just kind of bank in and out my letness, but that was not my intent. My dad called me at seven, to make sure I was awake after a weekend of little sleep, and put me into thinking that I should be to work at 8 am, like I would be in the Central timezone. Well after I realized there was no line to get into my building at 8 am, I remembered when work usually started, and treated myself to a breakfast in our cafeteria.
Today at work I wrote letters to two very important people, the Secretaries of State and Defense, Condoleezza Rice and Robert M. Gates, respectively. I don't think I can go into details about what the letter said, but basically it needed to be perfect, so I printed it like 30 different times as we called and understood the format and content it should have. Another interesting thing is the addresses that Cabinet members have. I have written to Johanns and the DOE Secretary Samuel W. Bodman, and just a name, big building name, and zip code (most buildings have their own zip code for federal departments). We have two hearings coming up this week, on Wednesday and Thursday, so there will again be a herd of press waiting outside our doors nice and early. Then Thursday is a full committee meeting for our budget views and estimates.
It is a little chilly here, but temps look to inch towards 60 by the weekend, which is what I am looking forward to.
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