I woke this morning to find myself in Minnesota-like weather. That is, Minnesota weather in the Fall. My walk to work had fewer sirens and horns than Tuesday, as the people and cars have parked for the work-week, leaving little traffic in the Capitol Hill area. One thing different in D.C. from when I was here in 11th grade, is all the construction. The American History Museum is actually closed until the Summer of 2008, with about 15 trailer houses (holding construction workers) fenced into an area between its entrance and the sidewalk on Constitution Avenue, as workers install major changes inside. In the House Office Buildings, carpet is being torn up and wires fished through the ceilings as teams finish up renovations that are needed when offices were changed. The Capitol itself is closed off in many areas due to crews working, and there is no longer a direct route from the House to the Senate via the Capitol basement.
But amid all the remodeling, I was finally given the token to more privileges, my badge. This badge does not really have as much respect as one would think, or at least as I did. Arriving yesterday in the House Office Building for only the second time in my life, I realized just how open to people the building is. Because I saw the Capitol area as a place of such privilege, I never realized that it truly belongs to me. In Mr. Chairman's office, instead of a sign with the name of the receptionist it states, "This Office Belongs to the people of the 7th Congressional District of Minnesota." Which, in this crazy world of politics and partisanship, gives me hope that we are still moving in the right direction, what the pace is though, I am unsure. One great thing the badge does is keep me out of the cold. I am now about to walk under the Capitol freely, and others (visitors) are able to walk with me, which will be great when friends and family come to visit. I felt powerful today (although I am not, compared to others) when I walked past the sign that read "NO VISITORS BEYOND THIS POINT" on my way home.
Today was a really busy day in our office. I called 1/4 of House Ag. Committee Democrats members' offices (don't worry, the other 3/4 were called by others) to remind them of our 2:00 meeting. I was also able to attend a meeting with an energy non-profit from Minnesota. I was only able to stay for about 10 minutes, thus not remembering the name, but it was interesting watching lobbyists interact with staff, which is hard to explain, but I hope to post more about this later on. After that we held the Democratic Caucus for the House Agriculture Committee next door. Although I was unable to attend the meeting, I did put most of the booklets and folders together for the 25-member Committee, including "the boss" and my Discrict 1 Representative Tim Walz, which were used at the meeting today. This gave me an inside look at the exact processes of what the committee does. The meeting was by far the biggest attention we received so far. First, this was the first time the committee had ever met, so the press were asking for transcripts from the meeting starting at about 3:00 yesterday. Next, the committee elected Chairs of the six new subcommittees, which were controversial to say the least. The new committees included Horticulture and Organic Agriculture, which prompted a call from an organic organization to tell me they were, and I quote, "Tickled pink to hear" that we had made a subcommittee about Organic Agriculture. I do have my own views (shared with others) on the subject, but I see it as is an important issue to address, and I hope that anything decided in that Subcommittee receives much scrutiny and research, so that we know the truth. Once the meeting had let out, phones were off the hooks, with every call being transferred to our poor press secretary's voice mail. Of course we would not have the press release until much much later, but there was no use in telling a reporter that.
We had big names in our office today, and titles that were too big to remember, including a Brazilian economist, people from Microsoft and Walmart as well as Minnesotans, because Mr. Chairman will be working double duty this 2-year session, we have twice as many people in his offices, but he gets twice as many staff. I would love to tell you I shook all of their hands and spoke with them, but I was moving books containing the Hearing information for the Ag. Committee from the 99th Congress until the 108th. While a chore at first, I was motivated by the fact that these books were the last thing stopping me from having my own desk. When we finished, I was thrilled to hear I would receive the desk in the actual office, while Gabe was unfortunately moved a few doors down the hall. As of tomorrow morning, I will have a desk, as many Post It notes as I wish, and a telephone. On top of all the things I just listed will be papers and assignments. Another thing I do not yet have is a computer code to check my House email and do research projects, but things are obviously moving along quickly, and I am expecting it by the end of the week.
I look forward to tomorrow, as we will be busy as our first bill (HR 06, dealing with cutting oil subsidies and increasing renewable energy, which the boss is deeply involved in) will be presented on the house floor as part of the Democrats first 100 hours, and Mr. Chairman will most likely be speaking. I put together binders (yes our democratic-republican (not Democratic and Republican) government runs off scripts, and interruptions by party members are scheduled in to break up the talking) for the Democrats to read from as the bill is presented on the floor. It is a unique time as the bills were not, in this case [along with the rest of the 100 hours' agenda], sent to a committee, but only to the full floor.
This brings up another point, if you watch CSPAN, you will notice how empty the House is during debates and how full during votes, especially during this 100 hours campaign (because the debates are meaningless because everything is bound to pass). Although we are constantly watching the House Television and can see that the Dems may have majority with just 5:00 min left on a 30 minute vote, "the boss" will run out of a meeting with 1:30 on the clock, just to get in that vote. Although I understand that every vote matters to the District one represents, it is sad that members must break out of meeting to cast a ballot for an already decided vote. Of all things technology-wise, I am impressed that voting on the floor has stood the test of time. Yes, we have moved away from the ballot and hopper to an electronic system of buttons and lights, but the truth is, everyone knows when a bill will be passed. For controversial bills, everyone that cares will be at the debate, and need to vote. I would call this another inefficiency in this flat world that probably needs to stay in place until we have fully developed tele-portation Star-Trek style. I have thrice seen Mr. Chairman literally run out of the office, forcing a citizen or group to wait, just to cast a vote with the rest of his party. This really tells me that voters and the media place much more emphasis on voting, collectively than they should. Each year an opponent of someone will bring up their voting record, spitting out facts about members casting only 25% of the votes during their term. For the future, I will be remembering that I would much rather talk to the largest companies and most advanced countries in the world than voting to suspend the rules so that I can listen to people congratulating the University of Florida Gators on their win over the Ohio State University Buckeyes, so my representatives can too, but I digress.
Tomorrow looks to be a promising day since I will not be walking in as much wind, have my own desk, and be helping (although I could never guess exactly what that means) present H.R. 06 on the House floor. I also have a 1:00 lunch with a Science Policy Director with the National Weed Science Societies, who is a friend of a co-worker at Agriliance at Tortilla Coast. I will be waking up to what they are calling "the coldest day of the year" in D.C., which means absolutely nothing to me.
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