I left Longworth House Office Building at 9 pm as we made preparations for THE hearing tomorrow (with Secretary Johanns). Because we are crammed into a Subcommittee room, basically no one will get in. I guess the usual scenario is to fit a couple hundred people comfortably into the large committee room, with the members sitting comfortably on the semicircles in front, facing the testifying party. The over-flow crowd is then able to watch the hearing from our Subcommittee room (the one we are currently using) on the big screen TVs.
Tomorrow on the other hand, we will have about 60 people in the audience, that includes all staff, press, and the Secretary's staff, with the Secretary's table in front, and the 46 Committee members around the 2 semicircles and an extra table for the remaining 10 members that do not fit in the two semicircles.
The reason that we were so late was because a Rice organization was holding a reception in that room, so I was able to have supper, but we were unable to begin restoring the room to its hearing-style protocol until 8 pm.
The earlier part of the day was spent entering quotes into the database (I'm now on January 25th) and running errands. I was able to sneak away for one of our staff member's speaking engagements, where she talked to stakeholders in the soybean industry.
I also learned that lobbyists will pay a kid like me $20 an hour just to stand in line to save them a spot for important hearings like this one. Talk about easy money. I better get to sleep, have to be in early tomorrow to make sure no one reserves a seat.
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