February 8th-19th with the Treasurer

The week of February 8th was the first full on back for state legislators after the primary. The House was back in Session on Wednesday last week, but little was accomplished while the Representatives were here. The Senate came back into Session on Monday night but it was mainly a formality as nothing was really done and they adjourned around 5:30. However, from what I have gathered, bringing the Senate in Monday night, just like having the Represenatives come back last week, is what normally happens to bring the legislators back into "legistlative mode" versus being in thier districts or campaigning more recently. Most of Monday was spent reviewing the week ahead (committee hearings scheduled mainly) and reading legislation that is continually being proposed.

On Tuesday both the House and the Senate were back in Session. Our legislative team has divided up to take care of the House and the Senate. Sheleda and I are responsible for most activities in the House and Brittany, the other intern in the office, and John deal mainly with the Senate. While it would be nice to have a little more exposure with both, dividing up responsibilities by chamber makes our office much more efficient. This way we don't always have to decide who is listening to what chamber on what day, who is going to what committee hearing, etc. I therefore listen to the House whenever they are in session. They did not do much on Tuesday because many had just arrived in town. There were committee hearings scheduled for that afternoon but many we had interest in were cancelled.

From what I have figured out so far, Wednesday seems to be the busiest in the Capitol. Legislators usually arrive in town on Tuesday and leave on Thursday so those days have tended to be a little slower because of the traveling. Wednesdays, however, have so far been packed with committee hearings and session tends to run the longest on those days. Some people may find listening to legislators discuss various issues absolutely boring but I really like listening to them. Many offices in the capitol are set up with speakers so you can hear either the House or the Senate while they are in Session without having to go to the chamber to listen. This is nice because I can look up a bill while they are discussing it to find more detail or if they are discussing a bill that is not any particular importance to our office I can work on something else at my desk. Wednesday was a very exciting day to listen to the House. The Republicans introduced a bill that would require the legislature to implement PAYGO budgeting (Nothing can be written in appropriations without first specifying where the money was going to come from- President Obama actually mentioned this in his State of the Union address to be implemented on the federal level.) However, the Speaker of the House (who chairs the Rules committee) refused to assign the bill to another committee. By keeping the bill in Rules it is essentially dead. When this happens, the member who propsed the bill can make a motion to have the bill released from rules. This however requires approval of the Majority leader, which seldom happens. The representative then called for a role call vote after many of the Republican members stood up to advocate the motion. I really enjoyed listening to the Republicans speak and hear how frustrated they are that bills like the one being discussed often fail to come out of Rules. It makes you realize how much politics can impede the legislative process. Passing a bill is often a long and tedious process to begin with, but adding politics into the process only makes it that much more difficult.

Thursday was another busy day in the office. The legislature was finished fairly early in the afternoon so legislators could drive home, but Friday and the coming Monday were both state holidays so we had to have everything ready to go for the next week, as we would only have a little time before the legislature was back in session on Tuesday.

After the long four day weekend, Tuesday the 16th started right away being extremely busy. The Legislature was due to be in Session at noon but there were many things to be taken care of first. Session did not last too long in either chamber but the afternoon was filled with committee hearings. I also lobbied Senators for the first time!! A bill that is an initiative of the Treasurer's office was going to be in committee on Wednesday afternoon and Colleen (my boss) wanted to make sure our bill had the support of the committee members. There were plans to originally have Brittany and I go with one of the staff members to observe how they lobbied a legislator before we went on our own, but in the craziness of the day that never happened and we ended up splitting up the committee members and going on our own. I went to the offices of four senators and two were in their offices that I was able to speak with (Considering that there were many committee hearings scheduled for the afternoon I thought seeing two of them wasn't too bad.) I was a little nervous before speaking with them but they were both extremely polite and listened to what I had to say before voicing their support. I was happy it worked out well!

Wendesday was likely the craziest day of Session I have experienced thus far. First, the Treasurer had a letter to send to every member of the General Assembly. I came in early knowing that this project was going to take a little bit of time and I had several other things I needed to take care of. I got started on the letter and then had to be in committee at 9:30. Unfortunately the committee was running late and they did not call the bill I was there to hear, but that happens. I also had to speak to the Senator from my home district at some point that morning because our office was hoping he would agree to co-sponsor the legislation I had been lobbying on Tuesday and I volunteered to speak with him. Before being a Senator, he was a teacher and coach at my former high school. He knows my dad (as he was a student of the Senator many years ago) and has always been very helpful to me whenever I have asked for assistance in the past. I had dropped off an analysis of the bill and my card in his office Tuesday and when I talked to him late that afternoon he asked me to come by Wednesday morning. Unfortunately he was in leadership meeting that morning so it was hard for me to track him down. I thankfully recieved a call from him 15 minutes before he was expected in caucus and had the chance to speak with him. He was going to have his staff look at the bill but he said he was considering co-sponsoring it. Hopefully he agrees to!

One of the reasons the capitol was such a zoo on Wednesday had to do with the several thousand state employees that had come to the building to rally for a tax increase. They asked for an increase because they believe that an increase would prevent some state jobs from being lost. Adding several thousand people to the building makes it very hard to get around, especially on the one day you have to visit the offices of every member in the legislature to deliver a letter from the Treasurer. I had to make use of back stairways and elevators and at least I can say that it caused me to know my way around the Capitol a little better.

After delivering all of the letters, I came back to the office to listen to the House. Nothing of particular importance to our office happened, but they discussed some bills that generated a lot more discussion than I had expected.

While Wednesday in the Capitol was crazy, Thursday was almost the complete opposite. Even though the House and Senate still had session that morning, there simply wasn't much going on. The House argued a bill that would increase the penalty for persons convicted of heroin possession. While I didn't expect the bill to pass extremely quickly, there was still much more discussion about the bill than I had expected. Eventually the bill did pass though. Friday was busy taking care of any matters that had come up during the week and going through all the committee hearings posted for the following week to determine what hearings and bills the Treasurer's office was interested in.