Well, I posted yesterday at the end of my day at work, and for some reason there was an error and I lost everything I had written, so this is my second attempt. It's been another busy and exciting week with Patton Boggs. On Tuesday, Jacksonville Transit Authority (JTA) was in town to talk with their Senators and Reps about their appropriations requests. The JTA visits were very much like the SORTA ones, since they were both regarding transportation issues (buses, improving street/intersections, transportation hubs, etc.) JTA was one of the clients where I did a lot of work to help prepare the forms for appropriations requests, so it was nice to go to the meetings and actually talk with the members about the requests.
As many of you probably know, earmarks have been in the news a lot this week. On Wednesday the House enacted a ban on earmarks for for-profit companies, and on Thursday the House Republicans voted to ban all earmarks. Needless to say, the mood of the firm regarding these issues is extremely tense. The ban will likely be temporary, and seems mainly political.. both parties seem to be willing to try to do anything to have an advantage in the upcoming election. The frustration felt by lobbyists is that even if the money isn't spent in earmarks, it will still be spent by the government in another way (which is something a lot of people don't realize). So, this could mean that a lot of the hard work put into appropriation request forms (trust me, it is a lot of work.. many people who I work with have been having haunting nightmares about the intense forms) and visits might have been for nothing. On Fridays there is a weekly public policy department meeting that I unfortunately missed this week due to a conflict, but I am very anxious to hear what people will say about this next week. Expect a full update next week on what is happening and how the lobbyists and clients are handling everything.
Besides the regular appropriations work, I have something very exciting to report. Around the time I started working for PB, a former local and state elected Louisiana official and unsuccessful US Senate candidate began working with the firm on a project to get more Republican women in politics. On Thursday and Friday, I got to go to meetings with Republican women members of Congress to discuss Project Go Pink (you'll see 'GOP' in the title, and pink obviously has a female connotation).
Project Go Pink (PGP) has two arms. The first is the blog/corporation side. This portion of the project will be a website that showcases all of the female Republican women in Congress, talks about the challenges women face in politics, and provides a platform for women to get more involved in politics. The corporation hopes to hold regional conferences where it will educate Republican women who want to go into politics on what to expect (since many things are different for men and women). The project will provide mentors for women, and help them become involved and mobilized (for example: people could register to do phone banking from wherever they are located, and then if a Republican woman member needed a group to help her make calls, this group could be utilized). The other part of PGP (which has to be separate for legal reasons) is the PAC. The PAC would raise money for Republican women candidates. Unlike EMILY's list which donates to Democratic women, the PGP PAC wouldn't have a litmus test. The only two requirements for receiving funding are that the candidate must 1) be a woman and 2) be Republican. The PAC hopes to support women at all levels of government, and is something that is truly missing from the Republican party right now.
The meetings I went to on Thursday and Friday were to ask members to support PGP, so that we can say at the official launch "all female Republicans in Congress support Project Go Pink." Everyone we met with was extremely excited about the idea, and agreed to help in whatever way they could. (Sidenote: google Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).. we met with her and she is one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen) The official launch is going to be March 24th, and there is a lot to be done before then. I think next week I'll be doing a lot of work to help for that. And always, I am working on getting ready for the Greek student visits which will be happening in mid-April (which I cannot believe is only one month away!)
That's it for now. Hope everyone is having a great time with their residencies as well.
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