Treasurer's Office- April 12-23

April 12th was the first day back from the General Assembly spring break, but as it was a Monday, it was relatively uneventful. I had Thursday and Friday of the previous week off, but seeing as it was still spring break I didn't think I would miss much. I proved to be incorrect in my assumption, as I remained very busy Monday morning catching up on anything I had missed while I was off. Also, John (our legislative analyst in the office- can't remember if I've mentioned him before) asked me to deliver one page summaries of two pieces of legislation that would be heard in committee that week to all of the members of the committees. Certainly not hard and I like getting out of the office, but it did involve a lot of running around to all the different offices. After I returned from delivering summaries I continued to sort through emails from the previous week. That afternoon the staff divided up committee members to lobby on pieces of legislation.

Tuesday involved more running around to legislators' offices in an attempt to speak with them about one of our bills. Fortunately, the two bills I was lobbying were non-controversial and all the legislators I met were very supportive of the legislation. I also met with the legislator of my home district to ask him to sign on as a sponsor of one of our bills. He is not a member of the committee it will be in, but the bill stemmed from a sitution in his district so it seemed fitting to have him as a sponsor. He readily agreed, and because I had previously spoke with a Senator about signing onto the bill I successfully added both a House and Senate sponsor to the bill. I spoke with Representatives right up until 11 o'clock when they went into session. The House was in Senate almost all afternoon so the rest of my day was spent listening to debate.

I had two more legislators left to speak with Wednesday about bills but they successfully eluded me again. Both their secretaries informed me however that they had taken a look at the sheet I dropped off on Monday and neither had a problem with their respective bill. Again, the House was in session so I listened to that for several hours. The first of our two bills was heard in committee after session was over and it passed out extremely easily.

Thursday morning started early with a committee hearing for the other bill I was lobbying. It passed out of the committee very easily as well and was sent to the floor. I attended another committee hearing as well and then the House went into session at 12. The House was only in session until 1:30 though, something that seemed to upset some of the legislators who felt that they had wasted their time by staying in Springfield for Thursday while not accomplishing much while they were in session. I understand that legislators want to head home but they are nearing the end of session and there is still so much to do. I spent the rest of the day going through committee hearings for the next week and determining what hearings would be of interest to the office. Friday was another quiet day in the Capitol.

Monday the 19th started off with a staff meeting to discuss what the week would look like for the office. Our debt settlement legislation that passed out of the House several weeks ago had now moved into the Senate and the committee hearing for the bill was on Thursday morning. Also, the Treasurer was going to be in Springfield to testify on Wednesday in front of the Senate appropriations committee. After the staff meeting, John met with Brittany and myself about lobbying members of the appropriations committee prior to Wednesday's hearing. It probably shouldn't be called lobbying, as we were not asking the legislators to vote for something but rather we wanted to see if legislators had any questions we could answer prior to the hearing and to make sure that some really unexpected question would come up during the hearing. Brittany and I divided up the members of the committee to speak with.

Tuesday started with me running by all of the Senators' offices who were on my list to speak with about the appropriations hearing. I dropped off a fact sheet with all of the secretaries and left instructions for them to get a hold of me should the legislator want to meet with questions. Some of the secretaries told me up front that the Senator does not hold meetings prior to appropriations hearings, which was something I was expecting. Appropriations hearings are significantly different that regular committee hearings. The House and Senate both went into session around noon, but the House did not stay in long and began committees at 2. I went to the House agriculture committee and then chose to attend a Senate education hearing later that afternoon because it had multiple controversial bills scheduled to be heard. After hearing debate on several bills I left the office around 5:30.

Wednesday was a very busy day in the Capitol. All employees within the building had recieved emails earlier in the week warning of the expected delays/road closures that would accompany a lobby day being held. 12,00-15,000 union workers were expected to be in and around the Capitol to encourage lawmakers to institute a tax increase. I planned for the worse, getting to work over 30 minutes early to avoid any road closures, but the whole day wasn't as crazy as I had expected. While there was a definite increase in the number of people around the area, inside the Capitol only became congested for about half and hour around 1:00. Protesters marched around the building and then as many as could fit came inside the building, but left after a brief time. If I had really needed to get somewhere in the building during that time it would have been extremely difficult, but the House was in session so I was in my office listening anyway. It became extremely noisy during that time as well, but it wasn't anything that wasn't manageable for a short period of time. Wednesday also happened to be Cheesecake Day in the Treasurer's office. From what I am told, this is a much anticipated yearly tradition that started while Judy Baar Topinka held the office and the current treasurer carried it over as well. All legislators and staff members are invited to come get a piece of cake in the Treasurer's main office. The 1,200 pieces of cheesecake are donated (though I'm not sure from where) and served by the Treasurer's office staff. Because the legislative division has it's own separate office, we did not see how many people came to get cheesecake in the main office, but there was very little left after the day was over. After all of the excitement of cheesecake day (and people really do get excited about it- I've heard people saying they always look forward to this day of the year) the Treasurer still had to testify in front of the appropriations committee. Because I did not get to hear his testimony in front of the House committee, I wanted to attend the Senate hearing. Besides it starting 30 minutes late, it went very smoothly. One Senator asked a lot of questions about one particular program but the Treasurer finished everything in 20 minutes.

Thursday morning was spent in the Senate Financial Institutions committee, which would hear the Debt Settlement bill. The committee started before 10 and lasted until 11:30. The Senators had a lot of questions about the tricky issue to both the propents and the lobbyists against the bill. A citizen also testified about her horrible experience while using a debt settlement company. Fortunately, it passed out by a vote of 9-1-1. It will likely be coming back to the committee with an amendment to change a few minor things, but it is a good sign that it came out of the committee by such a wide margin. The House started at 12 so then it was time to listen to debate again. Both the Senate and the House worked until about 5:30 and then it was time to quit for the night.

The Senate and the House were back on Friday for session at 10. The House stayed until about 1:30 and passed a lot of bills, but most of them were non-controversial. After the House left I went through committees scheduled for the following week, my normal Friday chore.

Sara Cline- April 24, 2010

I forgot to blog last week, so sorry this update is coming late. I don't have much to report on from the last week, however, because I was only in the office Monday-Wednesday (I went back to Champaign for one last undergraduate moms' weekend!) During that time, I worked a lot on the schedule for the Greek visits.. we ended up getting about 430+ meetings, which is great!

I got back into town on Sunday evening, and started working bright and early on Monday. I started Monday at a hotel in VA (the hotel the 100 Greek students were staying at) where I helped with the student training. In case you haven't read my previous posts, I'll briefly describe the purpose of the Greek visits before going into the details from this past week. My boss represents the NIC and NPC (umbrella organizations for many fraternities and sororities), and organizes a Greek lobbying day each spring where Greek students as well as members of fraternity and sorority executive boards come to DC to lobby Congress on Greek issues. Apparently Greeks have needed representation in DC for awhile- starting with making sure that they were able to stay single-sex organizations (something that was threatened Title IX). The main concern of Greeks right now is trying to get Congress to pass the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act, legislation which would make donations to not-for-profit non-University housing (fraternities, sororities, Hillel, Newman, Evans Scholars, etc.) tax-deductible (which it isn't now because of a tax code glitch).

Going back to the activities of this week, the Greeks came to DC on Saturday and started training on Sunday. Since I was out of town, I was not there, but know they spent the majority of the day learning about the legislation and how to lobby effectively. When I met up with the group on Monday, we continued with training and I worked on scheduling more meetings for the group.

On Tuesday, the students went around to Congressional offices to speak with members and staff about the issue, and try to gain co-sponsors. Before the visits started, we were at 185 co-sponsors in the House and 29 in the Senate. On Tuesday I went to ten different offices to discuss CHIA (and was lucky enough to talk to a few actual members- Jesse Jackson Jr, Danny Davis and Kathy Castor). In the meeting with Congressman Jackson, we talked about the legislation, and he saw our point of view immediately and said he would be on the bill by the end of the day. We had a meeting with a number of former sponsors (the bill has been around since 2003, and each time a new session of Congress begins, the bill has to be reintroduced and everything starts from scratch with 0 co-sponsors). Based on my meetings, I think that two or three former members I met with will sign back on. As of today, we unofficially have (not all of these have been reported on the Thomas website yet) 205 co-sponsors in the house. We are trying to get up to 218 in the House, so that we have a majority of the members as co-sponsors.

After the meetings on Tuesday, we had a reception for all of the students and alums who participated in the visits, followed by a dinner event for the Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee. The PAC funds a bipartisan slate of candidates who are either Greek, support Greek legislation, or have influential positions on the House Ways and Means Committee or the Senate Finance Committee (the bill sits in those two committees in the respective chambers). The PAC dinner was amazing! There were 28 members of Congress (14 Republicans, 14 Democrats) at the dinner. From talking with other people in DC I have found out that this is one of the only times so many members from both parties are at a fundraising event together. Almost all of the members who attended spoke to the group on their positions in Congress as well as their Greek experiences. Unlike meeting with members in their offices, things were very relaxed at this event. At one point the Sigma Chi members of Congress (accompanied by their undergraduate brothers) got up on stage to sing the Sigma Chi sweetheart song. I am so lucky that I was able to help organize and attend this event. Kevin, my boss, was the man who came up with the idea for the Fraternity and Sorority PAC (which is as large as many Fortune 500 PACs) and the reason that so many members of Congress attend the dinner. He is an amazing boss who has accomplished so much, and someone I am very lucky to be working for and learning from.

On Wednesday, I attended the PAC board meeting, where the members of the board decided which candidates they would fund for this election cycle (based on a memo I wrote for the group, but largely orchestrated by Kevin). The group talked about each candidate listed, and decided how much to authorize Kevin to give (on behalf of the group) for the various candidates. They discussed how much support candidates had given to the Greek cause in the past, as well as other factors including which committees they are on and whether or not they would have a "real race." It was extremely fascinating to watch because Kevin seems to know everything about every single candidate and can give important information on most members at the blink of an eye. I feel that without his leadership, the group would be picking candidates "willy-nilly" based on "well I like him or I like her" but without any real guidelines.

Wednesday afternoon I attended a meeting that was supposed to by with my member, Pete Roskam, but he had to go to a meeting so I met with staff. Pete is already a co-sponsor of CHIA, so I talked with his staffer (fellow U of I grad) about options for moving the bill forward and how the Congressman can become a "champion".

Thursday and Friday were spent doing follow up on the visits, and catching up on all of the emails I had missed because I was out of the office for so long. An interesting project I am working on right now is showing how CHIA will stimulate the economy. Senator Landreiu is one of our CHIA champions, and she suggested coming up with a way to demonstrate the jobs that will be created. We already have a list of projects at universities that are ready to go once the funding is there (which we are assuming will come once CHIA is passed), so I am in the process of making a map of the United States that marks off each city (about 140 cities total) where jobs will be created once the projects begin.

Next Wednesday will be my last day, and I have very mixed feelings about leaving. I am getting a little home-sick and want to see my family and friends, however am having a hard time with the idea of leaving. I think CHIA will have 218 co-sponsors in the House very soon, but most likely not while I am in DC (in the last Congress CHIA got to 210 co-sponsors). I feel weird about leaving with work that seems unfinished. However, a new group of interns are about to come in, and I know will do a great job following up with offices and getting CHIA to 218 in the House. Clearly I want CHIA to get to 218, become attached to another piece of legislation and get through the House and Senate and become law, but I wish it were going to happen while I were still in DC actively working on the project.

Next week will be a whirlwind of trying to get as much accomplished as possible before I leave. Hopefully I'll be able to report even more co-sponsors for CHIA, and what will be happening with the project after I leave as well as give everyone a general summary of this internship experience.

After that point, I'll be taking a month off of blogging. I'm going back to campus and will stay there until graduation (unlike the rest of the CLPers, I have yet to graduate). I won't start my next internship (with the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council- a group that represents the hospitals of Chicago) until June, so will not be blogging until then. Hope everyone else is enjoying their internship as much as I am!

State Senator Michael Frerichs Office Week Fourteen

Now that session has resumed our office is back in full swing. Our office was in great shape these past few weeks as we had caught up on a lot of work which had been collecting dust on our desk for weeks. With session commencing this week, our office inbox has fallen victim to numerous form emails with concern to several bills. An increase in snail mail and faxes has also taken place. Due to this, I will surely be busy writing responses to all of these constituent inquiries.

A few of the bills which the constituents have inquired about will need to see action in the legislature before we can write a proper response. Therefore, I have been working on a few constituent emails on a variety of issues which we can work out a response (medical marijuana, state funding for various agencies, FOIA etc.) Too, I have been working on newspaper clippings etc. to pass the time before I can write a proper response to these letters.

So, I guess I was wrong. It is Wednesday and the office is moving at the pace of a snail. With many of the constituent correspondence issues awaiting substantial action before a written response can be drafted there is little to do in the office. Today, I continued to work on newspaper clippings, comprise excel spreadsheets for later mail merges etc. However, it was exciting to find out upon delivery of the mail that we had received our long awaited stamps. The office has had to wait to mail weeks worth of correspondence due to a shortage of stamps. Yes, that is correct. Due to the delay in the State of Illinois paying its bills our office has been unable to mail any correspondence unless extremely urgent for the past few weeks.

Tuesday I continued to work on the series of emails which I could write a response. At 2pm, I sat in on a phone call regarding SB2505 which is sponsored by the Senator concerning Green Energy Special Service Areas. There is litte opposition to the passage of this bill, however, the call was needed to attempt to clarify amendatory language which may need be added before passage in the House.

Thereafter, I composed a spreadsheet of constiuents which had written our office with regard to FOIA related legislation and gun related legislation. These spreadsheets will be utilized to do a mail merge after a letter has been composed to be printed and sent out to these respective constituents.

Too, these past few days I have dealt with a few constituents over the phone who have been seeking our assistance/or have seeked assistance from our office in years past. Unfortunately, our office has done all in its power to advocate on their behalf and these individuals do not appreciate the final response they receive from our office. These responses have turned in to a series of angry phone calls (often innappropriate and littered with cussing) and phone calls will now have to be monitored and forwarded to voicemail. Laurie, our Chief of Staff tends to forward the cases of such individuals to me which often leads to a stressful day.

On another side note, Mike will be interviewed by individuals of the ABC Show Extreme Home Makeover in a few weeks. It appears the TV show (yet to sign a contract) is looking to produce another episode here while revamping apartments of Senior Citizens in the Rantoul, IL area.

Thursday I continued on the quiet voyage in the district office. This morning I began to take the staples out of numerous applications for the General Assembly Scholarship in order to prep for the shredder. Sadly, I spent many hours in front of the copier to produce these copies while several sets were never used since 2 of our judges dropped out for a variety of reasons. Thereafter, I shredded all of these application.

With this a task of the past, I proceeded to file away all the applications which were submitted this year for the General Assembly Scholarship. Too, further keep myself occupied I worked to clip newspaper clippings for our Saw You in the News Mailings.

Afterwards, I worked on a whatever emails were ready for a drafted response. Our office continues to be in great shape. Perhaps, if there is little else to do tomorrow I will work for a few hours in the campaign office.

Since the office was quite slow with little to do, Laurie had me leave early Friday. Friday morning/early afternoon I worked to clear emails in the inbox, clip newspapers, and respond to a few constituent letters before leaving the office.

Brady in Brussels

Now that it is spring in Brussels it is becoming increasingly difficult to concentrate in an office for 10 hours a day. Nevertheless, my residency has been an exciting place lately as we our older projects reach their maturity and we begin making plans for the future. We have hired a new intern, a law student from China who has come to do mainly translation but also to help us gain access to the Chinese market of legal professionals. We will also be receiving three more interns next month to help us get ready for the launching of our post graduate program, our mediation training, and our Conference on UNCITRAL. Because I have been here alone for some time, my boss has asked that I help him distribute work to all the interns and act as an assistant in supervising the other interns. I am very happy to have been given a leadership position in the office and will definitely have a more positive attitude towards my job from here on out.

Last week I finished an essay (and speech) for a conference in Kiev that AIA will be speaking at. The conference is on international law and politics in the age of globalization. Because I am more passionate and knowledgeable at this point on mediation I wrote on the subject of “Party-led disputes in the Globalized World.” The conference takes place in mid May but it is reassuring to have this out of the way already.

The most exciting news, however, is that the EU Commission has published another call for grant proposals, this time on the subject of Fundamental Right of EU Citizens. After meeting with the rest of AIA to discuss our options we came up with what I think is a very strong candidate of a project. I am particularly behind it because it relates to human rights issues in developing countries and how the EU can tie economic incentives to public international law. I am speaking in the broadest terms possible because there are still a lot of negotiations to take place (and you never know if a competitor is reading this blog!). However, I had a chance to have a business dinner with a member of the legal counsel of Ghana last week to discuss the proposal. He was enthusiastic about the idea, and after we talked “business” our discussion moved to international politics and eventually Obama. It was very, very interesting to hear his perspective.

Finally, I’ve recently had the opportunity to attend several conferences at the EU Parliament here in Brussels. It is a very nice building, though it is impossible to compare it to the White House because it is so new. It is funny to introduce myself to people and to watch their faces twist with confusion when I tell them I’m American. Still, by far the best thing about the EU Parliament building is that it is situated next to a big park and several small plazas filled with bars and restaurants with outdoor terraces. Thursday and Friday nights the streets are filled with EU Commission interns and bureaucrats and it is a really great environment to meet young people from around Europe and to talk (or avoid) politics.

Senator Frerichs Office Week Thirteen

This week in Senator Frerichs Office was a short week. I had the opportunity this weekend to spend a long weekend at home with family and friends. The rest and relaxation experienced over the weekend was much needed. The fun and excitement of the long weekend was essential to my rejuvenation

I attended a VIP event with 5x NBA Champion Dennis Rodman Friday. Arriving at the event early, my mother, stepfather and I decided to sit down at the bar to have a few drinks. My mother, a part-time comedian (jk) decided to crack a joke to Dennis asking if he was going to buy a round of drinks. He obliged and then sat down at our table at the bar to talk with us for the next hour. In preparation for the VIP photo shoot, Dennis asked if I would get a manicure. I decided to go with the flow. Thereafter, I went with him and his entourage back to his hotel room prior to the shoot where he pulled out a T-Shirt and cap for me to wear during the shoot. Thereafter, I spent the rest of the night sitting next to Dennis while he signed autographs for those in attendance. I was given his contact information and looks as if I may be doing some work with him in the near future. Quite a bit of excitement in one night for an avid autograph collector and sports fan.

Monday, I attended the Cubs Home Opener with my father and fiance. I had a blast and once again received an autograph from the Ricketts, new owners of the Cubs after the seventh inning stretch.

Although not related to the residency I thought you guys might enjoying hearing of my experience this weekend.

I arrived back in the office on Wednesday morning. With the General Assembly still in Spring Recess the office is quite slow in terms of activity. The phone rings on an infrequent basis and calls range from constituent concerns with legislation to be presented after recess or constituent casework matters. Too, constituents ring our office for advance scheduling requests.

Since my residency began in this office in January I must say that I believe this office is in the best shape it has been. The email inbox of constituent emails etc. is at an all time low numbering in the ballpark of 10-20. The pile of newspapers awaiting clipping for Saw You in the News mailings is non-existent. Too, the number of constituent correspondence awaiting a reply is minimal.

Wednesday I continued to take advantage of this pace and worked to draft letters in response to the constituent correspondence awaiting a reply.

Thursday, the plot remains the same. However, the Senator has asked for a letter to be written mid-day in an effort to congratulate students for academic recognition. I drafted the letter and thereafter forwarded it onto the Senator for approval. The Senator's Chief of Staff and himself are quite fond of my style of written as it was returned with no changes.

Thereafter, I assisted one of our interns mark with comprising an Excel spreadsheet to be utilized in a mail merge. This mail-merge spreadsheet needed to be complete by days end in order to print out the letters which would be delivered to the Senator's home at the end of the day for him to sign. I had to assist with the spreadsheet since oddly our intern Mark only types with one hand as he says it reduces the amount of errors. OMG. If I had not offered my assistance this project definitely would not have been completed by days end.

Too, my PC has decided to go on strike as I turned it on last week to find a myriad of errors. When I printed the mail merge, it began to print one of 3,000. No clue what happened since only 150 letters needed to be printed. Luckily, I was able to cancel the print before it ran its course.

Friday, I continued my usual work in the office. Emails, newspaper clippings, constituent correspondence letters before leaving the office for the day at 2:30 for a Cline Center interview. Fingers crossed for a position since TA and RA spots are near non-existent due to the ongoing fiscal crisis.

Senator Frerichs Office Week Twelve

The General Assembly is in Spring Recess for the next two weeks. Senator Frerich's has taken this opportunity to take a family vacation and thus will be out of the office for the duration of this week. This week has been relatively quiet in the office; except for a few minor details.

As usual I began my week checking through the inbox to see which correspondence I could write a reply email. Thereafter, I worked to clear the newspapers awaiting clipping on the back counter and then after turned my attention to constituent correspondence.

Ironically, mid-day I realized that something terribly wrong had happened to my office computer. The files which I normally save to the desktop had been cleared. I could not find the files at all. Too, numerous error messages had popped up in the morning, but I guess I just choose to disregard them. On top of it, my computer would not print any documents. It was as if my computer was a dead fish floating in water.

This severely limited my ability to do work the remainder of the day as other part-time interns were using the other computers. I would draft correspondence and send to the inbox to be printed by others as needed.

Tuesday, with the office in good shape I turned my attention to a number of constituent issues which needed to be addressed or needed follow-up. Of course, constituent casework varies.

Wednesday and Thursday was a general repeat of Monday, Tuesday, as I tried to keep the office in great shape. At week's end I wondered what work would be left to do when I returned to the office next week. Of course, some sort of work can always be mustered up.

Treasurer's Office- General Assembly on Spring Break

The past two weeks in the Capitol have been extremely slow when compared with the weeks prior. The General Assembly had a two week break and while they are gone, little goes on the in Capitol. It is amazing how much everything slows down when they are not here. I stayed busy for several days researching a potential program that the Treasurer's office is thinking about proposing. The program would help small businesses by providing loans to those that are just starting out. Several other states have programs similar to our idea so I spent time on the phone with various directors and staffers of the programs in other states. It actually turned out to be very interesting to hear what worked, what didn't work, and other general information about the program. I had to present some of what I found during a conference call with many of the Treasurer's senior staff that are located in Chicago.

I also spent time responding to letters that constituents sent to the office, asking the Treasurer to address various concerns of theirs. It was funny to see some of the things that citizens expect to have solved by someone that has no jurisdiction over the matter. Regardless, you appreciate that citizens are taking the time to attempt to have thier voices heard.

I was fortunate enough to be given two days off while the General Assembly was on break so I was out of the office Thursday and Friday.

Sara Cline- April 9, 2010

Not much to report. Returned to DC after a week in FL and have spent the majority of my time scheduling meetings for the Greek students coming in a little over a week. Currently we have 241 meetings with offices of members of Congress on 4/20.. which I think is quite impressive. I still need to get over 100 more meetings before the middle of next week (when I'll be back to IL to spend the wknd at U of I for mom's weekend). Hopefully in my next post I'll note a success in getting all of these meetings on the books.

Half way done at AIA

Not much to report for this week at AIA. I spent most of my time researching UNITRAL reform so that I may begin writing the opening portion for the conference in June. We were recently invited to participate in a conference in Kiev on globalization's effects on economics, politcs, and international law (or something in that broad context). I proposed to my boss that we speak about mediation since it is relevant to our recent projects, and he agreed. Thus, I will be writing a text about the role of party-led dispute resolution in the age of globalization. I am excited to do this, as it will more than just a newspaper article and more of a short essay.

I also finished writing my article on UN mediation, which will appear in our newsletter next week. Finally, I received word from the International Convention for Conflict Resolution and Prevents that they have agreed to include one of my articles on their website. This is very exciting news because it will allow AIA to market itself on a much broader scale to the international community involved with alternative dispute resolution. Lately I have really enjoyed all of the writing I have been able to do, and to see it get published at larger and larger scales is an extremely rewarding experience. Finally, I have been trying to find law professors to help teach a postgraduate course in International Business Arbitration that AIA is organizing at one of the Universities in Brussels.

Other than that, my boss and I have lately been brainstorming ways to expand AIA into other regions in the world. We have some contacts in India and China, and with the right initiative we may be able to set up another conference with them.

My residency is already more than half over, and its very hard to believe that I will have to leave Brussels in the near future. I have become accustomed to work and play here, and will be sad to leave.

Sara Cline- April 4, 2010

No update-- took the week off work to go to FL with my family.