New Bill, New Task

Although I felt like I had experienced almost everything I could in my office, I found something new this week. This week my congressman introduced a new bill to the House of Representatives. This was a long time coming, and took a lot of work by a lot of people. On Monday, I spent the day helping to contact all of the Republican House Offices to get contact information. This was so that we could send information regarding the bill to the right staffer while we were trying to get co-sponsors. This task involved locating the right staffer, getting their contact information, and then sending them the information about the bill. On Tuesday, the bill was formally introduced. We held a press conference about the bill, and the congressman did several interviews over a variety of news mediums to get the message out about the bill. Then, Tuesday afternoon, I personally got to deliver the original copy of the bill to the House office to be placed in the hopper. It was amazing knowing that I literally set this bill in motion by delivering it to the House of Representatives. The tasks associated with the new bill did not stop on Tuesday, however. Each time another congressmen agreed to co-sponsor the bill, we had to make a trip to what is called the “cloak room” to officially add them to the list of co-sponsors. With over sixty co-sponsors adding themselves to the bill, this meant several trips. I love making these trips though, because I’m actually physically carrying out functions that cause bills to become laws. All week, I answered phone calls regarding the bill, and had to explain its purpose and function. Suffice it to say I’ve become an expert on this bill all in less than a week. Friday things finally started to wind down, and we were all able to take a little breather. I love being on the hill, and being right in the middle of some of the biggest issues in politics. It’s really neat knowing that I got to personally take part in and witness so many great things this summer. I’m so thankful for AAPD and everyone who made this experience possible. I know I’m growing to be a better person, and learning a lot about myself as well as politics this summer.