Sunday, June 11, 2023
By:
Hello and welcome back again!
I didn't write about last Sunday in my past blog, so here's it is! I went to the National Museum of African American History, which I’ve been trying to get tickets for since last summer. The main history exhibit was crafted so beautifully and I really recommend the museum to anyone who can get tickets. There was so much thought put into every aspect of the experience. I sat on a bench in a garden outside the museum and wrote for a bit after I was done – I could have spent so much more time there, but I had planned to meet up with a friend from UMD. We wandered around the monuments for a while and I made a quick stop in the Museum of Asian Art to see the peacock room, which had been closed the last time I went (and I recommend that one too!).
This week marked my first full week in the House of Representatives – and while last week the House was out of session, this week it was Definitely In Session. That meant a number of things for me:
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I work 9-6 during in session weeks. This meant I needed to pack more snack and also meal prep for dinners so I could get right to cooking when I got home.
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All of the things that happen when the members of congress are around happened. This week, that meant hearings.
Mondays and Fridays are district work days for members of Congress, which means that we didn’t have any hearings and were just prepping for the rest of the week. We had an Environment Subcommittee hearing on reauthorizing the weather act, and a full committee hearing on Advancing American Leadership in Quantum. All of the hearings get live streamed and then the full videos are posted after, so if you’re ever curious about what I’m doing, look it up!
I’m going to take a brief aside to explain what hearings are, because they’re not something that gets talked about often. Basically, when there’s a topic that the house wants to get information on or investigate, they invite witnesses who are experts on the topic and ask them questions (like the questions I was writing last week!). There can be hearings for the full House/Senate, or just for a specific committee, like mine.
Before each of our committee hearings, the written testimony of the witnesses, along with a hearing charter (written by the majority party), a democratic memo are sent out to all of the committee staff. Then, we write questions, and get opening statements and questions from the Ranking Member of the Science Committee, Zoe Lofgren, and the Ranking member of the subcommittee (if relevant). The committee interns (of which there are two others) print out all of this material and put it into binders for the Ranking Members and our staff to use as reference during the hearing. Along with finishing up the quantum questions, preparing the binders for the weather hearing took up most of my Monday. During my lunch though, I took a walk over to the NASA headquarters, and then to the Botanical Gardens, where I ate my lunch. I’m so grateful to have all of that nature right near me!
On Tuesday, I worked remotely, taking notes on a hearing for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and the House Oversight Committee. Both of the hearings were intensely polarized, with minority witnesses being bullied by members of Congress and people making slanted and misleading claims. I closed my laptop at 6 feeling deeply saddened about the state of our government, and made pizza for dinner with MJ, which didn’t make me feel better about the government but did taste excellent. I’m in an a cappella group at UMD, and after pizza I got on a zoom call with two of the other members of the group to arrange a new song we’ll be singing next year (Erase me by Lizzy McAlpine!).
WEDNESDAY WAS THE DAY! The night before, my boss had sent me an email saying that she needed me to man our front desk during the Quantum hearing and that the other intern would be staffing the hearing, and I had a moment of panic before thinking back to my interview with Kayla and Mikayla. They’d told me that the Capitol Hill interns really need to stand up for themselves to get what they want out of the experience. I sent an email back saying that I understood but would be really sad to miss the hearing because of the work I’d put into it. And – she thanked me for reminding her and said that of course I could staff the hearing! I was really proud that I’d asked for what I wanted and hadn’t let it fall away just because I’d been told something else. So I put on my suit and headed into the office. We gathered up the binders the other interns had made on Tuesday, grabbed the Committee camera so that I could take pictures during the hearing, and walked over to Rayburn, the house office building where our Committee room is.
On the way in (through a staff only entrance!!) I passed a sign for the Capitol Tunnels and now it’s my mission to take them. Gotta explore next week! We waited in a side room for committee members and before the hearing started, and at some point I set out the binders at their seats, put a copy of the proposed questions on each seat, and set out the name plates for each committee member in order of seniority on the committee.
The hearing was long, but absolutely incredible. It was so nice to work in a bipartisan committee after the two intensely polarized hearings I’d watched the day before, and the members all asked really thoughtful questions. I even got to briefly talk to some as I put up their nameplates when they sat down, but it was mostly things like ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’. Still fangirling though. I definitely have favorite committee members, but that can be the subject of another blog entry once I’ve heard them all talk a bit more. (short list is Sykes, Bonamici, Jackson, Frost)
Hearing takeaway: government is theater.
Evidence:
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Committee offices are backstage, with a door on stage right and stage left
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There are TVs in the committee offices (backstage) that show what’s going on on stage (the hearing room).
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The staff are stage managers (myself included). We moved props and helped out the actors (congress people)
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The Congress people are actors. They play one role in our bipartisan committee and rant about ‘the woke agenda’ in other committees they’re a part of, ceasing to govern in favor of virtue signaling.
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There’s a tech team with mics and lighting (enough said)
The other big lesson for the week was this: I was not going to have things to do unless I made it known that I was looking for things to do and that I was competent at doing them. I’ve been making efforts to talk to every committee staffer, get to know them, and express interest in helping them with any projects they might have come up. It works! And once I have some experience in an area, it’s much easier for people to trust me with similar tasks in the future. Whenever I need a confidence boost in an area or am doubting myself, my dad tells me that I’m “highly motivated personnel”. This brought me two exciting tasks for the end of the week. On Thursday, I wrote a statement for one of our committee members to read at a Markup next week (more on that once it happens). It was a lot of work, because I had to learn what the bill being marked up was about, and then try to pinpoint this member’s tone, and the issues they would care about related to the bill, and make sure to include all of the formalities like “I yield back my time” at the end, because every speaker gets allotted five minutes. I am really proud of what I came up with, and I could tell that the staffers thought it was really good as well. I was sent the edited and almost finalized version, and it was only a few technical questions away from what I’d initially written. I could feel the staffers seeing me in a new light and realizing they could throw more tasks at me. Which is how on Friday, I ended up writing questions for a hearing on fusion that we’re having this upcoming week!
When I was done with work on Friday, I went with some of the other interns to see the Washington Ballet School do a free outdoor performance, which was absolutely incredible. I’d never seen ballet before, and it was a really unique and special experience. Saturday was the DC pride parade, which was really close to where we live, and it was massive! There were so many groups in the parade itself, and so many people who came to watch. The American Chemical Society was there, so I think next year there needs to be an APS or AIP or SPS group in the parade! The actors for a show I absolutely love (Heartstopper) were also at the parade, and Jenna and I cheered so loud for them that they waved at us!
On Sunday I hung out with my best friend from high school, which was lovely, and then took a long walk by myself near the White House. After so much time around people, it was good to spend some time being spontaneous and alone to recharge. Here’s to a great week three!
Ruthie Vogel