And we're back!
For the 5 or 6 people that read this blog and have forgotten that it even exists I suppose I owe you an explanation ...
As you may remember when I last posted about the State of the State Address of Governor Ritter, I was an undermployed used carsalesman, freelance musician and political busy body. Well fast forward nearly 3 years and I am an underemployed used carsalesman, freelance musician and political busy body ... but there was an interim period of over-employment, a job that was exciting, educational and wholly incompatible with my blog. From Febraury 2009 until April of 2011 I had the honor and privilege to serve as a Legislative Assistant to Representative Jared Polis in his Washington D.C. office.
I have spent my entire professional carear having jobs that required some kind of explanation, so for those of who you who are unware of what a Legislative Assistant is (or are just now learning that this is a "real job") here's a breif tutorial/civics lesson:
Putting aside whether or not our Federal government is "too big or too small" the reality is that today it is very complex and is involved in more lines of business, -not to mention the impacts of policy on lines of business the government is not in- than any person can understand on their own. While our national legislative body was designed to solve this problem through delegating expertise to committees with the idea that the other members could rely on the expertise of committee members and could make marginal adjustements to policy in floor amendments, this system relied on a much smaller scope of government, with a much more homegenous set of practical concerns and social values.
The Congress today of 535 members, 435 of which spend half their term running for re-election are confronted with complex issues and committe assignments frequently based more on historical precedent, constituency considerations and seniority than on the members personal expertise on the issues of committee jurisdiciton. As result members need good information, technical information, information that even if they weren't busy raising money they would not be able learn in a timely enough fashion to make an informed vote. So therefore two institutions have been established to provide the facts, Legislative Assistants and Lobbyists. And because the funds dedicated to legislative staff is not even close to competitve with private sector compensation for equal skill sets, Legisaltive Staff rely on the expertise of lobbyists.
Lobbyists are generally former legislative staffers who grew up and realized they had families to take care so they should probably endeavour to earn a living wage by advocating the interests of entities and industries where they have a deep roledex of staffers who currently work on these issues. Lobbyists are ESSENTIAL to the work of Congress. This industry has been the posterchild of political malfeasance. Are there crooked lobbyits? Of course, I've also heard of crooked used carsalesman and free-lance musicians. But just like any industry most are professionals that do excellent work. And if you think Congress makes bad choices now (as their 14% approval rating suggests that you do) I assure you the outcomes would be way worse if members where left entirely to their own devices or worse skill sets and knowledge base.
So back to Legislative Assistants, our job is to analzye policy that is before the House or Senate in our issue areas (mine where Financial Services, Housing, Marijuana, Taxes and Telecom to name a few highlights of a very long list). Most staffers cover a wide portfolio of issues which they may or may not have some technical expertise in. We analyze the policy with the help of lobbyist we trust, our fellow staffers on the committees of jurisdiction, factor in our bosses district, the local and delegation politics and of key importance the politics on the hill for this that or other issue and try to distill all of this information so that for the 10-15 minutes we have to discuss policy with our bosses we can at best help them understand what they are voting on but from a practical perspective recommend how they should vote based on all of the above considerations. The job of a Legislaitve Assistant goes beyond this description, in some ways that are and some that are not acceptable uses for the position ... both politcally and personally. As my good friend once said, the best way to describe our job is "meanwhile".
It's exciting work, it's ajob that needs to be done and it's a job that in the majority of cases is woefully underpaid. Hill Staffers are no strangers to 14 hour work days. These young people (at 33 I was old on the hill) are smart, passionate, in short truly exceptional people that work tirelessly in obscurity. When some member of Congress reprimands their colleagues for "not reading the bill" ... well its not their job to read the bill, it's staff's job to read, write and amend legislaiton.
Before I was a legislative assistant I actually had no idea this institution existed. I now know that the Congress is actually four chambers, The House, The Senate and their respecitve staffs. Congressional staff are under-appreciated in our culture. Few people work as hard and despite their efforts can find themselves unemployed because of the caprice of voters or misteps of their boss. Now that you know that behind the 535 faces you see in press conferences there are thousands of twenty-somethings ensuring the talking points are in order and the floor votes happen I hope you take a moment to write to your member of Congress' office and thank their staff. And while you're at it let's lay off lobbyists. It takes being on the inside, in the belly of beast to see this but I assure you; anything you think about Congress that is negative would be worse if not for the influence of people who actually have a practical understanding of the impacts of policy. This is not what I used to think about lobbyits but now that I know better it is what I believe.
So I'm back in Boulder, back to the "Good Life". Not to say I didn't enjoy Washington because I did and like many things in life my memory of my time in D.C. is improving. I have some very good freinds from that time in my life. It was more education in 2 years than I got not only about politics but life in 30. I had the opppurtunity to spend time with family and friends that are family in every way that matters while I was living in the east coast. But now that I'm back in my own home it's time to start focusing on "domestic issues". I did write this post to preface the next one which is the exact opposite of domestic issues since I intended to express my support for City Council candidates but in my committement to "domestic issues" I did recently take the important first step in getting a puppy. His name is Blago!
Comments