Wednesday, February 6, 2012
It’s cold. We bundle up and head for the metro. Backpacks, pen and paper and our voice recorders neatly packed in our gear along with a camera to be sure and collect the images also.
So what’s the purpose of our day? Ever seen a news story about how work really gets done in a Congressional Office? We hear lots about lobbyists and those that wish to influence. How does a Congressman know all that he or she needs to know about a particular issue? There are hundreds of issues today that we face in America!
We began our day with a visit to a key staffer with the Prayer Caucus. There are 100 members in the House involved in this caucus. First, we all asked: what’s a caucus? A simple answer to this is simply a group of people with like interest who wish to gather and discuss and be kept informed of the issues.
Congress has many caucuses. We chose to visit the Prayer Caucus and the Military Family Caucus staffers. We did so actually after being discovered by their staff at AUSA Family Forum in October, 2012. Each of these groups are most interested in the military families and their service. This includes youth, and hearing their “voices” at AUSA was important for each of them. Coming soon, you will find “backpackers” reporting!
The following was apart of the presentation that each “Backpacker” made at the 4H National Military Partnership Meeting, Crystal City – Thursday, February 7, 2013. Backpack Journalist was invited in to share our advocacy – PTSD awareness, and the day before (which is contained here in our blog), we spent time learning up on the hill. Each of the backpackers have at one time attended or worked at an Operation Military Kids event which is a partner to the 4H.
Now it’s time for Jessica from Kansas to share:
Jessica, 17 from Kansas is a National Guard youth. This was her second time Covering the Assignment. Upon leaving her home, she tripped and ended up breaking her little toe. In spite of this, she taped it up and walked miles with us as we covered the hill and visited the Heritage Foundation.
Jessica: Our first stop was to meet Emily, a Legislative Aide and often called a “shared staffer” with Congressman Randy Forbes from Virginia. Emily
wears many hats. First, she works for Representative Forbes and researches a multitude of issues for him. She collects all the information on an issue and works with outside organizations. Next, she provides a briefing for him, and often will also “staff” an event with him. As she explained: “The Congressman has a lot of responsibilities, and it’s our role to be sure we keep him abreast and updated on all matters, and then if he is attending an event to speak, to get there on time and be prepared.”
As a “shared staffer” for the Prayer Caucus of 100 members that was started by Congressman Forbes, weekly she receives information and data on the issues that the members are interested in. She makes sure that all within the Prayer Caucus are informed. Weekly they meet and here again, she oversees this and as a result, she gets to meet a lot of the House Members, and maintains relationships with them. Her most favorite and best experience so far? Emily helped to write legislation. Emily has a degree in economics and a Law Degree.
So what’s her age? Only 26. She also shared with us the average age of those that work in the Congressional Offices (House side) is between 25 and 30 and hours are long! Their working area? Close. A small room may have up to 4-6 staffers working side by side. When we met with her, we went into the hall to just visit.
I learned a lot that I intend to take back to my school class. While I knew the House and Senate were different, perhaps the most interesting to me was the main difference between the ways an issue is researched by the staff in House and in the Senate. The staffer in the House will have a lot of issues to research and will only go an “inch” deep. The staffer in the Senate will take a few issues and go “deep”. Back when our nation was founded, the House was considered the “busy” place, and the Senate was looked to as “calm”.
Kati is from Ohio, and a National Guard Youth. This was Kati’s first trip with A Backpack Journalist to Cover the Assignment. Her Congressman is Pat Tiberi from Johnstown, Ohio, and we met with Andy, a Legislative Aide and his communications director, Breann.
Kati: Andy began working for Congressman Tiberi as a campaign worker. He put up signs and worked a lot in the town that I am from. He and I quickly bonded as he spoke of the best pizza place in our town! So he knew a lot about my home town and even the high school that I attend.
Andy spent time explaining how things get down in Congress. “It’s all through the committees” . He, as with Emily, shared with us that his most favorite accomplishments was to help write legislation As a Senior Advisor, with a “boss” who sits on the Ways and Means Committee, he was quite familiar with the present budget issues.
Upon hearing that all of our group had an interest in journalism, he invited in Congressman Tiberi’s Communications Director: Breann. She spent time explaining her responsibilities, from writing press releases to speeches to coordinating Congressman Tiberi’s events. Her background was most interesting. She started out as a broadcast journalist, and then moved into communications. She referred to it as “going to the other side”. So instead of broadcasting the news, she works now as a provider of information to the news outlets.
Perhaps my favorite experience of this day was that I got to see how Congressional offices are really run, and the hard work and hours put in by all the staffers supporting their Congressman or Congresswoman.
Lexie 16 is from Maryland, with a parent in the DC National Guard. She is A Backpack Journalist’s Social Media expert. This was her third assignment. She used her IPHONE to keep her notes in order.
Lexie: We spent time at the Heritage Foundation a think-tank and learned a lot about the importance of our National Security. The presenter was Luke Coffee, a Veteran and the first American to serve the UK Ministry of Defense as a Special Adviser to the British Defence Secretary of 18 months. What was most interesting was how informal this was, but filled with data and information on the importance of our nation’s defense. Learned a lot about our nation’s relationship with Europe and the UK, and how important it is to America.
The Heritage Foundation has five key principles: Limited Government, Free Enterprise, Individual Freedom, Traditional American Values and a Strong National Defense. The Heritage Foundation is neither Republican nor Democrat; and is non-partisan.
We received a copy of the Declaration of Independence and also our Constitution. We also were able to record some of Luke’s commentary, so Daniel can bring it up live on our readio show.
Upon leaving, I spent time sending out information via our Facebook and also Instagram. It was for me a great experience.
I took time to share with the 4H group a lot about my work at the Inauguration. Kat and I were credentialed as press, and we were able to go behind the scenes during Inauguration weekend. While the best for me was seeing The President and Mrs. Obama walking in the parade, we were able to go to where the National Guard were setting up the security for the weekend.
Kat is from Texas, and has been a regular Backpack Journalist participant. She probably had the most interesting experience of all of our backpackers.
We stopped off at Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rodgers from Washington, as her staffer (Sydney) met with us and helped explain info on the Military Family Caucus. They invited us to visit with them, as they had seen our presentation at AUSA in October. With the new Congress the Military Family Caucus is being reorganized and we will be back with them shortly.
Kat:
Well, I have the best Congressional Representative Louie Gomhert.
We had thirty minutes with him in his office and with his Deputy Chief of Staff, Justin. We took lots of pictures with him, but what meant so much to me was that he took time with us and asked me a lot about my family serving the National Guard. His staff had briefed him on our group, so he was ready to meet with us.
Congressman Gomhert also participates in the Prayer Caucus and he enjoyed hearing that we had called on Emily.
Congressman Gomhert’s office was filled with lots of photos on the wall and he spent time with me showing one of his favorites, his coming in to home plate at the annual baseball game between the Dems and Repubs.
We all sat quietly and shared our concerns. He spoke of the recent death of Chris Kyle, the former Navy Seal and The American Sniper in Texas and his concern over PTSD and the amount of service members returning. At that point, Ms. D shared with him our PTSD Won’t Stop me Video. He loved that we were up on the hill learning more about our government. It felt like he was interviewing us more so that us him!
Before leaving, he presented each of us with a pen, and commented how impressed he way that we call came prepared with pen and pad. He asked us about our schedule, and we had such a busy day as he did, that we could not meet up for lunch. However, he handed us a small card that sent us to the Capitol Hill Club for lunch! What an honor!
Perhaps the highlight for me was meeting and spending time with the best Congressman in the House: Louis Gohmert.
Closing:
So what did we all learn today? The house staffers work closely together in tight places, and long hours! Lots of research is done on all issues and at all hours! We got to see the behind the scenes that the national news does not often report on. We got to spend time with a Congressman who wants to make a difference and met with his key staff.
