One of my goals for my Congressional Fellowship was to observe examples of how legislation affects people's lives in a significant way. We learned about the process of how a bill becomes a law in class (remember the School House Rock song, "I'm Just a Bill"?). But sometimes I think it's hard to really appreciate the reality of the process. Textbooks are excellent tools for explaining how government works, but they don't do a very good job of helping us to understand that what government does has real consequences for real people in our community. I want to take this blog entry to explain to you a superb example of why government matters and why you need to know and understand how it works.
Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to attend a Press Conference held by Senator Bob Casey and Representative Jason Altmire. It was held in the Russell Senate Office Building. On the way to the room, I passed both Senator John Kerry's office and Senator Ted Kennedy's office. This was exciting because Senator Kennedy had just returned to the Senate briefly that day. In the Press Conference room, there were six cameras lined up in the back behind the chairs. Remember how we learned that in order for a bill to become a law, it has to pass through both the Senate and the House? Sometimes, a bill can be introduced in both chambers simultaneously. This is what Senator Casey and Representative Altmire did.
Senator Casey spoke first and explained the new bill. It is called the "Supporting America's Volunteer Emergency Services Act of 2008" (SAVES Act) and would help volunteer fire companies and volunteer EMS services cover the rising cost of fuel prices. Senator Casey's office originally got the idea for this Act after reading an article in the Wall Street Journal explaining the cutbacks volunteer fire companies had to make as the result of rising fuel prices. Congressman Altmire's office added volunteer EMS services to the bill. Volunteer fire companies like to make sure a fire truck has at least 3/4 of its gas tank full at night in case they get a call to go to a fire a long distance away. With the rising cost of fuel prices, fire companies were being forced to only keep their gas tanks half-full and were not able to respond to emergencies with all the necessary equipment.
The SAVES Act would provide federal grants to volunteer fire departments and other emergency service providers to be reimbursed up to 75% for the increase in the price of fuel beyond the average price baseline of 2007. The Press release explains, "Between June 2003 and June 2008, regular gasoline prices have risen 171% and diesel prices have risen 229%. Volunteer fire companies have reported that they are not able to respond to fire emergencies with the amount of trucks and equipment recommended under guidelines provided by the National Fire Protection Association. [Pennsylvania has 1,700 volunteer fire companies which] serve over 9 million Pennsylvanians and account for 97% of Pennsylvania's fire departments." In Congressman Altmire's district, there are 164 total fire departments, only 7 of which are not volunteer. The SAVES Act has a long way to go before it becomes law, but they are hoping for it to take effect by the end of 2009.
The SAVES Act addresses a clear need in our local community, across Pennsylvania, and across the country. Without it, high fuel costs make it difficult for fire departments and emergency service providers to, as Congressman Altmire explained, "provide local families with the help they need." This is why we learn about "how a bill becomes a law" in Civics class, and why, as an educated citizen, you need to know about how government works and what it can do.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The Whole Truth: The General's Dentures and July 4th
In honor of George Washington and his often cited virtue of honesty, I'd like to take this blog entry to briefly state the truth on two items of Revolutionary folklore. First, George Washington's teeth were never made out of wood. He actually had many different sets of teeth, none of which were made out of wood. This picture is from the Mt. Vernon website. When I visited the new Visitor's Center at Mt. Vernon, I saw this set of teeth in person. However, I did not take a picture of them because of a very polite sign next to the display, which read, "Please do not photograph the General's dentures." So I didn't. The pair of dentures in the picture is actually made of animal and human teeth, as well as vegetable ivory, and is fitted into a hinged lead base. So in addition to the pain from ill-fitting dentures, the lead was probably not too healthy either. So there you have it -- the true, but brief, story of the General's Dentures.
I'd also like to clarify, in brief, a chronological confusion relating to our country's celebration of its independence. Everyone knows we celebrate independence on July 4th -- this is "self-evident." In other words, it is so ingrained in the popular understanding of what it means to be an American that you probably don't even remember when you learned this most important fact. It just was always this way. However, the truth is that independence was actually "officially" declared on July 2nd. Yes, you read that correctly -- July 2nd. It was on July 2nd that the Second Continental Congress offically adopted Richard Henry Lee's "Resolution of Independence." The Resolution was first proposed by Richard Henry Lee, from Virginia, on June 7, 1776. After it was introduced, a Committee of Five was appointed to draft a document to explain the reasons for declaring independence. The Lee Resolution was approved on July 2nd -- so, in other words, the members of the Continental Congress voted to declare independence on July 2. Twelve colonies voted for it, and New York abstained.
So, what happened on July 4th, you ask? It was on July 4th that the text of the document called the "Declaration of Independence," originally drafted by Thomas Jefferson, was officially voted on and approved.
This is a picture I took of the Washington, DC fireworks from the Francis Scott Key bridge in Georgetown. If you look very closely, you can see the Washington Monument on the left and the lights from the Kennedy Center.Now, before you start kicking yourself for celebrating independence on the wrong day all these years, let me make one more point to reassure you that July 4th is probably the correct day to celebrate. On July 4th, we are actually celebrating the official statement and explanation of the REASONS for independence, rather than just the official DECLARING of it. Hence, July 4th is the day which marks a more intellectual argument explaining the causes of our celebration, rather than just a simple statement declaring separation. By choosing July 4th to celebrate, we not only celebrate our declaring independence from Great Britain, but also celebrate the words that have become gospel -- the principles that have become "organic law." The Declaration of Independence gives voice to our rights -- natural "self-evident" rights which are understood to be true. By appearing in written form in the Declaration, the idea that "all men are created equal" first becomes an "official" part of American identity, even though it took a Civil War and a Civil Rights Movement to see it appear in practice. The idea that our government exists to protect and preserve our right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is a fundamental part of being an American citizen. Hence, we should keep accurate historical chronology in mind by recognizing that independence was declared on July 2nd. But we should also recognize that our celebration should indeed occur on July 4th, for on that day, our celebration becomes not merely one of declaring independence, but becomes a celebration of American rights, and American identity.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Making Legislation
This blog entry is from Monday, June 30. Because of what it discusses, staff in two different Congressional offices had to read it and give me permission to post it. So, even though it’s just being posted now, I think you’ll still find it current and interesting.
Making Legislation
Although I've only been working at the Capitol for one week, I've learned a considerable amount about the nature of how laws get made. It's been fascinating to talk with the staff in Congressman Altmire's office. Each has an important role to play, as I explained in an earlier blog entry. Together, they accomplish the behind-the-scenes work of the legislative aspect of our government. On Friday, June 27, I had the opportunity to speak with a legislative assistant for another Representative. Her office has been actively involved in sponsoring two different bills dealing with education. I was curious to know more about the preparation involved in preparing these two bills. I spoke with her for an hour and a half, and I'd like to share with you her extremely clear and helpful answers to my many questions.
Ideas for possible laws come from many different sources. Sometimes the idea for a law comes from the numerous letters a Congressman's office receives every day. Sometimes the idea comes from a constituent who visits a Congressman's office and speaks with a member of the Congressman's legislative staff. Sometimes the idea comes from an interest group committed to specific cause. Sometimes the idea comes from the Congressman himself and deals with an issue that is important to him and his constituents. Often, the idea for a law comes from all of these sources.
I spoke with this legislative assistant about a bill her office introduced. This bill would award grants to schools to promote and strengthen curriculum in music and arts, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, history, geography, and physical education and health. The Representative heard from constituents and others around the country that schools might be dropping classes in the subjects mentioned above. These school districts said it was because they had limited funding or time, and they needed to spend this funding and time on math and reading in order to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress requirements for No Child Left Behind. Unfortunately, many of the students who had difficulty in math and reading but who shined in music, art, and other areas were now not getting the opportunity to take these classes. So the Representative’s bill was designed to address this issue.
Hence, the first step in making a law is identifying some "need." In this case, the need was to provide additional funding to allow districts to continue providing instruction in music, art, history, and other areas. The second step in the process is to gather information. In order for this bill to pass, it needed to be prepared carefully, based on as much data as possible, tailored with compromises, and made broad enough in order to get as many interest groups on board as possible. Some of the statistical information for this bill came from the Center on Education Policy, which heads up many different research studies in different areas of education. The statistics showed that the shifts in instructional time were quite large, even as much as cutting 75 minutes per week in both Social Studies and Science to significantly increase instructional time in Reading and Math.
The wording for the eventual bill came in part from a music and art interest group, who had been working for years to gain support for more of a focus on music and arts education in schools. They also worked with a special, separate staff who is not assigned to any particular Congressman but who is assigned to the Committee on Education and Labor as a whole. The language was then revised to official standards by the Office of Legislative Counsel, made up of lawyers who understand the intricacies of legal language.
Once the bill is written, the Representative’s staff put together a "Dear Colleague" letter and sent it out to all the Congressmen and women. This letter explained the main parts of the bill and why they believed its passage was necessary. The purpose of the letter was to try to gain cosponsors for the bill. Then, the Representative’s staff did something very clever with their bill. Instead of making it a "stand-alone" bill, they attached the bill to the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. Hence, this made it more likely their bill would get passed because it was attached to the passage of the entire Act.
The Representative then proposed the bill on the floor of the House of Representatives. After this, the Speaker of the House, with advice from the Parliamentarian, decides to which committee the bill is assigned. Sometimes, a bill has the potential to be assigned to more than one committee. So that this doesn't happen, most Congressmen try to narrowly tailor their bill so that it fits more with one specific committee.
Why would this be such a big deal? Remember – the committee who gains control over a bill has the most power over shaping the nature of the bill and deciding whether it gets passed out of Committee and onto the floor of the House of Representatives. The Legislative Assistant explained an example of why a Committee has so much power. She told me that when a bill is brought up in Committee, the Clerk reads the bill. If the bill is really long, you can ask for unanimous consent to not have the Clerk read the whole bill. One political party might refuse to give their consent if they want to stall the bill. She told me that one time, the Clerk had to read a bill that was 1,000 pages long, which gave the political party more time to come up with amendments to the bill.
I also asked the Legislative Assistant about the role of lobbyists. A lobbyist is a person who represents an interest group and who tries to get Congressmen to pass legislation that helps their interest group and to oppose legislation that hurts their interest group. The Legislative Assistant in the Representative’s office explained that no one interest group has more say than any other interest group. She said that she meets with lobbyists from all interest groups, often representing conflicting sides of an issue. The Legislative Assistant explained, "we write the policy but don't implement it. So it's helpful to talk to the people who do." While the idea for a bill might be suggested by an interest group, the bill that eventually gets passed has been shaped by many different groups of people.
This blog entry is already very long, so I'll just tell you one exciting event from today. This morning I wrote a memo to Congressman Altmire on a different bill than the one I discussed above. When the legislative assistants receive a "Dear Colleague" letter, which, as I explained above, is a letter asking the Congressman to cosponsor a specific bill, the legislative assistants write a one page memo to the Congressman. This memo summarizes the main points in the bill, explains a brief history of the issues prompting the creation of the bill, lists the sponsor of the bill (who proposed it) and the number of cosponsors, and explains any interest groups that might show opposition to the bill. I had to call two different interest groups on the phone to ask about their potential opposition to the bill. Because the memo is only supposed to be one page long and because the Legislative Director told me "the shorter the better," most of my time was spent trying to cut out any unnecessary wording in order to make it fit on one page and be as clear and concise as possible. As you have probably noticed from the length of my blog entries, this is not an easy task for me to do!
Addendum: Congressman Altmire approved my memo yesterday (July 9) so he is going to cosponsor the bill!
Making Legislation
Although I've only been working at the Capitol for one week, I've learned a considerable amount about the nature of how laws get made. It's been fascinating to talk with the staff in Congressman Altmire's office. Each has an important role to play, as I explained in an earlier blog entry. Together, they accomplish the behind-the-scenes work of the legislative aspect of our government. On Friday, June 27, I had the opportunity to speak with a legislative assistant for another Representative. Her office has been actively involved in sponsoring two different bills dealing with education. I was curious to know more about the preparation involved in preparing these two bills. I spoke with her for an hour and a half, and I'd like to share with you her extremely clear and helpful answers to my many questions.
Ideas for possible laws come from many different sources. Sometimes the idea for a law comes from the numerous letters a Congressman's office receives every day. Sometimes the idea comes from a constituent who visits a Congressman's office and speaks with a member of the Congressman's legislative staff. Sometimes the idea comes from an interest group committed to specific cause. Sometimes the idea comes from the Congressman himself and deals with an issue that is important to him and his constituents. Often, the idea for a law comes from all of these sources.
I spoke with this legislative assistant about a bill her office introduced. This bill would award grants to schools to promote and strengthen curriculum in music and arts, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, history, geography, and physical education and health. The Representative heard from constituents and others around the country that schools might be dropping classes in the subjects mentioned above. These school districts said it was because they had limited funding or time, and they needed to spend this funding and time on math and reading in order to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress requirements for No Child Left Behind. Unfortunately, many of the students who had difficulty in math and reading but who shined in music, art, and other areas were now not getting the opportunity to take these classes. So the Representative’s bill was designed to address this issue.
Hence, the first step in making a law is identifying some "need." In this case, the need was to provide additional funding to allow districts to continue providing instruction in music, art, history, and other areas. The second step in the process is to gather information. In order for this bill to pass, it needed to be prepared carefully, based on as much data as possible, tailored with compromises, and made broad enough in order to get as many interest groups on board as possible. Some of the statistical information for this bill came from the Center on Education Policy, which heads up many different research studies in different areas of education. The statistics showed that the shifts in instructional time were quite large, even as much as cutting 75 minutes per week in both Social Studies and Science to significantly increase instructional time in Reading and Math.
The wording for the eventual bill came in part from a music and art interest group, who had been working for years to gain support for more of a focus on music and arts education in schools. They also worked with a special, separate staff who is not assigned to any particular Congressman but who is assigned to the Committee on Education and Labor as a whole. The language was then revised to official standards by the Office of Legislative Counsel, made up of lawyers who understand the intricacies of legal language.
Once the bill is written, the Representative’s staff put together a "Dear Colleague" letter and sent it out to all the Congressmen and women. This letter explained the main parts of the bill and why they believed its passage was necessary. The purpose of the letter was to try to gain cosponsors for the bill. Then, the Representative’s staff did something very clever with their bill. Instead of making it a "stand-alone" bill, they attached the bill to the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. Hence, this made it more likely their bill would get passed because it was attached to the passage of the entire Act.
The Representative then proposed the bill on the floor of the House of Representatives. After this, the Speaker of the House, with advice from the Parliamentarian, decides to which committee the bill is assigned. Sometimes, a bill has the potential to be assigned to more than one committee. So that this doesn't happen, most Congressmen try to narrowly tailor their bill so that it fits more with one specific committee.
Why would this be such a big deal? Remember – the committee who gains control over a bill has the most power over shaping the nature of the bill and deciding whether it gets passed out of Committee and onto the floor of the House of Representatives. The Legislative Assistant explained an example of why a Committee has so much power. She told me that when a bill is brought up in Committee, the Clerk reads the bill. If the bill is really long, you can ask for unanimous consent to not have the Clerk read the whole bill. One political party might refuse to give their consent if they want to stall the bill. She told me that one time, the Clerk had to read a bill that was 1,000 pages long, which gave the political party more time to come up with amendments to the bill.
I also asked the Legislative Assistant about the role of lobbyists. A lobbyist is a person who represents an interest group and who tries to get Congressmen to pass legislation that helps their interest group and to oppose legislation that hurts their interest group. The Legislative Assistant in the Representative’s office explained that no one interest group has more say than any other interest group. She said that she meets with lobbyists from all interest groups, often representing conflicting sides of an issue. The Legislative Assistant explained, "we write the policy but don't implement it. So it's helpful to talk to the people who do." While the idea for a bill might be suggested by an interest group, the bill that eventually gets passed has been shaped by many different groups of people.
This blog entry is already very long, so I'll just tell you one exciting event from today. This morning I wrote a memo to Congressman Altmire on a different bill than the one I discussed above. When the legislative assistants receive a "Dear Colleague" letter, which, as I explained above, is a letter asking the Congressman to cosponsor a specific bill, the legislative assistants write a one page memo to the Congressman. This memo summarizes the main points in the bill, explains a brief history of the issues prompting the creation of the bill, lists the sponsor of the bill (who proposed it) and the number of cosponsors, and explains any interest groups that might show opposition to the bill. I had to call two different interest groups on the phone to ask about their potential opposition to the bill. Because the memo is only supposed to be one page long and because the Legislative Director told me "the shorter the better," most of my time was spent trying to cut out any unnecessary wording in order to make it fit on one page and be as clear and concise as possible. As you have probably noticed from the length of my blog entries, this is not an easy task for me to do!
Addendum: Congressman Altmire approved my memo yesterday (July 9) so he is going to cosponsor the bill!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
TODAY!!! on C-SPAN: Hearing on Rising Food Prices
Today at 10am, the Committee on Education and Labor will hold a Hearing entitled "The Rising Costs of Food and Its Impact on Federal Child Nutrition Programs." One of the Legislative Assistants gave me the assignment of preparing a few questions for Congressman Altmire to ask at the hearing. One of the issues they will be discussing is the effect of rising food prices on school lunch programs, and the ways schools have had to cut back in order to meet costs. I don't know if Congressman Altmire will ask any of my questions, but it's still very exciting. In any case -- you can watch the hearing on C-SPAN TODAY!!! If you go to http://www.cspan.org look on the right-hand side of the screen and click on "Price of Food for Nutrition Programs for Children." It will then take you to a screen where you can see the video feed.
Addendum on 7-10-08: Congressman Altmire was unable to come to this hearing because he had another hearing scheduled at the same time. However, it was still very interesting for me to observe. I took many good notes which I will share with you in a later blog. It was also good experience for me to develop these questions.
Addendum on 7-10-08: Congressman Altmire was unable to come to this hearing because he had another hearing scheduled at the same time. However, it was still very interesting for me to observe. I took many good notes which I will share with you in a later blog. It was also good experience for me to develop these questions.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Mount Vernon
On Thursday, I had the opportunity to travel with the James Madison Fellows to Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. If you've never had a chance to visit Mount Vernon, I would definitely recommend it. We got there early in the morning on a gorgeous summer day, and were able to tour the house before the crowds arrived.
This is a picture of me in front of George Washington's house.
The outside of the house looks like it was constructed of stone, but looks can be deceiving. Since stone was expensive, they built the house out of wood and carved the pine boards to look like stone blocks. Then, they mixed sand with the white paint, so the surface of the wooden "stone" blocks looks like sandstone. This process is called "rustication."
You can see the wood in this picture where some of the paint has been scraped away.
This is a picture of the Piazza on the back of the house and the view from the Piazza. You can see why George Washington might have longed to return to Mount Vernon during his time away from it as Commander-in-Chief and as President.
On the property of Mount Vernon, a short walk from the house, is the tomb where George Washington, his wife Martha, and 25 family members are buried. George Washington is buried in the marble casket on the right. One of the teachers in my tour group was a veteran (he had served in the marines), and he got to place the wreath inside the tomb.
Other than seeing George Washington's House itself, the best part of visiting Mt. Vernon was the new Visitor's Center and the new exhibit they have. For all of you people interested in "CSI" stuff, this is right up your alley. A number of scientists and artists set out to figure out what Washington looked like when he was 19, 45, and 57. To do this, they studied the bust sculpted by Jean Antoine Houdon, considered to be the best likeness of Washington, as well as his "death mask," dentures, and clothing. In my opinion, the most famous picture of Washington by Gilbert Stuart, which is on the dollar bill, looks nothing like Washington if one compares it to the Houdon bust. If you look at the pictures below, you'll really get a sense of Washington's appearance. When I saw the statues in person, it gave me chills because for the first time, you could "see" what the real man might have looked like.
This is a picture of me in front of George Washington's house.
The outside of the house looks like it was constructed of stone, but looks can be deceiving. Since stone was expensive, they built the house out of wood and carved the pine boards to look like stone blocks. Then, they mixed sand with the white paint, so the surface of the wooden "stone" blocks looks like sandstone. This process is called "rustication."You can see the wood in this picture where some of the paint has been scraped away.
This is a picture of the Piazza on the back of the house and the view from the Piazza. You can see why George Washington might have longed to return to Mount Vernon during his time away from it as Commander-in-Chief and as President.
On the property of Mount Vernon, a short walk from the house, is the tomb where George Washington, his wife Martha, and 25 family members are buried. George Washington is buried in the marble casket on the right. One of the teachers in my tour group was a veteran (he had served in the marines), and he got to place the wreath inside the tomb.
Other than seeing George Washington's House itself, the best part of visiting Mt. Vernon was the new Visitor's Center and the new exhibit they have. For all of you people interested in "CSI" stuff, this is right up your alley. A number of scientists and artists set out to figure out what Washington looked like when he was 19, 45, and 57. To do this, they studied the bust sculpted by Jean Antoine Houdon, considered to be the best likeness of Washington, as well as his "death mask," dentures, and clothing. In my opinion, the most famous picture of Washington by Gilbert Stuart, which is on the dollar bill, looks nothing like Washington if one compares it to the Houdon bust. If you look at the pictures below, you'll really get a sense of Washington's appearance. When I saw the statues in person, it gave me chills because for the first time, you could "see" what the real man might have looked like.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Replies to Comments
Thank you to everyone who has been writing such great comments in response to the blog! I am going to try to answer all the questions from the "comments" that I haven't yet answered.
Sixth period asked, "How do you answer a constituent's letter? What color is the subway?"
I'm learning a lot about how a constituent's letter gets answered. First, ALL letters are read by someone in the office and get answered in some way. The letters that come in the actual mail get answered more quickly than those that are sent via e-mail (since there are relatively few paper letters compared with the number of e-mails). First, the staff checks to see if a letter has already been written to respond to a specific subject. For example, let's say that many people write letters asking Congressman Altmire to support the G.I. Bill to increase funding for veterans to pay for college. If a response letter already exists on that subject, then that constituent's letter gets logged into the computer and assigned to the "batch" of constituent letters who all get sent that letter in response. If no response letter has been written on that subject, someone is assigned to write it. This letter goes through an extensive review and editing process. So, the four letters I wrote to constituents are now in the middle of the following process. First, they were read and edited by either the Staff Assistant or the Legislative Correspondent. Then they were given back to me to make the corrections. I then printed out a new copy of each letter and gave it to the Legislative Assistant assigned to that topic. For example, one Legislative Assistant handles all issues relating to veterans and education, while a different Legislative Assistant might handle energy and transportation. Then, the Legislative Assistant gave the letters back to me to make more corrections. So I printed out new copies again. Then I gave these copies to the Legislative Director. He made edits and gave them back to me. On Monday, I will make these changes and print out new copies of the letters for the Chief-of-Staff to read. Once the Chief-of-Staff approves the letters (and I make any edits she has indicated), THEN the letters go to Congressman Altmire to read and approve. So every response letter gets read and approved by the Congressman. Sometimes, he will make changes or additions as well before the letter is sent to the constituents.
The subway (which is called the "metro" in Washington, D.C.) has many different "color" routes, depending on where you want to go. In order to get from the Rosslyn metro station to the Capitol South metro station, where I go every day, you can either ride the blue line or the orange line. However, before you get on the metro, you have to make sure the train is going in the right direction. So you have to pay attention to the "ending" destination. I also learned today that you have to use the SAME metro card you enter with in order to exit. You have to put your metro card into a reader, which opens a turnstyle to let you enter AND exit. When I tried to exit today, my metro card had run out of money. I had another metro card with money on it which I tried to use to exit, but it didn't work. So I asked the person in the booth, and she explained that I need to add the correct exit fare (an additional 50 cents) to my card so I could exit with the same card. When I put it in the exit reader, it kept my card because I put exact change on it and used it up. So now I know to make sure I have enough money on the SAME card when entering and exiting.
I am looking forward with much excitement to seeing members of my 7th period class when I am 95 years old. But please don't try to ask me any hypothetical questions at that point since it's not nice to purposely try to confuse an old lady.
In response to "Making Laws Isn't Easy," my "thoughtful students" wrote, "Do the meetings often call for a tallie of votes for a recount? How long did it take to get through the building? Did you get lost? Next year you should have a mock meeting to debate bills. Keep us updated."
It's more likely for someone to call for a "roll call" vote (when they tally the votes individually) if a bill or amendment is controversial. The Education and Labor Committee is very partisan -- which means the Democrats and Republicans often disagree strongly on policy. However, the Transportation Committee is less partisan, so there are fewer roll call votes that take place during those committee meetings since bills they examine are usually less controversial.
It took me at least 10 minutes to get through to the other building where the committee room was, due to all the stairs, escalators, and elevators. I tried to go to the Ed and Labor Committee Room by myself the other day to take a picture of it for you. I actually was able to get there successfully by myself! Sadly, it was locked. And then I got lost coming back. It turns out there is a real Barber Shop (where they cut hair) in the basement of the Rayburn building. I passed this Barber Shop twice while I was lost. Eventually, I had to ask for directions to get back. It turns out there are two different "basement" levels, and I was on the wrong level to get back to the escalators to the Longworth Building. So, YES, I got lost. But it was fun. GREAT idea about a mock meeting to debate bills! I'll definitely keep that in mind!
First period -- thanks for reminding me that I should put a picture of myself on the blog. You'll see that I did.
To Charlie K. -- I'm glad you got to visit the Library of Congress and that's too bad you couldn't go into the main reading room. You do indeed need to be 18 to enter. However, you should have been able to look down into it through the glass windows. I recently found out that Disney has a book for history teachers which explains the "real facts" behind the National Treasure movies. I am going to get it. If I remember, when we tour the Library of Congress, I'll will try to ask about the "Book of Secrets" for you. I'm sure many people have asked about this by now so the guide probably has a pretty good answer ready.
Joseph -- Thanks for reminding me about your embassy question. Your question was "would someone born in a U.S. embassy in a foreign country be considered a "natural born" citizen," right? I will ask the Legislative Director when everybody gets back to work on Monday. He'll probably be able to answer it.
Carly -- I'm glad you're enjoying the blog! You have a great summer too!
Colleen -- Thanks for your nice comments. That must have been so exciting to take part in the round up! There's a book you might like called "The Virginian" by Owen Wister. It's actually my favorite book. It's about a cowboy and a school teacher (which is probably why I like it) but it's considered classic literature. It's extremely well written. That's neat about the model and the rafting. These three activities are so very different from each other! I'm glad your foot has healed - just in time for summer :o)
Chris - I'm glad you enjoyed visiting Sewickley and Virginia!
To everyone -- I am going to Mt. Vernon tomorrow -- the home of George Washington. I'll be sure to tell him hello from all of you. They just opened a new visitors' center which is supposed to be fantastic. It has three life-sized statues of George Washington at different ages. I plan to take lots of pictures, so stay tuned for the next blog!
Sixth period asked, "How do you answer a constituent's letter? What color is the subway?"
I'm learning a lot about how a constituent's letter gets answered. First, ALL letters are read by someone in the office and get answered in some way. The letters that come in the actual mail get answered more quickly than those that are sent via e-mail (since there are relatively few paper letters compared with the number of e-mails). First, the staff checks to see if a letter has already been written to respond to a specific subject. For example, let's say that many people write letters asking Congressman Altmire to support the G.I. Bill to increase funding for veterans to pay for college. If a response letter already exists on that subject, then that constituent's letter gets logged into the computer and assigned to the "batch" of constituent letters who all get sent that letter in response. If no response letter has been written on that subject, someone is assigned to write it. This letter goes through an extensive review and editing process. So, the four letters I wrote to constituents are now in the middle of the following process. First, they were read and edited by either the Staff Assistant or the Legislative Correspondent. Then they were given back to me to make the corrections. I then printed out a new copy of each letter and gave it to the Legislative Assistant assigned to that topic. For example, one Legislative Assistant handles all issues relating to veterans and education, while a different Legislative Assistant might handle energy and transportation. Then, the Legislative Assistant gave the letters back to me to make more corrections. So I printed out new copies again. Then I gave these copies to the Legislative Director. He made edits and gave them back to me. On Monday, I will make these changes and print out new copies of the letters for the Chief-of-Staff to read. Once the Chief-of-Staff approves the letters (and I make any edits she has indicated), THEN the letters go to Congressman Altmire to read and approve. So every response letter gets read and approved by the Congressman. Sometimes, he will make changes or additions as well before the letter is sent to the constituents.
The subway (which is called the "metro" in Washington, D.C.) has many different "color" routes, depending on where you want to go. In order to get from the Rosslyn metro station to the Capitol South metro station, where I go every day, you can either ride the blue line or the orange line. However, before you get on the metro, you have to make sure the train is going in the right direction. So you have to pay attention to the "ending" destination. I also learned today that you have to use the SAME metro card you enter with in order to exit. You have to put your metro card into a reader, which opens a turnstyle to let you enter AND exit. When I tried to exit today, my metro card had run out of money. I had another metro card with money on it which I tried to use to exit, but it didn't work. So I asked the person in the booth, and she explained that I need to add the correct exit fare (an additional 50 cents) to my card so I could exit with the same card. When I put it in the exit reader, it kept my card because I put exact change on it and used it up. So now I know to make sure I have enough money on the SAME card when entering and exiting.
I am looking forward with much excitement to seeing members of my 7th period class when I am 95 years old. But please don't try to ask me any hypothetical questions at that point since it's not nice to purposely try to confuse an old lady.
In response to "Making Laws Isn't Easy," my "thoughtful students" wrote, "Do the meetings often call for a tallie of votes for a recount? How long did it take to get through the building? Did you get lost? Next year you should have a mock meeting to debate bills. Keep us updated."
It's more likely for someone to call for a "roll call" vote (when they tally the votes individually) if a bill or amendment is controversial. The Education and Labor Committee is very partisan -- which means the Democrats and Republicans often disagree strongly on policy. However, the Transportation Committee is less partisan, so there are fewer roll call votes that take place during those committee meetings since bills they examine are usually less controversial.
It took me at least 10 minutes to get through to the other building where the committee room was, due to all the stairs, escalators, and elevators. I tried to go to the Ed and Labor Committee Room by myself the other day to take a picture of it for you. I actually was able to get there successfully by myself! Sadly, it was locked. And then I got lost coming back. It turns out there is a real Barber Shop (where they cut hair) in the basement of the Rayburn building. I passed this Barber Shop twice while I was lost. Eventually, I had to ask for directions to get back. It turns out there are two different "basement" levels, and I was on the wrong level to get back to the escalators to the Longworth Building. So, YES, I got lost. But it was fun. GREAT idea about a mock meeting to debate bills! I'll definitely keep that in mind!
First period -- thanks for reminding me that I should put a picture of myself on the blog. You'll see that I did.
To Charlie K. -- I'm glad you got to visit the Library of Congress and that's too bad you couldn't go into the main reading room. You do indeed need to be 18 to enter. However, you should have been able to look down into it through the glass windows. I recently found out that Disney has a book for history teachers which explains the "real facts" behind the National Treasure movies. I am going to get it. If I remember, when we tour the Library of Congress, I'll will try to ask about the "Book of Secrets" for you. I'm sure many people have asked about this by now so the guide probably has a pretty good answer ready.
Joseph -- Thanks for reminding me about your embassy question. Your question was "would someone born in a U.S. embassy in a foreign country be considered a "natural born" citizen," right? I will ask the Legislative Director when everybody gets back to work on Monday. He'll probably be able to answer it.
Carly -- I'm glad you're enjoying the blog! You have a great summer too!
Colleen -- Thanks for your nice comments. That must have been so exciting to take part in the round up! There's a book you might like called "The Virginian" by Owen Wister. It's actually my favorite book. It's about a cowboy and a school teacher (which is probably why I like it) but it's considered classic literature. It's extremely well written. That's neat about the model and the rafting. These three activities are so very different from each other! I'm glad your foot has healed - just in time for summer :o)
Chris - I'm glad you enjoyed visiting Sewickley and Virginia!
To everyone -- I am going to Mt. Vernon tomorrow -- the home of George Washington. I'll be sure to tell him hello from all of you. They just opened a new visitors' center which is supposed to be fantastic. It has three life-sized statues of George Washington at different ages. I plan to take lots of pictures, so stay tuned for the next blog!
Revamped G.I. Bill is Now Law
The Congress is in recess all this week which means that most of the Congressmen are back home working from their districts. On Monday, Congressman Altmire spoke with Kevin Miller on KDKA radio at Kennywood Park. It was interesting for me to listen to his interview from his office in DC. Kevin Miller asked Congressman Altmire some excellent questions about important issues he is working on in Washington, D.C. One of these issues is the G.I. Bill.
That day, (Monday, June 30, 2008), President Bush signed the G.I. Bill into law. This law provides increased funding for service members to attend state colleges and universities. Congressman Altmire serves on the subcommittee which amended the G.I. Bill, so he had a lot to do with getting this increased funding. The following is the Press Release that the Press Secretary sent out on Monday. She said that I could share it with you.
ALTMIRE: REVAMPED G.I. BILL IS NOW LAW
Pennsylvania veterans eligible for additional $14,000 to pay for college
(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Congressman Jason Altmire (PA-04) today issued the following statement on the revamped G.I. Bill, which the president signed into law this morning as part of the supplemental funding legislation. Pennsylvanians who have completed more than three months of active duty service since September 11, 2001 could now qualify for a maximum educational benefit of $23,846 a year, which includes $12,164 for tuition, $1,000 for books and $1,186 per month for living expenses. This is a dramatic increase over the original G.I. bill's maximum education benefit of $9,990 a year.
Earlier this year, Congressman Altmire joined Congressman Harry Mitchell (AZ-05) in introducing the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act (Post-9/11 G.I. Bill - H.R. 5740), which was included in the supplemental funding legislation. More than 65,000 Pennsylvanians have been deployed since 2001 and could qualify for assistance under the new G.I. Bill. Veterans can find out more information on how to access these benefits by calling their universities' veterans liaison's office, calling 1-888-GIBILL-1, or going to www.gibill.va.gov
"Today, the promise of the G.I. Bill has been fully restored for our newest generation of veterans," Altmire said. "As tuition costs rose in recent years, the real value of the G.I. Bill fell to the point where it covered only a fraction of the cost of a college education. Now, Congress has ensured that veterans will have the funding they need to pay for a quality education at any public university. I am confident that just like the millions of Americans heroes who went to college on the G.I. bill in the 1940s, today's veterans will use this new G.I. Bill to strengthen our country."
That day, (Monday, June 30, 2008), President Bush signed the G.I. Bill into law. This law provides increased funding for service members to attend state colleges and universities. Congressman Altmire serves on the subcommittee which amended the G.I. Bill, so he had a lot to do with getting this increased funding. The following is the Press Release that the Press Secretary sent out on Monday. She said that I could share it with you.
ALTMIRE: REVAMPED G.I. BILL IS NOW LAW
Pennsylvania veterans eligible for additional $14,000 to pay for college
(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Congressman Jason Altmire (PA-04) today issued the following statement on the revamped G.I. Bill, which the president signed into law this morning as part of the supplemental funding legislation. Pennsylvanians who have completed more than three months of active duty service since September 11, 2001 could now qualify for a maximum educational benefit of $23,846 a year, which includes $12,164 for tuition, $1,000 for books and $1,186 per month for living expenses. This is a dramatic increase over the original G.I. bill's maximum education benefit of $9,990 a year.
Earlier this year, Congressman Altmire joined Congressman Harry Mitchell (AZ-05) in introducing the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act (Post-9/11 G.I. Bill - H.R. 5740), which was included in the supplemental funding legislation. More than 65,000 Pennsylvanians have been deployed since 2001 and could qualify for assistance under the new G.I. Bill. Veterans can find out more information on how to access these benefits by calling their universities' veterans liaison's office, calling 1-888-GIBILL-1, or going to www.gibill.va.gov
"Today, the promise of the G.I. Bill has been fully restored for our newest generation of veterans," Altmire said. "As tuition costs rose in recent years, the real value of the G.I. Bill fell to the point where it covered only a fraction of the cost of a college education. Now, Congress has ensured that veterans will have the funding they need to pay for a quality education at any public university. I am confident that just like the millions of Americans heroes who went to college on the G.I. bill in the 1940s, today's veterans will use this new G.I. Bill to strengthen our country."
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