The halls of Congress are buzzing

Now that I’m the new Health Care LA, I’m starting to get busy. I’m receiving more emails, more phone calls, and sitting in on more meetings. And I’m learning tons of new stuff about health care, health care, health care, health care. And more health care.

On Tuesday, I had two completely different meetings. The first was with a group of five ladies from school districts in Arizona and food distributing companies. They were in to discuss the nutrition standards at the school systems. These ladies were all very engaging – there was one who presented the group’s legislative agenda, but everyone else chimed in with personal accounts of the situation that they are facing. These ladies were lively, funny, informative, and friendly. They way they explained things kept my interest and we had a very productive meeting. They were actually hysterical and joked that they were probably the only group who wants to be regulated by the government. I laughed because it’s so true. I never had so much fun in a meeting before.

The next meeting was a completely different dynamic, but it was a good one too. The group consisted of a postmaster general, his wife, and two postal workers who have met with the Congressman several times. These people are prepared, let me tell you what! They came in with a list of their legislative agenda – four bills – and had notes on what the Congressman was already a cosponsoring, what bills they wanted him to cosponsor, and stuff to keep an eye on. The meeting seriously took like two minutes, but I tried to drag it out. I feel so bad that people come all the way across the country for a two-minute meeting. So we just chatted for a bit. They were a little sad the Congressman wasn’t there. Apparently these people are big fans.

Thursday was a busy day as far as meetings went. I think everyone in the office at least had two each. I was originally scheduled for five, but was able t ocut out two of them (one cancelled and one overlapped so I missed). Two were not very memorable, but I’m sure they wanted us to cosponsor something. The meeting with the City of Flagstaff was quite fun. It was good to see my people again. I always get excited when Flagstaffians come in.

The Congressman wanted to meet with the City folk, but because votes were scheduled at the same time they were supposed to be in the office, our leg director and I escorted them to the Capitol for the meeting. This was kind of exciting. There was a lot of action taking place in the halls: people buzzing around everywhere between votes, congressmen meeting with various groups of people.

We ducked behind a pillar to get away from the noise and went over the city’s priority list for appropriations. I received some marching orders from the Congressman to contact other members’ offices to get help on some of the requests, and we told the city we’d do what we could to try and get funding for some of their projects.

My last meeting for the week was at 10 on Friday. This was also a group of great gals from Arizona, much as the nutrition group – very friendly, engaging, informative, and enthusiastic about their program.

On the schedule for this week: meetings, followed by more meetings, followed by a much needed recess!