Lobbying in DC

For a long time, I've always wondered about what lobbying is like, and what you actually do and talk about... That imagination was answered last Wednesday when the South Jersey Homeschooled JSA chapter went on a lobbying trip to DC in accompaniment with the organization Freedomworks. Freedomworks is a conservative grassroots organization dedicated to political activism. After connecting with them as an extra JSA activity (to which all the credit goes to my mom), we were able to muster up a group of all but three members from our club (who all desperately wanted to come), and five friends (12 total) who came for the unique experience.

We left from my house about ten of six in the morning, and all convened at a gas station at about quarter of seven. From there we split up into respective cars and drove down. The car ride down there in the Boyajian car was interesting to say the least. It consisted of me absolutely destroying the pants off of Josh and Aaron in black jack and five card (I've never gotten so many full houses in my life), and then on a more serious note, it consisted of an interesting "debate" about whether Christian rock music is appropriate for Sunday worship. Soon after that debate settled, we arrived in DC and finally found the correct parking garage.

After parking, we convened with everyone else and walked to the Freedomworks office nearby. Upon arriving at the office, we were briefed for almost an hour and a half my three different people on how we would be treated and how to argue the issue at hand (the Government takeover of healthcare). After that was over, we all took taxis to the building in which we were first lobbying. Because of some time restraints, the schedule was changed so that we ate lunch before lobbying, where as before we had planned to speak with Congressman Adler's assistant.

After finishing lunch in the cafeteria, we split up into two groups and lobbied to two different Congressmen, Adler and Andrews. The majority of the group went to lobby at Adler's office, whereas Josh, Aaron, and two other Freedomworks representatives went to lobby at Andrews' office. We spoke with Adler's assistant who explained that because there was no current bill describing this issue, the Congressman was "open" to different opinions, although he was a liberal. Despite his seeming support of socialized medicine, his assistant still listened for much longer than the scheduled appointment, and took tedious notes of our argument and alternative plan. After speaking with her for almost an hour, we finally wrapped up and got back on our way to reconvene with the group that met with Andrews.

We met up with Aaron, Josh, and the other two Freedomworks lobbyists in the lobby of the building, and exchanged stories of each meeting on the way to the next building where we were lobbying next. Unfortunately, Aaron, Josh, and the two other Freedomworks lobbyists got completely rejected because he was "busy eating lunch."

We arrived at the other building and hurried up to our next appointment, which we were desperately late for, hence the longer stay at Congressman Adler's office. As we entered Lautenburg's office (the Senator we were supposed to meet with), his assistant explained that she had a very important meeting at the time, and that we could come back in an hour and meet with her then. After that, we currently didn't have anything to do, because our next appointment at Senator Menendez's office wasn't for another thirty minutes.

After discussing the issue, we decided to meet up with my older brother's girlfriend, Annie, who works for Kansas Senator Brownback. We met up with her, and she took us into his office and spoke about her job, and what it's like to intern in an office like his (which she did when she was in college). As we left, we met up with the Senator, who greeted us all and even apologized for not letting us be in his office at the time. In the lobby of his office, one thing that me and Aaron took notice to especially was the debt clock. Annie explained that it is in fact very accurate at calculating the National debt. If I remember correctly, the clock's number was increasing at an amount of about a thousand dollars every couple seconds (pretty dang freaky I know).

We left Brownback's office just in time for both our appointments, which were simultaneous, so we once again split up into two different groups and each took a different office. The majority of us stayed at Menendez's office, while everyone else went to meet up with our re-scheduled appointment at Lautenberg's office. After waiting about forty-five minutes for Menendez's assistant to meet with us, we finally were able to talk to her in the hallway outside his office. She again explained that because there is no current bill on this issue, the Senator doesn't exactly have a fixed position. Daniel, who was the current spokesperson, explained that by taking away the state mandates on health insurance and then allowing citizens of one state to by trans-nationally, it would create much more competition, therefore lowering prices, and making health care more affordable. Menendezs' assistant said she would definitely pass the information on to the Senator and thanked us for our time with her.

After we were finished talking to Menedezs' assistant we walked back to the Freedomworks headquarters where we started our day. Before we left for the day, we met up with my brother who lives in DC near Alexandria. We met with him at a small restaurant near the parking garage and talked for a while. After talking with him, we all left and split up to drive back home.

Thus ends the JSA lobbying trip. T'was awesome indeed.