March Recess - Hurrah!

I think after the budget vote-arama, everyone is still recuperating, and gearing up for the next wave of legislation. With the Iraq was 5-year anniversary, Bear Stearns bailout, recession in the wings, and concern about gas prices, clean air and water, safe food and toys, and always the economy, with regular distraction of the campaign, there is much work to be done.

This week and next is time for the members to "work in the district" (aka recess), so staff is relaxed, often out on vacation, with a real sense of catching up. Today I explored back staircases of the Capitol, looking for the staircase to the top. Didn't find it (later learned that only a Member of the Sergeant of Arms is allowed to take you up) but did find the press briefing room that the president uses - it's surprisingly small.

I'm starting to review possible public health initiatives to suggest to the Senator to consider introducing. I'm leaning toward issues related to public health and violence prevention, public health and the built environment, and public health and energy policies. I need to review what's already been introduced in this session (110th Congress) to avoid duplication.

In addition, any bill sponsored by a current candidate is unlikely to "move" this year, at least until after the general election (which is understandable but unfortunate, as there are two bills in particular with Sens. Obama's and Clinton's name on them, including "Healthy Places" - S. 2506 and "Healthy Communities Act" - S. 2047). The Healthy Communities Act identifies and addresses problems in communities that are at high risk from environmental contaminants, and the Healthy Places Act addresses the role of housing, parks, trails, roadways, and public transportation to healthy lifestyles, assessing and supporting improvements to the built environment. The very same issues that I am interested in. Certainly constituents should write to their own Senators asking them to cosponsor these bills, and New Yorkers and Illinoisans can ask their candidates to move the bills as soon as possible.

APHA has an excellent primer on the Congressional budget process, far clearer than I can explain, and definitely worth visiting:

- http://www.apha.org/NR/rdonlyres/E68C75BA-F173-4C48-BF96-6844FBAEB35A/0/budget_101.pdf
After attending a workshop on the budget reconciliation process, I also attended a session about researching legal resources. LOC (Library of Congress) offers staffers these wonderful seminars. Highlights from last week include:

Interesting info on Senate art and history (am I becoming a senate nerd already?) at:
- http://www.senate.gov/ (click on "art and history") which explain political cartoons, engravings, photos, paintings, sculpture, etc all here in the Capitol (senate side, of course!), with some very interesting tidbits under "people" if you've never visited this site before. Nobel Prize winners, indeed!

A good source for federal documents and resources is the General Printing Office (I remember writing to them decades ago for brochures), found at:
- http://www.gpoaccess.gov/. Look for the Code of Federal Regulations, info about the Supreme Court, the Federal Register, the U.S. Code, Congressional Record, conference reports, and all sorts of fun stuff we staffers use on the Hill for documentation and reference.
- http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/ is another good source for the U.S. Code

Of course, http://thomas.loc.gov/ is familiar, and has lots of good info about Congress ("In the spirit of Thomas Jefferson, legislative information from the Library of Congress.")

Other sites recommended included how a bill becomes a law:
- http://clerkkids.house.gov/laws

Finding actual laws online:
- http://www.law.cornell.edu, the Cornell law library for laws and the popular name table (since often laws in code are referred to only by title number)
- also on the thomas.gov homepage

Finding federal judicial cases and opinions:
- http://www.uscourts.gov
and information about how to find legal information:
- http://www.loc.gov/law/public/law.html

You can also find the briefings of the committees your elected officials sit on, how they voted, and of particular interest to the curious, the archive of the proceedings of the first Congresses at:
- http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html

There's a different sense of security here than anywhere else I've worked. When I worked at the university, there was a sense of community and invincibility (that's certainly changed, clearly, with the recent wave of unpredictable campus violence). When I worked at the state department of health before that, it felt like working in any office building. Now working in a senate office building, I feel both safer (security screening for everyone who enters, police presence in- and outside the buildings) and at greater risk. We get email messages from security about which exits to avoid, when an intruder is in the area (in restricted airspace, for example), or when demonstrators are blocking a building exit.

Still, it's fun, and there's nothing else I'd rather be doing. And now, it's cherry blossom time!

Question of the week: who was the first female senator, in 1922?