A Year To Remember

President-elect Obama completes his major cabinet picks, POTUS Bush agrees to tap TARP funds for a short save of the auto industry, NPR spends two days talking about outgoing Senators signing their desks, and I'm spending my last day of 2008 as the APHA health fellow. With approval to extend the fellowship, I'll be spending another month or two here until I find a job (or run out of money).

And wow, did this year amaze! Who ever would have expected a year ago what the planet, the world, the nation, and Congress would have experienced! We're still reeling. Wars, recession, bailouts, weather events, campaign events and outcomes, and more.

I'm very encouraged by talk of making progress on health (care) reform next year, and we all need to be contacting our Congress members to remind them to include public health and prevention.

According to the National Journal, energy, health and service were the hot topics for Congress in 2008. This was calculated by Sunlight Foundation's Capitol Words, a site that converts members' statements in the Congressional Record into data. In the past year, the word "energy" was either spoken on the House and Senate floor or inserted into the record's extended remarks over 50,000 times. "Health" came in second place at 41,000; "service" was third with 37,287. I'm encouraged!

Some key resources for health legislation recommendations include:

- Senator Baucus's paper [“Call to Action: Health Reform 2009” - http://finance.senate.gov/healthreform2009/home.html],
- Trust for America's Health reports on modernizing health care and on prevention [http://healthyamericans.org/], and
- Partnership for Prevention reports on health care refortm recommendations [http://www.prevent.org/content/view/197/].

And my fellowship by the numbers:

- 120 Constituent meetings
- 20 Briefings attended, prepared senator for 3 hearings
- 5 Public Health Bills (SDAWS, La CURA, Helping HANDS for Autism, HIA, PHCCA), working on a 6th
- 4 Floor speeches (food safety, ROI, public health and climate change, HIA/PHCCA)
- 29 Cosigned/cosponsored bills or letters managed
- 3 Letters drafted to federal agencies (Leavitt, FDA, SAMSHA)
- 10 district talking points appearances and 10 One-pagers on bills or issues
- 1 afternoon on the floor of the Senate and sending my mom that page in the Congressional Record (where my boss asked for unanimous consent for me)
- 1 Proclamation drafted and approved
- 6 receptions
- 9 state or national Presentations about the fellowship, and 2 awards
- 1 staff holiday party
- 2 unanticipated highlights: NJ no longer being the most politically corrupt state and making the Senate Softball all-star team
- 2 private tours - the Archives and the Capitol Visitors Center, and
- many new friends and colleagues.

The office AAAS Fellow was just hired by a Congressman, so he'll be working for the House (congrats, John!), and I'm still sending out resumes. Yesterday I went down to room 40 in the Dirksen basement, where the newly elected senators have temporary offices (you saw the delivery of new office equipment - copy machines, desks and computers) all during the week. I hand-delivered 3 cv's addressed to the recently announced chiefs of staff (for New Hampshire - Shaheen, my first choice, I think; for North Carolina - Hagan; and for Virginia - Warner).

I recently found on the Senate intranet, Webster, a link (ProQuest) to the full versions of every journal published!! What an amazing resource. In addition, there's also FrontPage, which is impressive access to news outlets worldwide, at our fingertips.

This is where I found the "yellow book," the Leadership Directory for all Congress members. It lists committees, staff and other descriptive information; very helpful when applying for jobs.

In the office, we continue to see constituents, purge old paperwork - so save those fancy folder covers when you make a visit, catch up on constituent mail (which we now are answering by email if you emailed us), and other end-of-year tasks. We're also gearing up for next year's new session, prioritizing issues and preparing background briefs on them, identifying constituent groups who to include in the effort, and planning a staff retreat in early February. Never a dull moment.

Earlier this week I had dinner with the new APHA Fellow for 2009 (shout out to Monica Feit) and our APHA sponsor. It was fun to now know the answers to her understandable questions, and to share experiences and advice. APHA has funding for a 2010 fellow, too, so if you're interested (and, as you can tell, it's a fabulous experience if you could spend a year in D.C.), keep your eyes out for an announcement around March.

The rest of my year will be spent preparing an presentation for an advocacy class at George Washington University, memos and a panel presentation for incoming Brookings LEGIS Fellows, and spending some free time in the city with spouse and friends, just playing and enjoying the holiday season.

So, fingers crossed for a good view of the inaugural swearing in and parade, and for a happy, healthy, safe holiday and prosperous new year for all.

Thanks for reading.