Day 1 in DC According to Kate

Wednesday, January 14

We spent Wednesday exploring Capitol Hill. Our rush-hour Metro ride went smoother than I expected considering most of the group were unfamiliar with the system. We ran into one chaotic point at a transfer station and it gave us a nice glimpse of what our travels will be like once the city starts filling up for the inauguration. The students did great, though! They’re learning that “Minnesota Nice” won’t get you on the train :)

Our time on the Hill began at the brand new Capitol Visitor’s Center. It is a major addition to the Capitol…the project was majorly over budget and majorly behind schedule too. It was supposed to open in time for George W. Bush’s second inauguration, but it just opened about a month ago. They still had some kinks to work out in the system, but I will say that it was a much better tour than you got under the old system. The tours used to be given by staffers from your congress member’s office. This usually meant a college intern who maybe had only been at the job for a few days. It was hit or miss. Now it’s all done by trained tour guides who actually know things about art and architecture and politics.

After our tour, we used the gallery passes we got from Senator Klobuchar’s office (I ran over to get them while Brian led the students up to the front doors of the Capitol, where they got yelled at by a guard with a gun…different story) to sit in the Senate gallery. There wasn’t a lot of activity on the floor even though they were in session but we were all still excited because there was a meeting of “also rans” in the corner of the floor nearest our seats. We looked down on Senators John Kerry, Christopher Dodd, and Hillary Clinton having an intense conversation. It may have been related to Hillary’s nomination for Secretary of State. Just the day before, she had given testimony in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which Kerry is the Chair. Dodd is also a member of the committee.

At the other end of the floor, Joe Lieberman was meeting with a group that appeared to include Clair McCaskill. A while later, I saw Joe walk past the also ran group. He paused, they ignored him and continued their conversation, and he turned and walked away. Interesting dynamics, but no real surprise given with their frustration with his decision to campaign for McCain rather than a Democrat.

We took a break for lunch and then Brian and I headed up to the House gallery to check out the action. We walked in on an intense debate over the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. This was the bill that Congress passed, and the President vetoed, twice last session. The Republicans were putting up a good fight, complaining about the closed rule (no amendments allowed), the deficit spending required to fund the program, and the potential for illegal immigrants to gain access to the program. The Democrats spent most of their time refuting those arguments and congratulating themselves for making the bill a top priority. We saw speeches from civil rights leader John Lewis, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader John Boehner, Henry Waxman, John Dingell, Charles Rangle, and many others. I also thought it was interesting to see how Waxman and Pelosi tried to stroke Dingell’s ego by praising him for his leadership in brining the bill to the floor. This after they just recently engineered an overthrow of his position as Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

After the time for debate ended, the Republican floor leader made a motion to recommit the bill to the committees with instructions. The submitted a counter proposal and the clerk began reading the proposal. The representatives let her read for awhile while they decided on their strategy and wrote up some comments for debate. After a few minutes, someone moved to dismiss the reading of the motion and they began a brief debate over the motion. The presiding officer (Nancy wasn’t presiding…I think she wanted to vote on this one) then called for a voice vote on the motion to recommit. It failed and the Republicans called a point of order because of the lack of quorum (they need to have a certain number of Representatives there to officially do business). This set off a recorded vote which lasted 15 minutes and brought nearly everyone to the floor. We watched as they all lingered around on the floor for the vote on the motion to recommit and for the final vote on the bill, which was a recorded vote. For a politics nerd, it was like seeing all your favorite celebrities in one room.