March 14th, 2009 by Jess

I apologize for the brief delay in covering the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support’s Hearing on Protecting Lower-Income Families While Fighting Global Warming.

When I tuned in to listen to the hearing live on Thursday morning, the website gave me a message that the meeting was not in session.  I called the main Ways & Means Committee number (yes, anyone can do that) and was transferred around until I reached the relevant Subcommittee, where I was told that there was no such hearing today.  Discouraged by the misinformation on the website, I decided to see if I could figure out when the hearing was to be rescheduled.  After a few minutes of fruitless searching on the internet, I decided to call back and see if they knew what had happened, if and when the hearing was rescheduled, or if it was moved to another committee.  I called the office I had just spoken with directly and now, five minutes later, the same person answered and confirmed that the hearing was currently in session and that the audio would be posted the site later that day.  Yay!

We are fortunate to live in a country with a government that works this way.  Absolutely anyone can call up a congressional committee office or the local and/or federal office of a member of Congress.  In the several years I have worked in Washington DC, I have had to deal with many unhelpful, unpleasant people.  The fact is that most of them worked in the private sector.  I cannot remember a single interaction with an employee at any of the congressional offices that was not completely professional, polite, and helpful.  Even in this case, my initial call served to alert them to an issue (missing hearing footage!) that was then identified and corrected within minutes.

I think sometimes we have internal barriers with contacting the offices of our elected representatives.  The first several times I did it, I was nervous and went in with the assumption that I would have to struggle to get what I needed.  The fact is that most of employees answering the phones in our congressional members are young, enthusiastic, extremely dedicated people.  They are passionate about politics and about doing their jobs well.  Entry level congressional office jobs are hard work and don’t pay particularly well (or at all, if they are interns).

The government can seem frustrating, intimidating, and a whole host of other adjectives.  But sometimes it’s good to remember that behind “the government,” there are a bunch of people like you and I.

And the audio from the hearing is now posted on the committee website, available for any of us to listen in on some members of the government doing their jobs.