A Day in the Life of a Member of Congress

Borrowing the title for this composition from Alexander Solzhenitsyn, with apologies to the author, begs the question, are there similarities between Ivan Denisovitch’s day and an elected Federal Representative’s. I can say this, having read the book many years ago, my days were far busier, more interesting and we had better food but the days were similar in ones loss of freedom, and the fact of extremely long hours.

There really isn’t a typical day as such, since some are spent in Washington while others are spent in the home district, in my case in Syracuse and Central Upstate New York.  The common thread is that they are all interesting.

            In Washington my day began at 6:00 AM with wake up, coffee and the news via WTOP radio. If I had a hearing that day I’d do some reading to prepare. That was normally followed by a half hour of stretching and exercise, followed by a shower, shave and a 5 minute walk to the office. Some days I would stop at the Republican Club for a colleague’s fundraiser or a policy breakfast.

            When I arrived at the office in the Rayburn House Office Building I would greet my staff and sit down with my Chief of Staff and talk about the day ahead or discuss issues of interest back home. My office was on the third floor which is the same floor as my Committee hearing rooms, the House Appropriations Committee, which we conveniently planned. I also had my own subcommittee hearing room in the Capitol building across the street. The rooms were situated on the first floor below the House floor and they were elegant. We had a working fireplace, beautiful furnishings and a wonderful view of the Mall. This is not the norm but as a subcommittee Chairman I was very fortunate.

            From February until June we hold hearings and markups (write bills and vote in Committee) which takes up the majority of my time. The hearings tend to go all day but we are interrupted by votes on the House floor and meetings with constituents and interest groups. There was usually a working lunch with various policy or political sub-groups, for example moderate Republican groups like the Tuesday Group or the Main Street Republicans. I also belonged to a number of caucuses for example the Army caucus, The Hearing Health caucus or the Friends of Ireland.

            Late afternoon I would return to the office for additional meetings with staff, to make phone calls, work on press releases or public statements and then begin to prepare for the next day’s hearing.

            Dinner was generally with the Republican members at the Whip office or the Majority Leaders office and it normally consisted of pizza, Chinese or barbeque. This was a great opportunity to get to know the others, talk about family, friends and outside interests like sports or business. There were always more fundraisers (too many) in the evening and it was good to attend and support ones colleagues.

            Occasionally I would have lunch with constituents and show off the building by providing a personal tour. It was always like seeing it the first time through the eyes of the children who walked through the halls with me.

            After votes I’d return to the office, read the news on the web and glean from local as well as the national newspapers, even the ones I generally disagreed with. Each night after the Congress adjourned the Capitol staff would go on top of the building and physically lower the flag and a few minutes later the light at the top of the Dome would be extinguished. I didn’t always see it happen but it was reassuring to know that it happened the same way every night. After that, a brief walk home and usually a good night’s sleep’

            At home in Syracuse I took more responsibility for my most important  jobs, those being a father and a husband .My wife DeDe and I are partners in everything and I tried to give her a little break from the day to day parenting routine while I was there.. When time allowed I also enjoyed pursuing my favorite pastimes which all revolve around outdoor activities.

            A regular day would entail coffee and the newspaper in bed with DeDe. We would also catch up and coordinate schedules. Sometimes I would go to the Syracuse office but most mornings I would start out on the road visiting businesses, organizations, hospitals, military bases clubs or one of my district offices, which most recently include Palmyra, NY.

            The focus was on the needs of individuals and the needs of the community whereas in Washington the focus was on legislation. Since I was a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, often there were requests for Federal financial aid for local projects. Since Syracuse was the center of the district literally and figuratively much of the activity occurred there. I should note that while people think of politics as partisan no one was ever asked by me or my staff what their party affiliation was.

            I spent a surprising amount of time working on water related issues. The Northeast is rich in water and I saw it as a resource that needed protection because it would be a huge asset to the quality of life and the wealth of the region.

            Often times we would work on a much smaller scale with individual constituents who had personal problems like welfare, veterans or health related issues that were federally related.

            Days usually ended fairly early (compared to Washington) and dinner with the family was always a treasure (or almost always).

            A note or two on atypical days will help me to give you a sense of the period of history in which I served. People often ask what your most difficult vote was. It wasn’t to impeach the President (Clinton). It wasn’t the vote to support the same President’s stimulus package when I was one of only two Republicans to do so. It wasn’t the vote to support President Bush’s financial bailout of Wall Street (which was wildly unpopular). It wasn’t when I had to vote to chastise one of my colleagues who had done some very unfortunate things (a person that I liked). It was the two times I voted to send our soldiers off to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no more difficult decision than that, even after the attack of 9/11 killed thousands of innocent Americans.

            One last point, one of the great privileges of being a Member of the House is to lead the debate on the floor of the House of Representatives. As a subcommittee chairman on Appropriations I introduced and was successful in passing 12 bills, most with bi-partisan support. In some cases I would be involved in the debate for upwards of 15 straight hours fighting off unfriendly amendments and accepting ones that helped the bill. It was a great challenge and great fun to engage with my colleagues in a test of ideas in the greatest hall on the planet.