HOT HOT HOT, New Ideas for Legislation

It is intriguing to see what different constituents have to say to their Congressperson. Without going into any specifics, I'll explain. It is the right of every constituent to express their opinions about any current legislation that is being considered as well as to raise issues that they believe the Representative and Congress should be addressing. It is interesting to see and hear the wide range of topics that are presented, and oftentimes, the basis and context in which they are presented.

Sometimes the 'facts' that are communicated behind an issue appear to be distorted. For example one recent letter raised the issue of a significant difference in the pensions between retired Army Veterans and retired Representatives. The constituent's perspective that the two were widely apart in terms of dollars and appropriateness was backed by their belief that a retired one-term Representatives pension was more than 10-times than a veterans. It got me to thinking, how often do you ever think about a retired Congressman's pension? While the facts behind the issue may be different than believed, the issue here though, was that the constituent wanted his Representative to support an increase in Veterans' retirement pensions.

It is extremely important to note, however, that it is not the role of a Congressman to debate specifics with their constituents. Rather, it is important for them to be able to listen and understand what is important to the people that they represent and to use the available forums and processes of the Office to move those concerns through Congress as appropriate.

As I pass my half-way mark of my summer internship experience, I realize that I am gaining a deeper insight and respect for how our system of representative government works. I am looking forward to each day to learn how all of the parts of our Office work to achieve these goals.