So here I am in Washington, taking a couple of PTO days, seeing the sights, just chilling, going to meet some friends on Wednesday. Just didn’t feel like driving or flying anywhere far, since I have to break the vacation up by hitting a meeting on Friday.
I was interested to see if it would be possible to view a session of the House or Senate for an hour or so. It would be easy were I not a U.S. citizen!
Got that? My rep is Brad Miller. Last time I sent him and email and a letter, it took 5 months for him to respond. I could probably get one from Elizabeth Dole pretty fast, but not fast enought to see them in session Wed or Thurs.
Rather disturbing for our democracy, eh?
Wednesday update: It is actually rather easy to get the tickets. All one needs to do is go to your House rep for House tickets, and same for Senate. They will be at the front desk. Found that out at on the Capital building tour.
Also, the international folks only get a day pass. The ones you get from your Rep/Senator are good for two years.
I got both, but only went in to the House (got that one first, then Senate afterwards.) Got to listen to Charlie Rangel introduce some bill that would give more money to people because they lost their jobs due to globalization.
That is a bit strange that non-U.S. citizens apparently have an easier time getting in.
If you want to see something really inspiring about our democracy may I suggest the National Archives? We lived in DC for two years and I loved showing my children the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence!
Actually the first thing I did yesterday. Missed it last time was here over the summer.
Saw the docs before, but that was long, long ago. Great stuff.