The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Emily M. during the 2007-2008 League.
Legislative Session and Committee Meeting
Spring is the season of robins and daffodils. It is also the season in which the roads are good enough to venture a trip to Lansing. So in April, when the snow had melted, I called the office of my representative, Minority Floor Leader, Craig DeRoche. I hoped to schedule the shadow experience and an interview while I was in Lansing to see the legislature in session. Ruth Ann Jirasek, special assistant to Rep. DeRoche, was very thoughtful and helpful in planning my day at the capitol. After a few phone calls and several E-mails, we had the day's agenda.
On Tuesday the 29th, I arrived in Lansing at about 10:15 AM. Rep. DeRoche and Mrs. Jirasek were unexpectedly delayed, but I met Cale Sauter, constituent affairs director, who took me to see the committee meeting.
The House Committee of Education, chaired by Rep. Tim Melton, was discussing HR 268. The purpose of the bill was to reauthorize No Child Left Behind; Ms. Lisa Hinkel, Vice President of the Grand Rapids school board, was there to testify. She was accompanied by Rep. Michael Sak from district 76, who I would see a lot that day. Ms. Hinkel talked about some of the unintended consequences of No Child Left Behind, such as counting a single child as more than one in some situations, flexibility issues and accountability, and also how the reauthorization would correct a few of the flaws. Questions were asked by several of the representatives, and all were well handled by Ms. Hinkel. There was also a bit of a spat between representatives Knollenburg and Sak, when Rep. Knollenburg said something to the effect that all of this was a waste of time, and Rep. Sak pointed out that Ms. Hinkel had given her day to come and testify about this and gives her time every day to educating children; all that Rep. Knollenburg had to do was sit and listen for an hour. Overall, I found the committee meeting fascinating, and enjoyed listening to the questions and discussion.
After the committee meeting, I met Mrs. Jirasek in Rep. DeRoche's office. She took me on a tour of the capitol, and checked to see if it was possible for us to go up into the dome. We weren't able to get into the dome, but as we passed the House, Rep. Sak offered to take us onto the floor along with some red hat ladies. Though I have already been on the house floor, I love to be there, so I was glad we had a chance to go.
Watching the legislative session did not go quite as smoothly as the committee meeting did. When it was finally time for the session to begin, Mrs. Jirasek took me into the gallery, and we sat down to watch. After the representatives greeted their constituents in the gallery and said the pledge, they all began to leave for caucus meetings. Mrs. Jirasek told me that there was no way to know how long a caucus meeting would last but an average caucus meeting could be anywhere from one to two hours. So, in order to make good use of the available time in Lansing, I decided to pay a visit to the SSI office. Mrs. Jirasek offered to give me a call when the representatives were out of caucus, so I set off. About ten minutes later, as I was preparing to turn into the SSI parking lot, the phone rang; the caucus meetings were over. So I turned around and navigated back through the one way streets to the capitol. When I had finally parked, walked to the capitol and made my way back inside and into the gallery, I opened the door just in time to hear the gavel on the last vote of the day. The whole thing, caucus meetings and all had not lasted more than twenty minutes. I had missed it. Mrs. Jirasek, who had been so kind and helpful all day, let me know that I could also watch the sessions on-line, and gave me the web-site and the time when it would be on.
So the next day, for about an hour, I watched the live House session, trying to keep up with my notes. I say trying to keep up; I had no idea things moved so quickly in the legislature. In the hour I watched the session, thirteen bills were voted on, because they were all out of committee. I had expected to see at least one of the representatives speak, but in that I was disappointed. I also thought I might see a bill voted down, but that did not happen either. All thirteen bills passed with zero nay votes and only two or three abstentions. I also expected the representatives to be a little more orderly, all sitting in their seats, listening quietly, like we do at SSI. I was somewhat surprised to see many of them up and walking around, talking or reading the newspaper. At one point majority floor leader, Rep. Angerer, asked, "If the representatives will stay in their seats" so they could get through all the bills and be done quickly. There were also lots of greetings to constituents visiting in the gallery; everyone from the new bishop of the Lansing diocese to the Daisy Brook Elementary School located in the "baby food capital of the world." Each received a greeting from both their representative and Speaker Pro Tempore Sak.
The whole experience was very different from what I had first anticipated. I learned quite a bit from it though, and had some of my false impressions corrected. Over all, it was a good experience, I'm glad I had a chance to go.
