December 8th; #ONErocksDC Capital Hill

Taken from my Google+:


This day has been very eventful, we had some very successful meetings with our three representatives and our two congressmen. We started the morning with a quick briefing from ONE employees, pediatricians from the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Vice President of the Truman National Security Project. The last, Truman National Security Project, really caught my attention because I learned a lot from the Vice President and a former veteran, Michael Been, who knows first hand the power of foreign aid in Iraq and around the world. This was a topic I had not known much about and it was good to learn more first hand. 

After this we ran over to Capital Hill and began our meeting with Rep. Judy Biggert's office. This was quite an interesting beginning to our first lobbying because the Legislative Assistant was very engaged and asked pressing questions to us. He didn't really put up a 'fight' but was interested in learning more in an area that might not have thought much about. 

Afterwards we ran right over to Rep. Robert Dold's office where we meet with Communication Director of his office who was very warm and welcoming to us, we actually had a 'guest' (one of ONE Member Tzviatko Chiderov's friend) who works in the office sit in on the meeting and ask questions and advocate a bit with us. Rep. Dold is one of our constituents that really feels strongly on the thoughts of ending extreme poverty and understanding how effective these programs are and to continue them. 

When we finished up there we went to my districts office, Rep. Adam Kinzinger. This meeting was one that I thought wouldn't go as well as it did. We met with his Legislative Assistant (Rep Kinzinger was actually on the House floor when we were in the office which was a bit ironic) who warmed up to me when I said I lived in Normal and he was from Normal as well. Rep. Kinzinger has a different form of Republicanism that focuses on finding what programs work and what don't. We gave some information that shows first hand that these programs do work and they are needed, he agreed to an extent and said he would give this along to the Congressman. 


This then finished up our Congresspeople we had to meet with (there were only three of us from Illinois so we hit our constituents!) so we moved onto our Senators, whose meetings were totally different than the Congress meetings. 

First was Sen. Dick Durbin whose staff was extremely nice to us. We joked that we were 'preaching to the choir' about the issues. Sen. Durbin is a great help on all things ONE related, he has championed them before and will continue to. This was a great meeting of the minds. We met with his Legislative Correspondent (once again, ironically he was on the floor, but of the Senate, while we were in his office) and she couldn't have been more open to us and thanked US for the work we do before we had a chance to thank HIM! 

Our second Senator was Mark Kirk whose office was just as helpful as Sen. Durbin. We had a bit of a delay waiting for our meeting but when we got in it was just like the previous office. We met with a Legislative Correspondent who was very helpful. Sen. Kirk is a Republican but understands how importantly foreign aid is, as well as how little is funded for it. Sen. Kirk has seen the effectiveness of the foreign aid and has worked with many bills that have helped fighting extreme poverty, and we are told he will continue to!


Finally we were done with all out lobbying and went to our 'happy-hour' meet and greet with other ONE Members. This was a blast, me and Tzviatko hung out and had some typical bar food just chatting and getting to know each other more. We socialized with other ONE Members who came from 21 other states.


This was only day one in D.C. and I love it already. Tomorrow will be our White House East Wing tour and then off to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building where we will hear from some great speakers from either PEPFAR, Global Health or Trade talks. One more day of great times, then back to hitting the books!