On Capital Hill

On April 7th - 9th I was in Washington D.C. fighting for my future profession on Capital Hill. Several weeks ago I received an email that the American Optometric Association was looking for students who were interested in going to D.C. and attending the Congressional Advocacy Conference. At the time I was not certain what all this trip and conference entailed, but they were offering to pay for my flight and hotel...how could I turn that down??

I flew into D.C.'s Reagan National Airport early Monday morning and took the subway to my hotel. It was rainy and chilly when I arrived (which was far from the sunny 60 degrees that weather.com claimed it would be). I had a few hours to kill, but the weather was not exactly explorer friendly so I relaxed in my hotel until the conference started. My roommate arrived within in that time, she is also a student at UMSL but is one year ahead of me in school. I knew who she was but had never actually met her. I traveled that day wearing a shirt that had the biggest Jayhawk on it that I could find and this is what I was wearing when I opened the door to let her in the room....come to find out she went to undergrad and UNC and is an avid Tarheel fan...great first meeting huh? Despite our differences we got along just fine, but she did not share in my joy later in the night when we won.

The conference began Monday afternoon, we sat through some lectures about what to expect in the days to come. That evening we had a reception for all conference attendees which included optometry students, doctors, faculty, and staff from all over the nation. After the reception we headed to a bar that had been rented out just for student attendees of the conference. I made sure that this bar had TVs available to watch the game before I committed to going. Once we arrived I learned that these TVs (only 4 in each corner) were about the size of my bedroom TV I got for Christmas in 3rd grade and there was no sound. Additionally, a vast majority of the other students could care less about the game, so I stood against the wall with my eyes glued to the distant TVs. During the second half a friend and I ventured downstairs to the part of the bar not rented out just for our party...come to find out that part of the bar had sound and 10 LARGE flat screen TVs! So we stayed down there for awhile, but things started to turn bad. As the KU lost the lead and the were further behind I decided it was bad luck and went back upstairs to watch the game where I started it.....and it must have worked b/c as we all know Mario made the miracle shot and KU won the National Championship!!

Tuesday morning came much, much too early! The conference began around 8 am. Today's lectures were educating us about the Congressional bills that we were going to Capital Hill to talk to our elected officials about. They also coached us on how to talk to our leaders &/or their staff about our desired issues. Lunch was the best though, not the food believe it or not, but rather the speaker. The keynote speaker was Paul Begala, CNN commentator and former Clinton White House Aide. He was absolutely hilarious!! The best speaker I have EVER heard. He made fun of everyone, Republicans, Democrats, Bush, Clinton, sex scandals....no one was safe. FANTASTIC speech!!
Later that afternoon, I met with the members of the Kansas Optometric Association (KOA) attending the conference and we headed out to our first appointment with Representative Tiarht. Rep Tiarht was not available so we met with one of his staff members. The other Docs did most of the talking, my role was to offer up the amount of debt I will be in when I conclude my education because we are trying to get support for a bill that would include Optometrists in the National Health Service Corps which would offer loan repayment for practicing in rural areas. After the meeting we attended another reception on Capital Hill in which a few Optometry friendly Congressmen were honored for their support of our profession. The KOA members invited me out to dinner and I had the best pork chop I have ever had in my entire life. One of the members is the next KOA president who happens to be the Doctor in Oskaloosa that just built a new office next to the jailhouse on 56 Hwy in Oskaloosa. She and her husband apparently were on the square for 13 years and just built that building....I didn't know there was an O.D. in Oskie...oops.

Wednesday morning was an even earlier start (7:30 am). The students were placed in a hotel about 5 blocks from the conference so getting to the these early meetings meant waking up even earlier. Wednesdays activities were primarily comprised of visits on Capital Hill. Our first was with Sen. Pat Roberts. To discuss our business we met with one of his aides who is a KU alum. (KU winning was a great conversation starter with all f the offices!) As our meeting was coming to an end another member of the office came in and told us that the Senator was running late but he would like us to wait around for him. We hung out in his office and talked KU some more with the alum until he arrived. I was pleasantly surprised at what a nice guy he was. Again we talked basketball, he is a die hard KSU alum, but he told us that on the Senate floor he did the ROCK CHALK Chant! He asked where each of us was from and had a current event or story for each town. When I said Valley Falls he slowly repeated it a couple times, I thought he was stumped, but he then said "Valley Falls Vindicator". He proceeded to tell us about his connection to VF. His great grandfather owned the Vindicator and his other side of the family owned the Oskaloosa Independent. Apparently the two families did not get along (imagine that an Oskie/VF rivalry), but two members ended up getting married. I guess that's how the two papers essentially became one. He said Clark Davis asks him if he's going to get a subscription whenever he visits.

Our next meetings overlapped to the group split up. I asked to go to the meeting with Sen Brownback because my cousin Leslie is on his staff. Our meeting again was with a member of staff, not Leslie she does not do the healthcare related meetings. After the meeting I stuck around and went out to lunch with Leslie. It was nice to sit and chat with her, I don't know if I have ever just sat and talked to her one on one. She gave me a brief tour of Brownback's office, introduced me to him briefly, and also gave me some insight on how the things work in a Senators office. After lunch she took me on a quick personal tour of The Capital. She could have a second career as a tour guide, but I am sure working for the Senator is a little more interesting. We took the underground "trains" that connect all the buildings that have the Congressional offices and The Capital Building. Visitors are only allowed on the trains if they are accompanied by a member of staff. We rode on the elevator with some elderly Representative of the House who was very nice. I did learn from Leslie that Sen Brownback will limit his terms and be done in 2010 and will likely run for Kansas Governor, which means she has the opportunity to move to Kansas and stay on his staff-should he win-or stay in D.C., at this point she's not sure what she's going to do.

My next meeting was with Rep Moore's office he is a KU alum. It looked like Lawrence threw up in his office....it was covered in Jayhawk decor! The last meeting of the day was with Rep Nancy Boyda. She was between meetings and was able to sit down and meet with us. She was a very interesting meeting and had a very different approach to the way she addressed our requests. She stated that she is not in this to make people happy, its just a job and if she's not re-elected she would be just as happy returning to her farm work in Kansas. I found it comforting to know that there is someone there not trying to win over those with the most money and is actually concerned with doing what is right. Another unique statement was in regards a bill that is being heavily opposed by our enemy Ophthalmology. She said that she wanted to hear from both sides before making a decision and it would be difficult to do so with each giving differing stories. She proposed scheduling a meeting (either formal or informal) sometime when she is back in KS with us and the local Ophthalmology leaders to sit and discuss the differences we have on the this particular bill. I was absolutely shocked by this proposal, can you imagine what things would be like if all of our elected officials were willing to take this kind of time to make the decisions that are best for our state/country?? Amazing.

This was the end of the conference and it was time to head home...if my flight had not been canceled that it. I was quite nervous, I was scheduled to be on a 7pm American Airlines flight to St. Louis. The day before over 15 American Airline flights were canceled at Reagan and the 2 o'clock on this day had all ready been canceled. I was quite scared I would be stuck in D.C., but luckily my flight was NOT canceled. Turns out we were the only flight that wasn't!!! It was a full flight too, with many people who were supposed to have been on some of those previously canceled flights. I returned home just in time too, because the past two days they have canceled more and more AA flights.

As you have read....if you have hung in there this long (kudos to you for your determination) you now that I had a very busy couple of days and thus had no real time to site see. We did manage to walk a couple blocks out of our way one night to see the White House, but it was dusk and the pictures did not turn out so well. From that vantage point we could also see the Washington Monument in the distance. I also walked by and was inside The Capital, but never took any pictures.

I was absolutely amazed at how clean this city was. Compared to any other large city I have been in (Atlanta, Chicago, London, St. Louis) this was by far the cleanest! The subways were unbelievable clean and spacious. I would love to go back and actually get to see some of the sights (hopefully it won't be cold and rainy the next time I am there). Optometry's Meeting, the annual national Optometry Conference, will be in D.C. summer 2009....guess I will have to go!

This was an EXCELLENT trip on all accounts: I got to network with KS ODs, it was the best Conference I have been to, it was free!, and DC is spectacular!!