NTCL welcomed new citizen lobbyists, Suzanne and Elizabeth Souza on May 15th. Suzanne, Elizabeth, and Barbara Harless traveled to the capitol to visit with legislators and tour the capitol. Gratitude goes to Rep. Jodie Laubenberg for sponsoring Elizabeth as a House Page for the morning of May 15th.
Elizabeth found this endeavor to be enlightening during her duties to assist the House Messenger when delivering important documents inside the capitol and to a neighboring building, and boring when the House went into session at 10:00am which consisted of her sitting outside the brass rails listening to 2 hours of memorial resolutions which did not address the pressing business of a legislature with only 12 days left in session. She observed that the resolutions were of little importance due to the lack of legislators present and on the House floor.
After a quick lunch following her duties as student house page, she was in awe of the 45 minute Dome Tour which took her and Suzanne up to the very top of the capitol dome. The view was “awesome”! Here’s a view of South Congress.
Later, the trio visited with staff of Senators, asking for support of SB 241 (Smart Meter Opt Out bill), then attended a couple of committee hearings, listening to testimonies and registered for/against some bills. Elizabeth found one bill in particular to be of interest, HB 3379, which deals with municipal employees running for public office w/o penalty from employer. Elizabeth believes everyone should be allowed to serve their community, regardless of their employment. She has some formidable opinions and broadened her spectrum of how governments should operate.