Mark Ups and Past Memories

The committee schedule is frantic and painful. Subcommittee marks on top of full committee on top of floor action. The pace is frantic but exhilirating. So a mark up is a committee function where we go line by line through a bill to make changes via amendments. the best part is that you can offer an amenemdnet at any time to change things. It makes people scramble and the staffers better be on their toes! I like this part of the job. it makes me happy and excited. I just hope I am ready.

When I was a young LA working on commerce issues I used to work with a girl Blair and she worked for a member from the midwest. Every mark up her boss would turn around and smash her about her quality of work. Blair's boss would ask her a question and if she couldnt answer quick enough you would her her say, "Why did I hire you?" now Blair is an incredible intelligent and articluate person, but man, her boss beat her up. The worst is that on the dias you sit on top of each other so everybody could hear the dressing downs.

Another time, C-Span was covering one of my mark ups. I was sitting there with Christian and we were talking about the amendments. E&C was a very bipartisan committee and dems and reps always walked back and forth between sides to talk about what they were doing and what people were thinking. During this mark, Christian and I were talking and the Chairman's counsel a totally smart and beautiful blonde walked by us to speak to Mr. Dingell who was at the end of the dias. When she walked by Christian and I totally checked her out. We kept on talking and when she crossed our field of view on her way back to her side we totally stared at her. Now all of this was on C-Span. The mark up was quick and when I got back to the office my Chief of Staff callled me into his office. He shut the door and just started to bust out laughing. he told me the whole story, i was a little mortified but who watches comittee marks. Apparently alot of people do because I had 8 to ten messages in my in box when I finally made it to my desk. Most of th emessage were, "Dude do you have to stare?"

Work has its moments.