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My trip to DC

I spent the front half of last week in our nation’s capitol and whenever I visit Washington DC, I like to hit as many government offices and/or historical sites as possible during my downtime.  In addition to attending and working the Federation of American Hospital conference, I had three other agenda items – take a Capitol tour, meet with John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, and meet with Representative Kenny Marchant, my House rep from TX District-24.  Unfortunately, Marchant was unavailable on Tuesday (the only day I had available) but his scheduler was kind enough to call me on Wednesday to inform me that he could see me later that afternoon as I was already halfway between DC and Philly.  Sigh.  Oh well, I guess two out of three isn’t all bad.

My chief reason for wanting a sit-down with Rep. Marchant was to discuss the legislation known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) which makes it illegal for banks to allow online poker players from transferring funds into online gaming accounts.  I will save my discussion about the Republican Party’s ridiculous stance against online poker for another post, but it was important to me to get in front of Marchant about this issue since he is a member of the House Finance committee that will be marking up a bill soon that would overturn this element of UIGEA.  This is probably the only topic that Barney Frank and I are on the same side and for that, I am really disappointed in the Republican Party.

John Pappas at the PPA and I had an excellent conversation and he and a staffer at the organization provided me with a great deal of facts and figures as well as summaries of pending legislation in advance of my meeting with Marchant.  They even put my name on “the list” to participate in a charity poker tournament on Wednesday night at the DC Hyatt, but I told them that it wouldn’t be fair for me to win all the money from the charity and that it should be put to better use.  Still wonder why they looked at me oddly…but seriously, I couldn’t play since I would be in Philly that night.  I will be working to get my points in front of Rep. Marchant in the coming weeks either via letter or in person at his Grand Prairie office.

The highlight of the agenda was the tour of the Capitol.  Despite half a dozen trips to DC, I had never gone on the tour and I am a big believer that it is a must-do for all citizens in their lifetime.  The tour itself only takes about an hour and it consists of a short film and a walk-through of  The Crypt, where Washington was originally suppose to be buried, The Rotunda, and the famous “whisper room” which was the original chamber for the House of Representatives.  The amazing thing about the whisper room, and the thing that congressmen hated about it, is that the acoustics are such that a person standing on one side of the room can hear a person’s whisper on the opposite side of the chamber as if they were standing right next to them.  I had read about this room before, but when I witnessed it in person, I was amazed!  I could only imagine how many secret conversations were “overheard” before folks caught on.

After the tour, I was able to get tickets into both the Senate and House chambers.  These are completely free to the public and you can obtain each from your respective House member or Senator’s office across the street from the Capitol.  Both chambers were in session that day and I was able to sit in the “stands” and watch rather mundane activities as well as a couple of speeches given on the floor of each chamber.  What I thought was funny was that NO ONE is in the chamber when the Senator or Representative gives his or her speech with the exception of the Congressperson presiding over the chamber at that time, congressional clerks and some pages.  Heck I could give a hell of a speech if no one is there to watch it.  It was the proverbial tree falling in the forest.  The exercise appeared to merely be a formal way of getting their remarks on the record, but the next time I hear someone say they gave a speech on the floor of the Senate or House, I can not help but wonder how many people were there to hear it.

The other thing that surprised me was the pace of the proceedings.  Everything…seemed…to….move….so…slowly.  The amount of time the clerks, pages, stenographers, etc. were just sitting around doing nothing amazed me.  And the PAPER.  I have never seen so much paper shuffling in my life.  Every individual that walked into the chamber had papers in the hands that they handed to a clerk who would stamp it or pass it to someone else.  So much for going green…

All of this fascinated me, but it also served as a reminder of how inefficient our government operates.  Can we even begin to fathom the bureaucratic nightmare that government-run health care would become?

I was also reminded of another thing during my stint in Washington DC this week.  We have got to make fixing Congress our first priority.  This body controls the purse strings, writes the legislation, and promotes regulations that impact all of us.  It is easy to become fixated on the President and his policies, but our real issues in this country begin with primarily one body of government – Congress.   More thoughts on this coming soon…