D.C.: Day Four

Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011

This was the big day. All the state doctor reps were at the hotel with us students now. Our early meeting was huge in its attendance. Keynote speakers were supportive senators and chiropractic’s most decorated fan, Becky Halstead, a retired Brigadier General—the first female graduate of West Point to become a general officer.  She spoke to us about how chiropractics had helped her and her soldiers break drug addictions and find relief from their pain.

Near the end of the meeting, we got our lobbying assignments, and, to our dismay, found no Washington State appointments. Jaron, (another) Megan, and I were in one group to lobby just two appointments with New Hampshire and Virginia representatives. All three of us were from Washington State and wanted to speak with our officials from there. Megan was a rockstar and set up three more appointments with WA people and kept us busy the whole afternoon. We met with Congressman, Adam Smith, and Senator Becky McMorrison, both from WA, and a slew of other representative and senator’s staffers. We asked them to cosponsor bills which would allow veterans chiropractic care, open opportunities for chiropractors to work in underserved communities in compensation for loan repayment, and get chiropractics covered by major insurance companies. I felt pretty professional. So fun to see all the young staffers—that would be a job I could enjoy. So would full-time lobbying be. 

 

After an afternoon of racing from appointment to appointment, we found an hour to go visit the galleries of the house and senate. The house was dark and full of leather. Speakers from either side argued their points for five minutes each, but no one was really listening. Everyone seemed to be holding their own conversations. The senate, on the other hand, was decorated elaborately in lots of blues and whites. We were given a pamphlet explaining the history and current function of this side. We also watched two speakers: the first, I did not know, but the second was Patty Murray, of WA, who was arguing against cutting costs for air traffic control. Everyone was attentive, except for the very bored pages, who had to sit on the carpeted steps for who knows how many hours at time.

After that nice break off of our feet, we headed to the Congressional Reception, there we enjoyed fine cheese and fruits while supportive senators made speeches and students aggressively networked for future job positions. My feet killed. A whole day and a half of walking/running around in heels wasn’t doing me too well. But, we stayed long enough to meet everyone of importance and more people of unimportance. We got our pictures taken with the president of the ACA, and a whole bunch of other people I didn’t know. I’m not sure why, but we didn’t get any pics of us with senators. Sorry.

At the end of the night, we took the metro home (thankfully!), packed up our stuff, and went out for one last real meal, which turned out to not me so real after all. We ended up paying $15 for a burger to split that was nothing more than a hostess bun, a slab of meat, and one piece of lettuce; Could have probably got a more filling burger from McDonalds. We did get a very tasty appetizer and a high-class bar atmosphere, which I suppose we were paying for. But, I still can’t get over how small that expensive burger was.

Oh well.