After arriving around 9 am to Representative Grier Martin’s office in the General assembly, I was welcomed by his legislative assistant, Christopher Hailey. He showed me around the main General Assembly building as well as the legislative office building nearby. There was a protest going on in the main building, which was supposed to be concerning the changes to the Pension and Retirement section of the budget, but ended up being about the efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare. They began by giving speeches in front of the doors to the House Floor (pictured above), then they marched through to the Speaker’s office, chanting, and we watched them get arrested and filed out the door. Afterwards, I helped out with answering emails to constituents, and looked over Representative Martin’s calendar for the day. At 11:30, Rep. Martin came from Caucus and met with a constituent who was an architect and was concerned about a bill that was up for a vote that would allow interior designers to be able to sign off on building plans. The architect argued that this would cause safety code violations as interior designers are unqualified. He was oddly very passionate. We then headed to lunch. I then accompanied Mr. Hailey to a committee meeting to approve the Pension and Retirement section of the budget. Things were tense between the committee chair and a senior member, as he wasn’t allowed to add amendments or a recount of the final vote. The meeting was genuinely interesting and provided insight into how strong of a hold the Republicans have of the state legislature. At 3 pm, the final Session of the day began. Sessions are where the House meets to vote on a bill. Before it begins, the Speaker reads out who Reps have “extended courtesy”, or invited to the session. Then you have to stand up and wave as the General Assembly also stands and claps for you for some reason. My name was called and I was mortified. Next, bills were read and voted on, including the architecture bill which was on today’s schedule but was tabled for Thursday. I can’t wait for tomorrow, when the budget is going to be the main focus!