My day in Downtown Raleigh in a lobbyist’s high-heeled pumps started off on the wrong foot- pun intended. I was a bit early, and I walked into what I thought was the right building, ready to seize the day… only to realize that I had entered the wrong legislative building! Fortunately, my mishap was not life-altering: the right building was only about 400 feet to my right, and I still managed to arrive right on time.
I met Mrs. Ashley Perkinson in the quad area/greenspace of the main legislative building for the first time. We sat down and chatted for a while about what were going to be the main events of our time together, and her job within the complex system that is state legislature. She is a lobbyist with a focus in advocacy for underrepresented groups, which I admire very much. She also commended our luck for my arrival on such a hallowed day: just last night, the North Carolina budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year was announced. As one could imagine, the Senators and Representatives that comprise of the NC Congress had much to say about the cuts, re-allocations, and new funding all together. We still had about an hour to kill before the 10 am committee session, and Mrs. Perkinson had some letters of thanks to deliver to various senators and representatives for their help passing one of her bills that she was strongly advocating for, which happened to be better suicide prevention aid, resources, and accessibility for teens. In this time, we also scheduled many meetings for tomorrow!
After this, we waited outside the main chamber in which the discourse would be held for about 30 minutes before the doors were opened. I couldn’t help but notice how strikingly similar the shuffle inside the doors towards the seating area was to the students at CA slowly making their way into the lunchroom… but I digress! The next three hours or so were filled with members of the house and senate speaking on the various budget augmentations and contractions, and they spoke on everything from school safety to the need for cleaner drinking water produced from Falls Lake. I took copious notes, as did almost everyone else in the room! After these discussions, there was a questioning period that I would consider to be the most interesting component of this particular activity. The questions were mostly unfiltered with the intention to clear up, gain further knowledge, or even discredit certain parts of the budget, and the latter most certainly made for the most entertaining for the viewer.
After this, we had a late lunch with one of Mrs. Perkinson’s co-workers that happens to be a close confidant at the Planet Cafe, and we discussed everything from their typical daily schedule to what is usually debated about within Speech and Debate. I enjoyed my day of getting acclimated to one of the more important moments in legislature, and also getting to know Mrs. Perkinson!
