Today was my second day of work experience but my first day of work experience in person. Today I got to meet Samantha Saunders, who was Representative Harris’s legislative assistant and I got to meet Representative Harris himself. I started out the day by getting a tour around the Legislative Building from Representative Harris himself. I got to see the house floor, the viewing gallery, and the balcony of the building.
House Floor:
Then we returned to the office where I continued working on my project to outline the guidelines of the American Rescue Plan and how the state of North Carolina has already allocated some of that money. While we all were working, visitors would always stop by to either pass along a message or talk to Representative Harris. I had the opportunity of meeting some really cool people who came in to talk to Representative Harris including a woman who works at UNC Charlotte and a woman from the North Carolina Democratic Party. Today was an interesting day as Senate Republicans had just introduced a bill that has a variety of different tax cuts. Representative Harris explained to me how my second project for the week, which was to research North Carolina’s tax revenue and GDP in comparison to other states, would be important to fighting the Republican’s proposed bill. While I was working in the office I also had the opportunity to listen to a press conference that was being done in the Legislative Building discussing the recent bill that the Republican Senators had introduced. There was an obvious sense of frustration among Representative Harris and Samantha as the information that the Republican Senators were giving in the press conference was not necessarily the most factual. After lunch, I had the opportunity to attend a committee meeting for the Senate Finance Committee where the Senators were discussing the recently proposed bill full of tax cuts. Some of the conversations were a little confusing to me but I also was slightly frustrated with some parts of the bill. Personally, I, like the Representative, am not a big fan of the new proposed bill. However, being able to watch the committee meeting was a really great experience for me. After I got back from the committee meeting, I continued work in the office and I was able to meet some of the Legislative Assistants for the other representatives. Today was a really great experience and I look forward to doing more tomorrow.