Author: katie_grush

WW2 trucks stationed outside old capital building

House of Representatives convened in the old capital building

WW2 memorial and honoring fallen soldiers

6/6/19
Today was the 75 memorial of D-Day, so naturally, the legislators gathered together to remember those who were fallen and celebrate our freedom. I entered the day thinking that the entire ceremony was just for show, and left awestruck by the heartfelt messages spoken in the chamber. The House convened in the old capital chamber at 11am, to “debate” a bill to honor the heroes of D-Day. I say debate because that is the formal wording, but in reality all the representatives did was convey their love of their country. I was particularly touched when soldiers who battled in Normandy France entered to receive awards and speak. These soldiers were in their late teens when they fought for our freedom. Barely older than myself currently. Now they are about to reach 100 years old. Each of the representatives had the opportunity to speak if they so desired, and I was shocked by the number of representatives, men, and women, who had served in the armed forces. Then came the second generation, those who remembered war stories from their childhood told by their friends’ parents. When Rep. Martin spoke, his words really humbled me. It is hard to imagine, but if it wasn’t for those brave soldiers, many of us wouldn’t be alive today or have the freedoms we are granted. One Representative mentioned that in talking to a veteran, the veteran told him a joke of sorts. When a person says thank you for my freedom, he responded: “well at that moment I was fighting for my freedom, but I’m glad it worked out for you too!” After session ended, we all traveled outside to meet French dignitaries who wanted to honor the veterans for their freedom fight with a bronze medal. France is grateful to the US because, during the D-Day battle on French soil, it was American soldiers who did the fighting, not French. Finally, we traveled to the WW2 memorial where a Veteran read this lovely poem about the realities of war. Sadly I was too far away to understand the author. Then a marine corp cadet read the names of all 43 North Carolinians killed on D-Day. Their memory was properly honored with a wreath-laying ceremony, the firing of guns, and the playing of the trumpet. Today had such an impact on me that I will never forget it for the rest of my life. I am proud to be an American.

Veto override live coverage. Too full to get a seat

6/5/19

There is nothing else to say about today besides wow. I spent the entire day trying to understand HB 359 (abortion bill) and meeting with constituents. First, Chris and I traveled to Rep. Cunningham’s office where she explained what being born alive after an abortion was. The wording was confusing Chris and I. We couldn’t understand how an embryo could be alive after an abortion because the whole purpose of an abortion was to get rid of the embryo. She explained that it was in relation to late term pregnancy abortions, where a baby could survive, just prematurely. She also explained that the only way a baby would live was if their lung lining was developed enough for them to breath. This all depended on the gestation period and how thick the umbilical cord was. The purpose of this bill was to make doctors liable for not providing care for a baby when a heartbeat was detected. I was again confused because I didn’t understand how a doctor could not provide care to a premature infant. Wasn’t that their job in the first place? In the end, the bill wasn’t specifically about saving babies. The purpose was to make certain parties look bad to their constituents, and aid in bringing cases to the Supreme Court so that they would overrule Roe v Wade. Lots of lobbyists and constituents came into the office trying to talk to Rep. Martin. While that was warmly welcomed, the choice of words and tone of voice did not seem professional in my opinion. Rep. Martin had already made up his mind, based mainly on the fact that this was already law and served no positive purpose to him or his constituents. While the majority of constituents agreed with sustaining the veto, the constituents who disagreed came in or wrote angry letters. Overall, he honored the majority of the wishes of his constituents and voted his conscience. The veto was not overridden when brought to session, but there were good arguments as to why it should be. I had a great day with many once in a lifetime experiences.

The House calendar showing the transportation committee meeting and the bills they voted on.

Miss USA came to talk to the general assembly!

Let them spawn is HB 483

6/4/19
My day had a spawning start. Quite literally. At 10 we had a meeting with 2 lobbyists who were pushing for the let them spawn bill, which would force fishermen to throw back 75% of undersized fish who haven’t spawned fish babies yet. While it seems like something we should already be doing, Rep. Martin proposed some interesting questions such as what is the significance of 75%, what types of fish would this apply to, what his colleagues were saying, and would the marine biologist experts be involved? We both found it very cool that the lobbyists mentioned that one of the most influential and environmentally focused representatives opposed the bill. It gave them more credibility. After that meeting, we headed to the transportation committee meeting. I enjoyed seeing a committee meeting with very little dissent towards the bill. The committee debated and approved a bill placing stricter guidelines on paid car services such as lyft and uber so that the riders wouldn’t be placed in as much danger. This came about again after a South Carolina student was abused while riding in an Uber. These new rules force these companies to place license plate numbers on the front as well as the back of the car, have an illuminated company sign, and to display their car type color and a picture of the driver on the platform’s website. Last on the schedule for the day was session, where as usual the representatives voted on bills. I’m looking forward to tomorrow because we will be voting on the veto override bill (born alive abortion bill).

The executive mansion

6/3/19

Today was so busy I barely had time to take a deep breath! It started off promptly at 9:30 where we met with Jeff Coultrane the policy adviser for education K-12. He told us a lot about funding for different less advantaged counties which was eye opening for me because I have been privileged enough to live in Wake county my whole life. After Jeff, we met with LaTonya who is the teacher adviser. Her job is to travel around the state talking to teachers to get their opinions and then convey their ideas to the governor or his advisers. Then we met with Daryl, who told us about criminal justice policy. It was interesting how many opportunities there are in a normal day for any person to be arrested. If a police person wanted to arrest me, all they have to do is follow me around for a few hours before a conscious, aware, person like me would break the law. Our final meeting was with Sarah who is the policy director. Similarly, she never thought she would become a policy person, especially while she was travelling the world. She is the boss of all the policy directors and her job summary is to help make the policy advisers jobs easier.
After saying goodbye to Eliza for the day, we headed to the executive mansion and took a backstage tour. Jack told us lots of funny stories about the first family and the history of the executive mansion. Governor Polk was the first governor to live in the executive mansion, but he sadly died 4 months into his term. His bed was retired until early 2017 when Hillary Cooper came home and wanted a bigger bed. The only bed they could find was the Governors actual death bed. Hillary never slept in that bed again. Another funny story is that every year when the fig trees bloom, you can find Mrs. Cooper at the top holding a basket full of figs. She loves to climb trees! My final fun fact is that there are only 3 or 4 employees employed by the government; the rest are convicts who work for a 2 year term before going back to jail to finish their term. This is a great program that helps these people who have made a mistake get back on their feet after they are released.
Overall I had a very productive day and I enjoyed all of the different points of views.

The outside of the old capital building

Inside of old capital building

Outside of new legislative building

5/31/19
Today I had the opportunity to work in the governors office. The day started off meeting Eliza, who is basically all of the policy directors assistants. She knows a little bit of everything and it was so cool just watching her on the job. After a quick tour of the governors office, we met Jeremy and his intern Jack who told us about their job with environmental policy. Neither one of them had gone to college thinking “oh public policy is the greatest thing ever, I want to spend my life on policy.” It turns out that Jeremy actually wanted to become a musician. Over the course of time, and interesting classes they both realized that they were passionate about the environment and one way to push their interests was through public policy. Later almost everyone in the entire governors office joined together for a monthly lunch and learn. It was very interesting for me to hear how all of the different parts of the governors office work together. After a late lunch, Adithi, Eliza and I took a tour of the governors capital office. We got to meet the governors team who works in the capital. Overall it was a very busy and productive day!

Picture of the audio version of the senate farm bill being debated

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Click for a video of Chris talking about his girlfriend

5/30/19

Today the calendar told me that there was no session at all, and the one committee meeting that was scheduled had been cancelled. Sadly, this meant I didn’t have very much hands on experience but I did get the opportunity to meet with other LA’s.
While Chris responded to emails, Lee and I listened to the only Senate Committee meeting about the Farm Act of 2019. It was interesting to hear all of the different constituents propose their views about the hemp crisis to the senators.
The main event of the day was Mr. Will coming in and our conversation. While it isn’t related to Legislation, our conversation does relate to current events and social media. The main idea is as follows: Chris refers to his girlfriend who also works in the general assembly as “the girl he is talking to” confusing anyone who asks. We all got into a debate about the significance of labels such as boyfriend or girlfriend, and how words for dating have changed over time based on social media trends. Chris is scared to post pictures on social media with his girlfriend, acknowledge her as his girlfriend, or even let his colleague know her name, because of the presence of social media in their lives and the possibility that it could cause strife between them. This was very interesting to me, and I wonder if a bill will be proposed to try to mend problems such as the presence of social media in young adults lives.
I am enjoying my time learning from Representative Martin, and getting to know Chris and Lee better!

Per his request, please take this survey to help Chris understand how to refer to his girlfriend in the future. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SWB73SR

House calendar for the 29th showing abortion bill that was taken off at 2pm

Free food!

5/29/19

Today was a slow day, with the main event being session. Very few committees are meeting, meaning there aren’t many bills to vote on. The big news is that the Senate released their budget, resulting in lots of hours of discussions. Another hot topic is the abortion bill. In the simplest terms the abortion bills purpose is to make it even harder to commit already illegal acts pertaining to abortion. The Governor vetoed the bill, and 3/5 of senate already over-rid the veto. Currently everyone is waiting on the house to vote. The majority of the house does not want to override because it is mainly democratic and agrees with Governor Coopers veto. Almost every day the bill shows up on the house calendar and is promptly taken off because the republicans are waiting for enough democrats to be gone so that they gave get a 3/5 majority agreement vote to override the veto in the house.I had the opportunity to meet with Dennis who works for Representative Grange. We had a nice discussion about how even though the Representatives were of different parties, they could interact and agree over the party line. One common interest was the armed forces. Dennis mentioned jokingly how the NC general assembly was different than congress because they didn’t use ear marks or pork barrels which made me thankful for what I’ve learned in gov class this year!The biggest event of the day was free lunch given to all who worked at the General Assembly. 3 food trucks came out and gave away free chicken and waffles, sno-cones, tater tots, cubans, and soda. I met a very nice lady who works at the front desk doing tours, who reminded me what a great opportunity this is. I definitely agree with her! It was a nice, low key day, with lots of fun times spent with Chris and Lee.

Lee (Left) Chris (right) and I. Team Martin!

Office Tag

Bojangles!

House of Representatives Floor and Voting Board

My day started out searching for a parking space amid parking decks, and paid parking lots before I realized that I had been gifted a free parking pass! The only problem; I would have to put my parallel parking skills to the test. After figuring out the best way to park, and making my way through security I walked full circle before finding Representative Martin’s office. Upon arrival I was cheerfully greeted by Rep. Martin’s legislative assistant (LA) Chris. With his intern Lee, we looked into the few committee meetings of the day and plotted my schedule. Chris and I accompanied Rep. Martin to his meeting on appropriations for transportation (meaning money for transportation) where the passed 2 bills allowing RV sales to be conducted similar to that of an auto sale. After that we headed back to the Office. Rep. Martin had a closed meeting in a different building that I couldn’t attend but I enjoyed spending time with Chris and Lee. We walked to the Department of Military Veterans Affairs to deliver a package, and talked about our families, hopes and dreams. After waiting about 2 hours for them to respond to emails from constituents, we all enjoyed Bojangles for lunch. After lunch we attended the Senate Appropriations on Education meeting which was a lot of numbers. Thankfully Rep. Martin was able to explain what some of the words and symbols meant beforehand so I had a better understanding. After the meeting it was straight to the chamber for the floor session where all of the representatives gathered to vote on bills (most with little dissent). Once the session was over, Rep. Martin and I discussed what had happened as well as my plans for the next day. Overall I am very excited for this opportunity to work closely with Rep. Martin, and love the people I get to interact with.

Hi CA blog. This is a test post to make sure I can post during work experiece. Looking forward to working with Representative Grier Martin! Enjoy a picture of me and my mom. Have a good day!