Hey guys,
So the punchline to every awkward/funny thing that has happened so far today is that it is "a great day to be a Senate Page", hence the title. We've also been brainstorming ideas for a parody musical since my co-workers are dead-set on the idea the things we go through are not only comedic but should be seen by the world. With that being said, I love my co-workers they definitely make my shifts hilarious as well as productive in that I learn something new from them everyday.
In terms of the Senate, this has definitely been a busy week, my Natural Resources committee on Monday had 3 bills while my second committee Workforce Development and Commerce had about 10. My first committee was very cute, there was a middle school class that came in to propose a bill that they formulated about adding copper to the state seal since it is a part of 5 C's. In case you don't remember, the 5 C's are Copper, Climate, Cattle, Citrus, and Cotton, which are important to the states heritage. It was very cute/funny listening the the kids testimony's, one of which started his introduction by saying his name then stating that he didn't know where he was from. In opposition, my second committee meeting was very serious, and had an audience of about a hundred brewery owners, almost evenly split, and debating two bills of legislation. This meeting started around 2 and I am not sure when it ended because I had to leave at 5. I was supposed to be off at 4 but got so wrapped up in the debate that I didn't realize how much time had past. This was my first time really experiencing a controversial meeting, so it was very interesting and really drastically increased my interest in policy-making and the whole legislative process. This meeting also included a lot of water runs and some Senators even snuck bags of chips which is totally understandable being that they were in meetings since floor session at 1:30. It's really interesting now that the speed of this session is picking up and I am interested to see the other bills that will be proposed.
Hi Chandler!
ReplyDeleteWorking with the state senate must be a lot of fun! I commented on another blog, and i'll tell you the same thing - you are interning at a very high level of government which is amazing. My internship revolves more around lower department day to day activities. Do you ever get to sit in on anything that involves elections or new bills/laws? I would be all over the place if I got an internship with the state senate- asking so many questions and wanting to meet as many people as possible.
Totally cool!
Wow, it seems like you have a variety of different things you encounter every day. Thats really exciting. I didn't know citizens can come to senate meetings and propose bills themselves. Those kids sound adorable! I look forward to hearing about your experience and getting an inside look into how the Arizona State Senate operates.
ReplyDeleteI just got a job at Four Peaks brewery and I guarantee the owners were there. If I recall correctly the bill they are opposing would make it so if a brewery produced a certain amount of alcoholic beverages they would lose the rights to operate as a restaurants. It would basically be trying to create restaurants and breweries as two separate business licenses. Four Peaks would lose two of their three locations if they did not stop producing beer commercially. Personally, I find this bill absolutely ridiculous and extremely restrictive for absolutely no reason. If anything Arizona should adopt a bill similar to Colorado where breweries can operate a restaurant and alcohol producers can directly distribute instead of having to go through a third-party distributor.
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