In the posters that grace the walls of so many high school classrooms, the path taken by proposed legislation as it becomes law is as simple as series of black lines — from a committee, to each legislative chamber and finally to the desk of the executive. These posters are a useful reference for a multiple-choice test, but not so helpful when trying to guide real legislation past the pitfalls of Virginia’s political process. You have to visit the bowels of the General Assembly to learn about the “death hole.”
After State Del. Kristen Amundson (D-44) coined the phrase in a conference room in the General Assembly Building in Richmond, State Sen. Toddy Puller (D-36) described serving in one years ago, when she sat on a sub-committee that existed for no purpose but to kill bills. In the rare instances she presumed to vote “yea” to anything, even if it was doomed regardless, she was sharply reprimanded by the committee chairman.
“The inner workings are a little different than the textbook,” said Michael Molloy a lobbyist for Fairfax County Public Schools.
Molloy and Puller were both speaking to constituents: six students, two from Mount Vernon High School, two from West Potomac and one each from Bishop Ireton High School and the Islamic Saudi Academy. They were the guests of Amundson, who represents much of Mount Vernon District.
Amundson’s three-day-long Young Leaders program exposes students to the reality that contradicts many assumptions about government. Though it was disillusioning to learn about the process of passing (or killing) a bill, it was cheering to learn that the stereotype of sleazy lobbyists gives a bad rap to the lobbyists she trusts in the state legislatures. Puller said she relies on lobbyists to provide her with accurate information, and it behooves them to be trustworthy.
Kay Kemper, who operates Kemper Consulting, compared her business to a chess game. “You can’t just be passionate about something. You have to know how the system works.”
AMUNDSON SAYS she started the Young Leaders program because she was looking for passion after being dismayed by the political apathy she encountered among high school students. For six years she has been bringing students to Richmond to show them how the system works so they feel empowered to make a difference in it.
Andrea Schwartz, a senior at Bishop Ireton, learned that lesson. She said she almost didn’t apply for the program because of a “disconnect” between politics and her interest in working with animals. But she’s also drawn to conservation, and “a lot of stuff about caring for the environment has to come from policies of the government.”
“It’s good to learn how things work,” said William Klein, a senior at West Potomac. “If I have a job where I have to deal with the government, I’ll have a better understanding.” Mount Vernon’s Herberth Cisneros said he was impressed that government employees can connect their jobs to their values.
Both Christina Johnson, of Mount Vernon, and Dalia Deak, from the Islamic Saudi Academy, said they had previously focused on the federal government because their parents work for it (the Department of Transportation and the State Department respectively). “I honestly didn’t realize how much state government affected our daily lives,” Deak said. “Because we live so close to D.C., it seems like D.C. affects us more.”
“I think a lot of people have that misconception that federal government is more important than state government.”
Even retired American history teacher Bill Rhatican, who described himself as the group’s “cat herder,” said he’d taken state government for granted. He pointed out that Virginia’s General Assembly inspired the structure of the federal government. “It’s always fun to travel 100 miles to the south and 250 years into the past.”
“I’M CHRISTINA and we’re the young leaders from Northern Virginia.”
It’s 10 and Johnson is making introductions on the second floor of the General Assembly building, where E.M. Miller directs the lawyers for the Division of Legislative Services, who toil away writing legislation to the specifications of impatient legislators. Throughout the day, the students took turns introducing their delegation. When they gathered in her seventh floor office with its view of the high rises in downtown Richmond, Amundson reminded the leaders how to shake hands: making eye contact and using a firm grip. She said this is practice for their future. “I don’t want them to do something for the first time when they get into that role.”
On the second floor, Miller, who has worked for DLS since the 1970s, gave frank assessments of the functioning of government. The students took advantage. They asked him whether anonymous vetoes in sub-committee are good for democracy (he said they are), whether members of the majority party put partisan pressure on him to hire certain people (they don’t), whether the lawyers ever have ideological conflicts (not really) and about the technical apparatus of redistricting (much easier with computers). When their hour ended, the youth lined up to shake Miller’s hand. For eye contact and firm grips, they went a perfect six for six.
“Incredibly bright kids,” Miller said after they walked out of the door. “You could tell by the glisten in their eyes that they were excited about learning and absorbing as much as they could.”
WEST POTOMAC’S Devon Cain worked for Amundson’s re-election bid and ran her own successful campaign to become Lt. Governor at this summer’s Girl’s State Leadership Conference. The conference simulates state government, but it doesn’t simulate employees like Miller.
“I’m seeing the government in a more specific light,” Cain said.
“I knew that someone was writing the bills and drafting them for legislation, but I wasn’t sure who was doing it.” Earlier she had met two executive branch policy advisors in their mid-20s. She said it had been inspiring to meet “the people working behind the people who are elected.”
Later in the day, the students met Aneesh Chopra, the governor’s secretary of technology. The exuberant 34-year-old told them he, too, is trying to figure out what he’ll do when he grows up. After getting his undergraduate degree, he said, he’d had to choose between a high-paying job at Morgan Stanley and the opportunity to get a graduate degree at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He went to Wall Street, then Harvard and wound up in government after a financial windfall allowed him to speed up the timeline on his religious obligation to public service.
Chopra talked about solving Northern Virginia’s transportation crisis with high speed internet and PDAs: workers could telecommute from home and check traffic conditions on their handheld devices (“the [Woodrow Wilson] Bridge is death,” he told the students after looking at his own. “It’s all red.”)
“Young people have the brainpower to take us out of this nightmare that we have,” he said, describing how creative thinking could solve congestion for much less than the costly transportation plans being haggled out in the House of Delegates. And he added that telecommuting isn’t just for work.
“What if you were in a class of 5,000 people?” he asked.
“I might go to sleep,” Klein answered.
THERE WAS NO DANGER of that during the students’ meeting with Chopra. As they walked together to another building, Deak told him that in Arabic his name means “person who talks for a really long time and doesn’t bore people.”
But by the end of the day, the students were starting to yawn. They had just filmed a 30-minute segment with Cox Cable, which sponsored the trip. “I’m ready to take a nap,” Deak said. Despite having just met for the first time, she and the other girls had been up late the night before, talking about politics.
Earlier in the day, Schwartz was asked what had been the most interesting thing she’d learned thus far. Instead of naming something she’d heard from one of the bureaucrats, legislative aides, policy advisors, elected officials, lobbyists and secretaries (they were scheduled to meet the attorney general, governor and lieutenant governor the next day), she referred back to that late-night conversation, which had turned to Iraq. Schwartz recalled how Deak explained the differences between the Sunni and Shiite Muslim sects. “I learned more than I’d ever learned by reading the newspaper.”