I’m finally finishing my week’s worth of posts with Saturday: the day that the House voted on the Health Care Reform bill.
I had been expecting all week long that the vote would be held on Saturday, so it wasn’t a shock to any of me to be in the office at around 9am on a crisp autumn weekend. What I didn’t expect was all the hoopla and commotion surrounding one of the biggest votes in quite some time.
It started early in the day. I knew President Obama would be given a talk to House Democrats just two doors away from our office in the Cannon House Office Building’s Caucus Room. One thing you realize when the President comes around: he certainly isn’t subtle. After taking my usual elevator ride to the 3rd floor of Cannon, I was stopped by a Secret Service agent immediately after the doors opened and asked for my Congressional ID. Then another agent next to him asked me where I was going. I just thought to myself: Here we go…
I went down to grab some breakfast in the cafe under Longworth and got to talking with Rep. Lummis from Wyoming. She, like me, had just gotten some breakfast to sustain her for the long day. We talked a little about what to expect and how it was going to be very late before we would all get out of there.
About an hour later, a coworker of mine went outside to use the men’s room right outside our office. He was quickly stopped by another Secret Service agent perched in front of the door. The agent told him that restroom was Obama’s personal bathroom for the morning and he would have to go downstairs. (Talk about perks…) Later, a Capitol Hill police officer came into our office and informed us that we would be in lockdown for the duration of Obama’s visit—no one in or out. Just before Obama arrived, a few people in our office took a peek outside the door to see what the hallway looked like. To their surprise, it was lined with Capitol Hill police and Secret Service agents lined shoulder to shoulder. It was an unbelievable sight.
From our balcony, I snapped a few shots of the desolated street while Obama was inside our building. Normally, the sounds of car horns and smell of gasoline would be hard to miss, but today…silence. Also notice in the far left corner of one of the pictures is Obama’s motorcade.
About an hour later, a coworker of mine went outside to use the men’s room right outside our office. He was quickly stopped by another Secret Service agent perched in front of the door. The agent told him that restroom was Obama’s personal bathroom for the morning and he would have to go downstairs. (Talk about perks…) Later, a Capitol Hill police officer came into our office and informed us that we would be in lockdown for the duration of Obama’s visit—no one in or out. Just before Obama arrived, a few people in our office took a peek outside the door to see what the hallway looked like. To their surprise, it was lined with Capitol Hill police and Secret Service agents lined shoulder to shoulder. It was an unbelievable sight.
From our balcony, I snapped a few shots of the desolated street while Obama was inside our building. Normally, the sounds of car horns and smell of gasoline would be hard to miss, but today…silence. Also notice in the far left corner of one of the pictures is Obama’s motorcade.
The day went on pretty normally. There was about 7 hours of debate in total. I was able to head over and watch the proceedings from the staff gallery. Rep. Camp was often on the floor managing time. (which is when a member dispenses time for speeches among the junior members) When I was not watching in the gallery, I was relaxing in the office watching C-SPAN. 
We all ordered some dinner eventually. Who knew they made calzones as big as my head?! And the debate finally wound down around 10:30pm or so. The few staffers that were left were all pretty tired so as the members voted, we turned on some Springsteen and just relaxed.
We all ordered some dinner eventually. Who knew they made calzones as big as my head?! And the debate finally wound down around 10:30pm or so. The few staffers that were left were all pretty tired so as the members voted, we turned on some Springsteen and just relaxed.
Springsteen, votes, and calzones! -- Love this town!
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