Elephant In Exile

It's August...Look Busy!

Probably the best thing about being a lobbyist for a trade association in Washington is August. (The second best thing is the 27 vacation days, plus federal holidays I get off from work...) But August can be pretty sweet, especially when Congress takes its scheduled month long recess.

You see, a good portion of my work involves working with hill staff and members of Congress on various legislative proposals. The whole process is a game of hurry up and wait as various bills work their way through the cumbersome process best described by School House Rock.

http://www.school-house-rock.com/Bill.html

Anyway, the flurry of activity...drafting comments to submit at hearings, finding and prepping witnesses and meetings with other association allies on specific legislative proposals all grind to a halt. It's kind of like living in France...where every one abandons the cities for the entire month. It's great. Oh, there's still work to do. Writing, preparing documents for the fall and any work involving administrative agencies. Today I'll likely have a flurry of press calls over a court case that was just handed down in California. But overall it's a month of google-pear*, long lunches and leaving early. And I for one, love every minute of it.




*Google-pear: Act of sitting in ones office and looking up information on google on inane or irrelevant topics that have no practical application. E.G. Yesterday work was so slow, it was a total google-pear.