Placement Report to the IEEE-USA
Government Fellowship Committee

Joseph Czika, Ph.D.

March 2003

The advice of the IEEE/USA staffers was right on the mark. They suggested a Fellowship start date of January 2003 rather than September 2002, which many other society's Congressional Fellows chose. With the lame duck Congress in paralysis after the November election, the Senate changing party leadership, and the executive branch in stasis until the President's State of the Union speech in January, any selection of assignment in the fall of 2002 may have turned out to be unfortunate. In the face of these ambiguities, even searching in January was lengthy and uncertain.

In February, I accepted a position with the House Science Committee - Democratic staff. My initial assignments include the Columbia shuttle accident investigation and homeland security. The Columbia accident happened during the time I was interviewing for a Fellowship position. Having started my career as a NASA employee, I was thrilled to be thinking about space technology again. While the year will be dominated by the accident investigation, I will also work on NASA workforce issues, the aeronautic technology agenda, the national aerospace plane, and any fixes for the shuttle program.

The House Science Committee had a significant role in writing the homeland security legislation passed by the last Congress. In it, a Science and Technology Directorate was created in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Thus, even with the creation of a new Homeland Security Committee in the House, it is likely that the science and technology agenda will be monitored by the Science Committee, at least for this year. Initial tasks in homeland security include: the difficulty experienced by foreign students entering the country, the DHS S&T process, and cyber security.

I am honored to work in these areas to bring America's technology strengths to apply to the nation's most pressing problems. As is somewhat typical of staffers, I am not expert in some of these areas. But resident expert talent is limited and one does ones best to cope with the exigencies. Anyway, new problems are only a tomorrow away and one may have new opportunities to excel in a field closer to home.

The Science Committee is one of the more bipartisan committees in the House. The bipartisanship in the Members is reflected in the good working relationships between the majority and minority staffs. However, one is reminded that the staff works in behalf of and in support of member needs. Because the member runs for reelection every two years, one never knows if the bipartisanship can last long. As one venerable Member puts it: the first year of the term the Member can focus getting things done on the committee for the benefit of the constituents, the second year is focused on politics, often having nothing to do with committee assignments. I am fortunate to be here in the first year of term.

One benefit of working for on a committee staff rather than a Member staff is the in-depth knowledge and corporate memory that is represented in the permanent staff. The Democratic committee staffer averages about 12 years experience. It is a pleasure to work with smart, savvy, and professional people.

Finding a Congressional Fellow position is more related to timing than skills matching or desire. While my industrial experience was heavy in defense and intelligence work, the committees related to those areas had policies of not accepting Fellows. So it was wise to have a wide berth and dogged persistence in my search. It was my great fortune to be talking to the House Science Committee at that moment that it had an opening.

Training by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in September was outstanding. A large collection of wise and witty Washingtonians was brought together for the Fellows enlightenment. They informed us about the "real" Washington and inspired us to do well in spite of that. I can probably speak for all the "science" Fellows in thanking AAAS for a job well done.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers - United States of America