Final Report to the IEEE-USA
Government Fellowship Committee

August 31, 2001

I look back on 2001 with a certain amount of wonder and disbelief.  I came to Washington, D.C. with a desire to learn more about the legislative processes of the United States Congress, and to participate in some small way in the business of forming laws and policy.  It all seemed so strange and remote then – the endless line of taxicabs outside the congressional buildings, the stone statues adorning the Capitol looking down upon me like a mist that would soon evaporate, the men and women in dark business suits carrying black bags of lobbying material, the tourists trying to find their way around.  These things have now become familiar to me, yet I never lost the wonder of working in the place where laws and policy are made that affect every person in our great nation.

I was blessed to work in the office of Congressman Joe Barton from the 6th District of Texas, Chairman of the Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  Each Congressman’s office is like an embassy for their district, taking on the personality of the area they represent.  Our office was staffed with nine people – people who shared limited, open office space with low partitions and little privacy.  Over the course of my fellowship term, I developed a great relationship with every member of our office and consider them not only co-workers, but friends as well.  They treated me as a member of their staff with the commensurate level of respect for my experience, but also included me in times of overload and crisis.

No written account of the first session of the 107th Congress would be complete without at least a brief report of the events of September 11th.  That day started like any other morning in the early fall.  I got to the office before the other staff and put on a pot of coffee.  After a while, the Legislative Director for the office came in and said he had heard something on the radio – he switched on the TV, to the news channel.  We watched sketchy reporting about a small plane flying into a building and wondered out loud how a plane could veer off course that badly.  As we watched the live report, we saw the second plane hit the other tower.  It was still in New York City though, we reasoned.  A lot of things happen in that city – It’s bad, but let’s be thankful that it’s not here.  A few minutes later, I heard a muffled explosion, just like a large fireworks explosion far away.  Everyone in the office was now running around talking, crying and wondering what was going on in N.Y. and what it all was going to mean.  Just then someone looked out of our window and noticed smoke rising from a location across the Potomac, toward the Pentagon. 

After a hasty and unorganized evacuation to a co-worker’s apartment near the Hill, I spent the next few hours trying to locate my daughter who was also working in a Congressional office at that time.  Finally, we joined up and made our way home to Northern Virginia.  Only later would we come to understand the true danger we were in that day, and the heroic efforts of the passengers on flight 93 which crashed in Pennsylvania. 

As if the events of September 11 were not enough, then the anthrax laced letter was found in the Senate majority leader’s office and traces were found in other congressional offices on the hill.  We were out of our offices for several weeks and then when we did return, we shared our meager space with another congressmen’s staff whose offices were still quarantined.  What amazed me was the flexibility and determination of the elected officials and their staffs to continue to serve their constituencies, to continue to look after the needs of the nation, to continue to function as a representative of the people - despite very trying and difficult conditions.   

I look back on the year as a Fellow in the Barton office with a great sense of satisfaction - yet with a sense of regret for having to leave so soon.  After a year in the office, I had learned the processes, understood and could articulate the positions of the Congressman, and had a working knowledge of how bills become law.  I also realized the power and limitations of one Congressman among 534 others. 

As a Congressional Fellow, I was also able to pass on to the staff a deeper respect for the engineering profession and to bring my background and training to bear on a variety of issues dealt with during the year.  I was treated as a professional by the staff and given significant responsibilities commensurate with my experience and interest (for a complete listing of my responsibilities and accomplishments, see my Mid-year report).  In short, the fellowship exceeded my expectations and allowed me to learn and contribute more than I ever thought possible.

I want to thank IEEE-USA and the Government Fellowship Committee for allowing me this opportunity to serve and learn as an IEEE Congressional Fellow.  I believe that this program is an excellent investment by the members of IEEE into the public policy arena and will continue to yield dividends as former fellows return to their jobs or go on to new endeavors.

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