Placement Report to the
IEEE-USA Government Fellowship Committee

Martin M. Sokoloski, Ph.D.

March 2004

Unlike other society's Fellows, my IEEE-USA Congressional Fellowship year started in January 2004. Hence, I, like some of my other colleagues, started out more than three months behind other American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellows. My year will be spent in the office of Congressman Rush Holt, a former AAAS fellow from the American Physical Society and assistant director at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. He is a Democratic representative from the 12th District in New Jersey and a member of the Select House Committee on Intelligence and the House Education and the Workforce Committee. Needless to say, Holt, being a former physicist, has deep roots in the science, engineering and technical (SET) community and has their interests in mind whenever SET issues and legislation arises.

I will serve as a fellow with duties of a legislative assistant having responsibility for SET issues and legislation associated with the 12-district, the state of New Jersey and the nation. I will also be formulating, organizing and managing the Congressional Research and Development Caucus co-sponsored by Rush Holt and Judy Biggert a republican from the 13th District of Illinois. The first caucus briefing on "The Electrical Grid" was sponsored by the IEEE-USA. I also collaborate and help plan the House Biomedical Research Caucus which has been in existence for over a decade. 

My entrance interview with the chief of staff, legislative director and, finally, with Representative Holt assured me that I would also be heavily involved in the legislative process. I am drafting a bill to resurrect an organization with duties similar to those of the former Office of Technical Assessment. 

My preparation for this congressional assignment included the September AAAS fellowship orientation, interviews and conversations with past fellows and interviews with the chiefs of staff and legislative directors of candidate Congressional offices.

I was told that the AAAS Orientation was vital in understanding the scope of my fellowship and it was. The orientation provided a network among current and prior fellows, both in the Congress, the State Department, and other agencies such as the National Science Foundation, Office of Science and Technology Policy and Department of Defense. The network has proven itself in spreading the word about the Caucuses. Despite the fact that I started later than most fellows, I really benefited from their advice, experience, and advice in not re-inventing the wheel in the course of conducting the office business. In addition, the Congressional Research Service briefing was most helpful and I have already begun to use this resource. 

Lunch time conversations with former fellows were important in finding out about the idiosyncrasies of specific offices either on the House or Senate side. Since the House side is closely coupled with the constituents and the probability of closely interacting with the member was greater than the Senate side, I choose the House side for my fellowship.

Folding in all the information gleaned from current and former fellows and researching candidate offices, was important on my choice of offices to interview. The key to final placement was the eye to eye interviews with the chief of staff, legislative director, and the Congressman, himself. Holt, although being a physicist, is not unknowledgeable about politics, -- his mother was Secretary of State for the State of Virginia, and his father was elected to the U.S. Senate at the record-setting age of 29. The final question and answer period with Holt was key to my selection including the fact that he is a five-time winner of the game show "Jeopardy." 

I look forward with great expectations and excitement in the next year of education and work on the hill.

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