The Week After Recess

This week started off a bit slow but ended with lots of work. I did the usual office work but went to three meetings this past week. First, I went to a hearing on Anti-trust laws in the media. There is a concern because newspapers are consolidating due to the economy and online news is skyrocketing. There were concerns over Anti-trust laws harming the new ways newspapers are looking at surviving in the economy. Next, I went to a meeting about the IQ system. There is a new IQ system in the works to make constituent correspondence easier that is an optional node with the system. Finally, I went to a meeting about the Mexican Trucks issue. There was a lot of talk about NAFTA and Mexican retaliation in response to the US nott fulfilling its obligations to NAFTA. Overall, this was a busy week and it was interesting.

April Recess

I decided to put two weeks into one post as Congress was in recess the past two weeks. This was a good idea as it was much slower these two weeks. I did more of the usual, answering phones and attaching letters. But I also did some extra items. One of them was I called several commissioners to make sure they understood items about filing under the deadline for appropriations. I also delivered some flags to be flown at the flag office through Congressman Perlmutter's flag page. Lastly, since Congress was in recess I was able to go home early since the office closed early those days.

US-Mexcio border

Last week I went to a hearing on the increased violence along the US-Mexican border. It was very interesting to hear about how law enforcement agents were working on the border. The main goal of the hearing was to make it so law enforcement officers between the federal level, local level, and Indian affairs could work jointly to stem the rise of the drug cartels. Next, as the Cherry Blossom festival is occurring, the capitol was crowded with tourists who wanted to go on tours. The office itself was fairly routine with nothing out of the ordinary happening. Lastly, Congress is going into its' two week April recess so the office will be running at an out of session pace for the next two weeks.