Sometimes we forget

Recently, I was returning to D.C. from a West Coast trip for a client and, as I was getting ready to board the plane on the jetway, I overheard this man behind me talking on the phone about Congress. Of course, as a good lobbyist, I was tuned in. I turned around to see a man dressed in a casual shirt and pants looking like any other passenger, but I knew it was a Member of Congress (that’s my job to know who they are)! We made small talk and as we were boarding the plane, I sat down in an upgraded section — thanks to my client — and the Member of Congress schlepped back a few rows to be squished between two people in coach. As the rest of the passengers settled in and got out their iPod’s, I noticed that the Member sat down, pulled out a bill and started marking it up.

Later in the flight, a flight attendant came by and asked me if I was a Member of Congress because I was dressed in an expensive suit with a lapel pin that looked like a Member’s. When I said, “No,” she whispered and said, “Well, you know many Members take this flight regularly.”  I had to laugh because most people have such a misconception of who a Member of Congress is and what they do.

Most Americans have no clue what the average Member of Congress makes as far as salary, nor do they realize that they often have to pay for a mortgage back home and rent or assume another mortgage here in D.C. 

They also have no clue that many Members share townhouses, split chores and spend a large percentage of time away from their loved ones who often still reside in the home district! I even know of a couple of Members that sleep in their offices! Add to that the endless hours of fundraising that is necessary from the second you get elected, having your every move scrutinized under a microscope and the constant partisan bickering that many abhor. Oh, and let’s not forget the long nights of votes, having to try to be experts on thousands of bills and resolutions introduced every session, shaking a hundred hands a day, and attending multiple fundraisers at least two nights a week. Jeez, it sounds like a swell job for about $175k a year. 

Congress and its Members have taken a bad rap for as long as I can remember and candidly, what I think they (Congress as a whole) need to do is get a good PR firm to let the American people know that they are working their collective butts off to make a difference for the American people. They truly care about being representatives for their constituents and moving the country forward. They may not always agree on how to do it, and sometimes the politics of it seem to create more gridlock than progress, but this is the best system of government in the world. Congress, as a whole, needs to continually let the average person know what they are doing for them and that they are still working every day to make a difference.

It is often easy for John Q. Public to take shots at those in Washington that are here on their behalf and it’s easy to blame the government for all they perceive is wrong but I challenge them to walk a year in a Member’s shoes and see how easy it is. It is not all caviar dreams and champagne wishes. 

So I remembered back to that flight that got in at 1 a.m., and I thought of that Member of Congress with a renewed respect for those public servants who serve in spite of all of the negativity and bad press and thank them for their willingness to try and make the country better.    

Dave Wenhold, CAE, is a founding partner of Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies, a Washington government-affairs and grassroots lobbying firm. He also serves as president of the American League of Lobbyists. He can be reached at dwenhold@mwcapitol.com