Life as an Intern

For those of you who don't know, this semester I am doing an internship at the Utah State Legislature. Its been such an amazing experience thus far. I'm going to make a few political clarifications so if that sort of thing bores you then feel free to skip down to the next picture.

1) The legislative branch of states are called the Legislature not Congress; there is no such thing as a state congress.

2) In the same strand, they are not Congressmen/women they are Legislators.

3) All states have two chambers (an upper and a lower, generally the Senate and the House respectively) except Nebraska which has one chamber. This is a cause of a lot of confusion as you have a Senate and a House of Representatives in Congress as well as at your state legislature. Therefore in a state like Idaho or Utah everyone has 4 men or women who represent them: 2 senators and 2 Representatives, one of each in Congress and one of each at the State Legislature.

4) Generally speaking there are two types of Legislatures, Professional and Citizen. Professional Legislatures involve longer legislative sessions and generally it pays enough that it is the legislators profession. Citizens legislatures, like in Utah, are much cheaper to run because the legislators make a pittance or a salary. Utah is only in session for 45 days while states like California that have a professional legislature are in session year around.

Ok, glad that is all cleared up. Assuming 99% of you didn't read that I'll reiterate that Utah is only in session for 45 days, all of which I will spend at the state capital. I am working with two Representatives, so above is a picture of Utah's House Chamber. I need to be in Salt Lake by 7:45 so I generally get picked up around 6:30. I'm in a car pool with 3 other guys so I only drive once or twice a week which is really nice. On a normal day I head out around 5 and get home by 6:30. So all in all they are about 12 hour days. I thought I would hate getting up at 5:45 five days but its not to bad. Its actually nice feeling like you are accomplishing something useful early in the morning.
One of the legislators I work with is Representative Frank who represents the people of Pleasant Grove. He is a great legislator who has been doing this since 2003. He really tries to keep his constituents informed by running a blog, so if you want to see what he's up to check out his blog.
This is the other Representative I work with, Representative Kiser. He represents the people of Sandy and other surrounding cities. I love working with Rep. Kiser as well, they are both sincere in their service.

I've really enjoyed my experience thus far, its really helped to see the process up close and personal. I also need to put a plug in for civic awareness by saying the things that go on in your state legislature effect your lives everyday. Things that go on at Congress can be exciting because they are currently handling some big issues like Healthcare but the Legislature generally is dealing with all the same things and more. After spending time with both of these Representatives and at the Utah State capital I definitely believe that these great men and women are much more qualified to handle issues that face the state of Utah than the disconnected Congress in D.C. So there is my speal for state rights!

For your viewing pleasure here is the video that taught us all how a bill becomes a law:

While this video is about Congress it is pretty much the same at the state level. Just replace Congress with Legislature and President with Governor.