I\u2019m obviously not a lobbyist \u2013 no, I\u2019m human.\u00a0 I occasionally get nervous; sometimes I\u2019m too humble and apologetic; I sweat in 100-degree heat and get cold in 60-degree air conditioning.\u00a0 Yes, there were parts of my lobby visits that were tough, but it wasn\u2019t hard to straighten my back, sharpen my mind, and strengthen my voice when holding onto the names of 400 people who supported me, Jess, and our message.<\/p>\n
We spent two intense days running back and forth and throughout Capitol hill, hitting up more than 100 House and 70 Senate offices, making lobby visits with staffers for Representatives Costello, Carnahan, Akin, and Frank and Senators Burris, Durbin, and McCaskill while we were there.<\/p>\n
Overall, our basic premise that we must reduce military spending was well received \u2013 on the specifics of how to do that, there was definitely some disagreement.\u00a0 Pointing out that military spending should be a part of any equation to reduce deficits was also well received across the board.\u00a0 And our analysis of the US and Boeing\u2019s fueling both sides of an Indian-Pakistani arms race gave us a level of credibility and gave the staffers we met with another issue to chew on.<\/p>\n
I would like to thank everyone who participated in this campaign, particularly those whose financial contributions made these visits possible.\u00a0 I believe our efforts to tell Congress that we must reduce military spending are beginning to pay-off<\/span>.\u00a0 Thank you for being a part of that message!<\/p>\n Andy Heaslet<\/em><\/p>\n PEP Director<\/em><\/p>\n A few highlights from our visits:<\/p>\n Most humorous moment of the trip<\/span>:\u00a0 Waiting in the office-reception area of Rep Todd Akin (R-MO) for our meeting with one of his staffers, the receptionist answers a call and shouts into the next room that it was so-and-so from Boeing.\u00a0 The phone was picked up immediately \u2013 we waited patiently.<\/p>\n Most reassuring moment<\/span>: When Sen Durbin\u2019s (D-IL) staffer said, unabashedly, that he thought the back-up\/alternative F-35 engine was a horrible idea.\u00a0 (Every other office said, well, \u201cwe can\u2019t decide to be for or against it\u2026\u201d)<\/p>\n Runner-up<\/span>: When Akin\u2019s staffer said he thought the C-17 might not make it in this year\u2019s budget<\/p>\n Best awkward silence<\/span>: Followed Rep Carnahan\u2019s (D-MO) staffer asking what we should do with troops stationed on Okinowa and I responded, \u201cBring them home\u2026\u201d\u00a0 His silence told me that he did not agree.<\/p>\n Most fruitful conversation<\/span>: With a Sen McCaskill\u2019s (D-MO) staffer and a former military officer who was participating in a fellowship with the Senator\u2019s office.\u00a0 When we disagreed, there were cogent answers and when we agreed or were close, we were encouraged to push the Senator in that direction.<\/p>\n Shortest Visit<\/span>: Office of Sen Burris (D-IL) \u2013 while we waited to meet with a staffer, one of the office interns spilled BBQ sauce all over the carpet, making the office smell like someone had been smoking ribs in there all morning.\u00a0 Once we were able to meet, the meeting was cut short as the staffer said, \u201cI\u2019m sorry, I have to go, financial reform just passed \u2013 what can the Senator do?\u201d\u00a0 I rattled off: \u201cVote yes on New START and the CTBT, no money for new nukes, and commit to funding community needs by reducing military spending.\u201d\u00a0 And she was gone\u2026 I\u2019m not sure if it was really the financial reform, me, or the BBQ sauce that made her run off in such a hurry \u2013 but I still think she got our point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m obviously not a lobbyist \u2013 no, I\u2019m human.\u00a0 I occasionally get nervous; sometimes I\u2019m too humble and apologetic; I sweat in 100-degree heat and get cold in 60-degree air conditioning.\u00a0 Yes, there were parts of my lobby visits that were tough, but it wasn\u2019t hard to straighten my back, sharpen my mind, and strengthen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}