The duty of the U.S. House of Representatives

For this blog, I would like to explain a little about the United States House of Representatives and further explain what they do and what I did for them.

The United States House of Representatives has the responsibility of representing the citizens of the United States of America. Every two years, national elections occur in predetermined districts or boundaries to determine who will represent the individuals who live in the district that the candidates are seeking to represent. There are 435 members of the House and Arizona currently holds 9 seats. Of those nine, 5 are held by Democrats and 4 by Republicans. Representative Salmon is a member of the Republican Party and he serves the cities, in full and in partial, of Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler, Queen Creek, and Apache Junction.

As you can see by the amount of cities just listed, our Representatives have a lot on their plate. To best serve the people, the Representative receives a budget to carry out his or her duties. To assist in those duties, Representative Salmon hired a Chief of Staff who oversees all staff and political activity, a deputy Chief of Staff who oversees all public policy, a communications director who oversees all media inquiries, a legislative correspondent who oversees constituent representative, two legislative affairs coordinators who stay up to date on assigned political issues, an executive assistant who maintains the Congressman’s schedule, a staff assistant who oversees all front office procedures, and them clerical assistants like myself who do nothing more than assist everyone in the office. I know this seems like a lot of staff members but keep in mind that there are nearly 1 million people in each district and over 30 active political issues currently being discussed at the Capitol building.

As a clerical assistant, my responsibilities varied from assisting staff's response to constituent requests for information, providing staff with information at their request, assisting staff with meetings, providing assistance in communicating with the public and members of the media, researching and responding to constituents' requests for information, consistently and clearly explaining the Congressman's policies, carefully identifying whether and how the Congressman disagrees with a given policy, being prepared each day to be politically astute and sensitive to requests by staff members or constituents that have the potential for controversy; clerical work – receive, sort, and file correspondence mail and phone logs, update and process complex records, perform research, work on legislative House bills and resolutions in conjunction with the Chief of Staff, perform constituent case work, answer phones, and perform data entry on excel.

INTRODUCTION

My name is Ryan Lee and I am a graduate student studying Public Administration at Arizona State University. This summer I had the privilege of working for Rep. Matt Salmon (AZ-05) of the United States House of Representatives. Working for the Congressman was a wonderful experience, and just for clarity, this blog will be in past tense as I worked over the summer and am now submitting these blogs during my fall semester at ASU. My ultimate goal in my professional life is to work in management both in the private and public sector which is why I chose ASU’s MPA program with great excitement.

I had several goals going into the summer, including the following three; 1) to gain exposure on the federal level, meaning I wanted to see how government worked, what ruled and procedures were followed, and how the American people were represented; 2) I wanted to learn how to effectively assist an office. Since I am still learning how to manage, I signed on to the Salmon team as a clerical staff assistant and from this, I wanted nothing more than to know how to effectively assist eight to ten fast-paced employees; 3) I wanted to decide whether I wanted to eventually run for office.

I know the outcomes of my goals; however, I wish to discuss a summary of my goals at the end of the semester. Instead of coming out and sharing my thoughts of the completion of the goals, I want to share my experiences with you in hopes that you can decide if I accomplished my goals bit by bit. In my final post, I will evaluate the three goals mentioned above. I hope that this blog can be both insightful and educational, and just maybe; someone will learn from me and take my experiences to heart.