Today is Day 44 out of 60, since this year is a "short session" for the Nebraska Legislature (we alternate long and short session years). God willing, our last day will be April 17th...the trick is making it there alive.
Am I being a little overdramatic? Eh, maybe.
The two main reasons for my mildly exaggerated outlook is a.) today is the first scheduled "late night" and b.) the Medicaid expansion debate began this afternoon at 1:30pm.
What is a "late night," you ask?
Well, it's when the senators debate on the floor into the evening (and potentially late into the night), with an expected/average legislative day ending around 8pm. According to the rules they have to adjourn by 11:59pm and can hypothetically reconvene at 12:01am "the next day" to continue the discussion, but I have never seen that happen. I think 10-10:30pm is the latest the senators have ever gone since I started working here, but that still makes for a crazy long day. This week Tuesday (today) and Thursday are scheduled late nights and then every Mon.-Wed. till the end of session.
Luckily most staff don't have to stick around that late. Some people are stuck because their senator's bill is being discussed on the floor or they have to do research for a last minute amendment. A few senators keep their staff around until 8pm because they can...and I don't want to say it's because they're jerks, but it's because they're jeeeeerks. Especially for staff with my job (administrative aide), there is virtually no reason for us to be here after, say 7pm. The phones have stopped ringing, no one is dropping by the office to set up a meeting and there won't be any mail to open & sort until the next morning. There is literally no reason for us to be here other than because a given senator wants a fully staffed office whenever he or she is in session.
Thankfully I work for a great boss who is very considerate of his employees and doesn't keep us late unnecessarily. I think the latest I've stayed was 6:30-6:45pm, and that's only happened a couple times in the 5 1/2 years that I've worked here. On late nights I usually end up heading out between 5:30-6pm, depending on what's going on. My coworker (up till last year Sheila, and now David) have had to stay later to help the boss work on the bill or amendments for it, but I think the latest they've been stuck here was about 8pm. Which is still terrible and late, since we start our mornings off around 8am...but not as bad as the people stuck here till 9:30-10pm.
Late nights occur at the end of session in order to get more work done before we adjourn on April 17th. A lot of the important and/or controversial bills still need to be debated, such as today's discussion (and pontificating) about LB887, Nebraska's Medicaid Expansion bill. We also have the Minimum Wage increase bill (LB943) to discuss and lots of budget & natural resource/agriculture related bill...oh gosh, and the prison reform bills - LB907 and LB999. Can't forget those two! This means we are still in for innumerable phone calls and emails, mostly prompted by groups and organizations, though occasionally on a person's own volition. I have complained on Facebook about the average-Joe caller who knows next to nothing about the topic they are calling about, opening with "I was told to call and tell you I'm opposed/supporting (fill in the blank)" or "I want to submit my vote for (something vaguely resembling an item on the agenda but grossly misrepresenting it)." After the 38th phone call of the day along those lines, it gets a little frustrating. But I could rant about this for hours, so I'll leave it at that...
Anywhooo...the (not so) short version of a long story is that the next couple of weeks are going to be really long, tough and tiring...and I'm warning people now, the chances of my being cranky have risen at least 45%, so I apologize in advance if I'm a bit impatience and a little snippy.
At least the light at the end of the tunnel is no longer a train...
~ Katie
No comments:
Post a Comment