Capitol Hill’s Behind-the-Scenes Mentality
By Phil Tajitsu Nash

Friends and colleagues outside Washington sometimes ask me what actually happens in Congress. Bills and committee hearings sometimes show up on the front page of the local paper; speeches and hearings are broadcast to the constituents back home via C-SPAN.

In reality, a lot of action takes place behind the scenes, beyond public view. October is a typical example. Members of both houses work out of offices in the buildings adjacent to the Capitol, while the speaker of the House and the Senate majority eader work in the Capitol itself.

Typically, legislators can be seen on the floor of the House or Senate giving speeches, caucusing with colleagues or aides or just hanging out. My initial reaction was shock that so few people were actually listening to the debates. Our politicians are often left reading their remarks to empty chambers just to get them included in the official Congressional Record.

As a reporter, I have found that the real action takes place in meeting rooms off-limits to the public, where legislators caucus among themselves. By the time the issue gets to the floor, votes usually have been decided. Reporters, meanwhile, have their own room in the Senate Press Gallery, where they have resource materials, telephone connections and other amenities that help them to get the word out quickly.

Legislators have particular interests. Many become experts in a few issues and generalists about the others. Staff members, known as Legislative Assistants, meet with constituents and lobbyists, do research, attend hearings and write position papers for their legislators.

In the parlance of Washington, the time-starved legislators usually do little more than review “talking points” on an issue. Major issues, however, such as the presidential impeachment hearings, prompted many legislators to do some serious background reading and research.

This month, the Senate has passed a reform bill concerning the Federal Aviation Administration, a conference report concerning the Department of Transportation and another conference report dealing with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Along the way, the Senate discussed appropriations for the Department of Health and Human Services; designated Oct. 15 as “National Mammography Day”; and named courthouses in Arizona, Georgia and Puerto Rico after famous jurists. It also passed largely symbolic Senate resolutions that expressed sympathy for those killed in earthquakes in Turkey and Greece.

The two major news stories you might have seen on your newspaper’s front page were the rejection of President Bill Clinton’s proposal for a Comprehensive (Nuclear) Test Ban Treaty and of an African American nominee for a federal judgeship in Missouri. The votes on campaign finance reform legislation is sure to be another hotbutton topic.

Missing from the front -- and even back -- pages of the newspapers, however, are stories about some 100 laws have been discussed, amended, passed or rejected during the month.

A lot more players are involved in House of Representatives (435 versus only 100 Senators). With18 Committees, each with several sub-committees, it’s hard to keep up. Big corporations frequently hire lobbying firms or do their own lobbying to track legislative priorities.

For Asian Americans, JACL, OCA and the other national organizations track the progress of civil rights, immigration and other legislation that affects us, but even they do not have the resources to be every place all the time.

As an example, while many Asian Americans are no longer as involved with agriculture as we once were (throughout the early and mid-20th century, we provided a large percentage of the migrant labor force that is now largely Latino), the House Agriculture Committee is holding hearings this month on three topics that do affect us.

This week, the Subcommittee on Risk Management, Research, and Specialty Crops will review biomass research and discuss H.R. 2827, the National Sustainable Fuels and Chemicals Act of 1999. On Oct. 20, the full Agriculture Committee will review of the Administration’s preparations for the 1999 World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial meetings. And on Oct. 28, the Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition, and Forestry will hold a hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency’s new agricultural regulatory programs.

If you are finding yourself at this point saying, (yawn) “who cares?” then you may be missing the point. The nation’s business runs on rhythms and protocols that we, as a community, have not yet mastered. The Japanese American redress movement brought some of us to understand the intricacies of the legislative process. Others are gaining knowledge by working as students, government workers, or advocates for Filipino war vets, Japanese Latin Americans and immigrants.

No system welcomes of those who refuse to learn the rules and watch the dance before taking to the floor to participate. As a community, we’ve made tremendous strides to master the national legislative process, but we still have a long way to go.