Sine Die coming soon to a Senate near you

There has been buzz that budget talks are going well and adjournment is near. I remember the first time I heard the words Sine Die- I literally heard it as Sign and Die..I thought what a weird concept. However, Sine Die- the latin word for "without a day," is what the last day of session is referred to. According to wikipedia when it comes to a legislative body- the term sine die means that their mandates have come to an end and they may not meet again. A legislative body ends in this manner so that if they need to be called back they can do so in special session.
My last sine die went until from 8am to 5 am the next day- it was intense, it was fun, it was an experience I will never forget which also makes me wonder what will this sine die be like working upstairs as opposed to in the page office. I will keep you all posted hopefully we will have a better idea of the end in the next couple of days and interim will begin.

SB 1070 back in the picture

Since today SB1070 is going infront of the Supreme Court- I thought we should have a little recap on what it is. SB 1070 which was signed into law in 2010, was found to be one of the most stringent legislative acts against immigration. Part of SB 1070 requires that state law enforcement officers attempt to determine an individual's immigartion status during a "lawful stop, detention or arrest." One complaint many critics of the bill have is that it encourages racial profiling.
In July of 2010 Judge Bolton issued a ruling granting a preliminary injunction that blocked the most controversial aspects of the bill. Now the bill is back infront of the supreme court. I will keep you guys posted on the happenings of it. However, because of SB1070 the governor is in DC- which definitely means things in both Chambers are moving very slowly right now. They are also still working on the budget- this should make for an interesting week...

Playoff Time

Yesterday I went to watch the Phoenix Suns against the Denver Nuggets. These last few games for the Phoenix Suns really count since they are tied with the the Utah Jazz for the 8th spot in the Western Conference. The seats were pretty awesome we were a few rows from the Suns bench which was nice. Although I am not a huge fan of either team I had to root for Denver just to piss off everyone around me :) The Suns played a good game but not their best - you would hope they would hustle a bit since this is their last chance to make the playoffs and they have to play Utah as one of their last games.
The Suns just weren't fully in the game, their defense was off, Shannon Brown was taking some ridiculous shots, and Nash wasnt on his A game. Although during that game they announced that Nash had the 5th highest amounts of assists in a game.

Denver doesn't have much of a team, however, they play well and drive the ball in which is something the Suns are lacking. They should be happy they only lost by 11 points. Hopefully they redeem themselves in the last couple games. I'm not sure what I will do when the NBA is done

Constituent Services

As a part of my promotion one of my new duties is to handle constituent services. Working for a Senator whose district consists of mainly Native American constituents most of their issues are Federal matters. However, the other day I had my first call. Sometimes the largest part of constituent services is allowing people to air their grievances, I have found that sometimes allowing them to say it aloud they almost solve it themselves. That is a rare occurrence though. Being that I don't get as many phone-calls as most assistants do- I have found I don't have the instantaneous answers. I always need to ask the constituent for contact information so I can do some research regarding their situation. Usually it turns out to be something simple however, not having a lot of experience I have to ask my office mate for help.
I have also found that constituents just needed to be guided to the correct state institution.
The other day I received a call from a lady who had made her way around the Senate offices. Her issue was a matter that was completely out of our hands- no one could intervene on her grown, adult child's behalf. In the matter of a twenty minute conversation she changed her story 5 different times and was very irate that the Senator wouldn't do what she wanted. I found that another office had already handled the matter and had explained the situation. She was unhappy with the response so took it upon herself to call every office until someone would give in. I kindly explained that I knew she had spoken to everyone else and that the answer would not change.
I was very frustrated at the end of the conversation and it initially soured my taste to constituent services. I felt that this woman was trying to take advantage of the system. Hopefully my next constituent call is better.

Hello Day 101

Well as we wait for budget slowly but surely legislative business carries on. On today's agenda we had a third read calendar and a COW calendar. I remember my first session as a page I was so confused as to what COW was and all I could wonder is why is it named after a cow..little did I know COW stands for committee of the whole. COW is the stage of legislative process when the full chamber has the opportunity to debate and ammend bills. The majority leader will call for the Senate to resolve itself into committee of the whole for the consideration of bills on that day's calendar and then the president appoints a member to act as chairman of committee of the whole. COW gives senators in my case, the opportunity at an informal discussion regarding a bill and to ask questions of the sponsor if they are there. The process depending on the COW chairman can be quick and efficient or it can be time consuming and it most definitely can be entertaining....

100 Days of Session

Well Ladies and Gents today is the 100th day of session- technically this is when session should end, bills voted on, budget decided and then it should be hello interim. However, it seems that they are no where close to deciding on the budget. Today was a very strange day floor started at 11, and we were schedule for third and final reads today. The members all went to floor, prayer, pledge and points of personal privilege occurred and we recessed for caucus. Which again seemed very normal we recess for caucus and rules come back to floor and finish up the order of business. Instead they adjourned for the day. Days like this make the end seem like it's going to be quite far away. We later find out that the Governor is looking to get the budget done and nothing else. Until the budget is agreed upon nothing else is really going to be moving in either chamber. A hold up such as this just means that there is a good chance session won't be ending for a few more weeks...I will keep you all posted

Whats Going on at The Senate?

As we slowly approach the hundreth day of session, certain aspects of Senate life have slowed down. We went from having committees every day with pages worth of bills to vote on to a random committee here or there, and instead of pages worth of bills assigned to committee we now have lists of executive nominations to vote on in committee. Exectuive nominees are people who have been nominated by the governor as members, directors, etc of different boards etc. These nominees then come before the committee they have been assigned to, give a brief description of their background and stand for questions the senators may have. Some nominees can be more controversial than others. Once the nominees are voted on they go to the full Senate. Executive nominees have been known to only go through the Senate and never the House. Between that and going to senate floor for COW, Third reads and now slowly some final reads thats all that has been going on thus far...it should get a lot more exciting as the budget concludes and the more controversial bills come bck around...until next time guys...

Chase Field

This weekend was my first game at Chase Field. Being from Los Angeles the only stadium I have ever seen is Dodger stadium, which doesn't even compare with Chase Field. Although rooting against the home team I couldn't have had a better time. The weather was perfect the game was entertaining, however, the one thing that kept my mind very busy during the game was- how much the air conditioning bills must be during the summer? Yes this consumed my thoughts through a great portion of the game.
So I knew I had to google this and get some more information- the air conditioning inside of Chase Field for one game in equivalent of air conditioning for more than 2,500 homes in Arizona. However, I thought the cooling system was for the entire park but in reality according to ballparktour.com the system brings the temperature down by 30 degrees in 3 hours and it only cools the seating areas.  According to google on average a home in Phoenix could have a bill of $200 so multiply that by 2,500 its almost $500,000 per game to run the air condition the stadium during summer games. If you consider that with ticket prices etc. makes you really wonder if its worth it..I love random tid bits like that. I also just read that it cost $2 in electricity to close or open the 9 million pound roof at Chase Field.