On the Floor

One of the perks of living on Capitol Hill is that the kids get to do lots of cool field trips around Washington, and sometimes one of your classmates has a parent who's a Member of Congress and you get to do a really cool field trip.  One of Nora's friends happens to be the daughter of the Congressman from Los Angeles, and he was kind enough to host Nora's class for a little walking field trip over to see the Capitol!  We walked over to the Hart Senate Office Building, and rode the Senate Subway over to to the Capitol building.  Congressman Sherman took us to see the West Front of the Capitol where they were demolishing the inauguration stage.  Then the real fun began when he took us all onto the floor of the House and Senate.  We spent half an hour on the House floor, and the kids got to try out the voting machines (Nora was most excited to vote 'Present' because then Molly's Dad's name lit up as 'P Sherman', and if you don't find that funny, just watch Finding Nemo again ;-)

Congressman Sherman answered tons of questions from the kids, and he really showed off his skills (both parenting and Congressional) when one of the kids (let's call him David to protect the innocent) asked if he could pass a law that let him eat all the candy.  Of course the kids all cheered, but Congressman Sherman sagely told them that we need to think about the consequences of the laws we pass, and if we read this proposed legislative text closely, you might notice that only David gets to eat all of the candy he wants, and who do we think that candy comes from?  The rest of the second grade class no doubt. At that point the cheers turned to boos, and an entire second grade class could see a future for themselves scoring legislation for CBO.

(click here for all the pictures)