Lobbying Internship

This semester I had the amazing opportunity to do a lobbying internship through Utah State. I joined the Government Relations Council in the fall and I was later selected to be one of about a dozen interns chosen to lobby on behalf of USU.

We met once a week to discuss the importance of lobbyists, to collaborate and share resources, and to come up with a plan of attack for persuading legislators. We were asked to focus our lobbying efforts on the proposed budget cuts for USU and all the colleges and universities in Utah.

Something I didn't realize is that state legislators rely on lobbyists for most of their information about specific issues. So it was up to us to provide state legislators with information about the consequences of budget cuts. I won't get into all the boring statistics and thing, but we found out some pretty interesting stuff.

So when the legislative session started, we lobbyists started going down to the capitol about once a week to meet with legislators and sit in on committee meetings. I felt so official wearing my professional clothes and nametag! We got to talk to a lot of pretty high-up people. It got discouraging at times. A lot of legislators were a bit condescending and hard to convince. However, there were several legislators who were extremely respectful and very helpful in furthering our cause. At the beginning of the session, the proposed budget cuts were a full 7% for all colleges and universities. By the end of the session, that was decreased to about 2%. Yay lobbyists!

One of my favorite experiences happened on Aggie Ice Cream Day. It was our last day at the capitol and most of the time we just handed out ice cream to everyone that worked there. While I was in the House kitchen, Tim Cosgrove, the representative for my home district, walked in. I'd never met him before, but we had spoken on the phone and emailed a few times. I decided to introduce myself and I asked to talk to him about a bill my parents were concerned with. He asked if I had a minute then to talk to him and I said sure. So I kind of abandoned my post in the kitchen (sorry, guys) and followed Rep. Cosgrove. He took me back through some super fancy lounge areas, which was pretty exciting. Then he stops in front of these big doors and says "I'm going to take you out onto the floor with me for a few minutes."** I was SO excited I could hardly contain myself. We walk in and one of the cute old men in the green coats (called "green coats") got out a folding chair for me (it was pretty much the fanciest folding chair I've ever seen) and I sat down next to Rep. Cosgrove. I got to chill there ON THE HOUSE FLOOR with Tim Cosgrove for at least 45 minutes. Meanwhile some of my lobbyist friends were up in the gallery and I could tell they were all going "Is that Natalie? What is she doing down there?" I felt super cool. :)

**For those of you who don't know, hardly anyone is allowed on the House Floor. The general public is allowed in the House Gallery during floor time, but no one except State Representatives are allowed down on the floor (where all the legislators sit), especially when floor time is in session.... Which makes the fact that I got to go on the floor during floor time way more impressive.

Here's the picture I got with Rep. Cosgrove on the floor :)

And now for some pretty pictures of the Capitol. I fell in love with this building.

The Rotunda

The House Floor

The back of the Capitol with the reflecting pool

The back of the Capitol