A day in the life of a House Representative
For many people, the House of Representatives is just another part of the law-making process. But what really goes on in there? To get an inside look at what goes on in this system, just spend a day with House Representative Ronda Menlove.
Her day begins at 7 a.m., with breakfast meetings discussing issues and listening to speakers. The next thing she attends is called committee meetings at the beginning of the session, where bills are discussed. She is presently serving as the vice chair of the Health and Human Services Committee and is also a member of other committees. Before all of this, she must have pre-read the bills, be able to pick out their key points and know the agenda to be informed on the issues so that she will know where she stands when it is time to vote on them.
Some of the bills she is working on for 2008–2009 are education legislation, disability-funding programs that help people with disabilities get jobs, firefighters legislation, health care reform, encouraging the use of prescriptions and federal law to extend that into the state. During the discussion at committee meetings, Menlove will be participating in a number of different things such as e-mailing, texting her intern about issues that are up in another committee meeting and leaving periodically to present bills to other committees. After this she will participate in caucus lunch meetings which are separated into Republicans and Democrats and can either be what is called open or closed. The media participates in open caucuses only. Following these meetings is what is called Floor Time where House members then sit at their desks and continue to talk on the phone, answering e-mails from constituents, standing and presenting bills, debating, voting and again leaving periodically.
“You must learn to be a multi-tasker,” Menlove said.
Members of the House then conclude their day by attending sponsored receptions then to a dinner. From there, Menlove said she finishes at 8 or 9 in the evening and then begins to work on her other profession as USU’s vice provost of regional campuses and distance education.
Throughout the months when the House of Representatives is in session, which is 45 days from January to mid-March, she will drive down or stay overnight depending on the day. When asked how she began serving in this powerful position, Menlove said that growing up she had enjoyed politics very much and then in college she participated in the Young Republicans working on a campaign. From there she became a county delegate and then a state delegate as a committed Republican. After this, she became an election judge in her town. Following these, she started teaching at USU in special education and law which led to her fascination with these issues by “realizing their impact.”
Eventually running against a long-time incumbent Democrat for the legislative position, with her family’s support and help, she was elected as House Representative. When asked the most rewarding part of her service she said she likes the challenge of getting legislation passed, but the really rewarding thing is to run a bill and then hear how it impacted someone positively. She shares a story from the Supported Employment Committee as an example.
“The people who run that program, brought some young adults people in who got jobs that wouldn’t have gotten them and talked about their jobs and how neat it was to get a paycheck,” Menlove said. “That is so wonderful you’re thinking, ‘I did something.’ She is in awe some days that here we are making laws and then we are going to go out and live them.”
–delayne.locke@aggiemail.usu.edu