A bill actually became a law

Also, flowers on the floor

I knew several months ago that I was going to tell you this story, but I had to wait until I knew how it was going to end - and now I do.

I filed a bill back in April. It was to expand parental leave for folks in the National Guard and Reserve forces to include fathers and adoptive parents. For some reason, they’ve never been included, which means they’ve never been entitled to leave upon the birth or adoption of a child. (I’m a dad in the National Guard so I happen to know about this.)

I found a member of the other party to file it with me, and another bill doing the same thing had been filed in the Senate. 

So we had both parties and both chambers supporting the same bill. Good to go, right?

Hahaha no.

I figured out pretty quick that my bill wasn’t going anywhere - basically because I’m a new member of Congress so I don’t have that kind of pull.

But I also figured that I could try filing it as an amendment to another bill.

I happen to serve on the Armed Services Committee, so I decided to file it as an amendment to the annual defense bill.

We started working with the staff on the committee to change the bill into an amendment. 

Our first roadblock was that it cost too much money, even though it didn’t really cost any money, it just let servicemembers take leave. But the way the Congressional Budget Office calculates things, that cost money. 

So we changed it to go into effect a few months later, and that got us under the amount we could spend.

Then the Defense Department had technical changes they wanted. We were able to change some language and fix it again.

Then we were told that the amendment would need approval from four different committees.

That’s a dealbreaker. I’m a new guy and there’s no way I’m going to be able to get four committees to work with me on this.

But we were able to change some language again so it only had to go through one committee, Armed Services.

The big day arrives. We’re voting on the annual defense bill in committee. 

I’ve filed the amendment and I’m ready to go. I’ve got a speech about why we should do this and answers ready for any question.

We spend all day hearing amendments - hundreds of them. 

Then, three minutes before midnight, they call my amendment for a vote - and it passes unanimously without any debate.

Outstanding. Wonderful. We’re rocking.

Then it goes to the House floor as part of the defense bill - and passes.

Sooo that’s it, right? Success?

Nope - one senator was opposed to our amendment.

So when the Senate passed their own defense bill, they did it without our amendment and with lots of other changes, which meant there were now two defense bills.

A special committee was created to iron out the differences between the two bills. 

We figure this is our last shot, so we gather up the main supporters for our amendment and send a letter requesting that it be put back in the bill.

We hear nothing. The letter sails into a black hole.

Until one afternoon last week. I had just sat down at my desk when a member of my staff - who has been working on this for months - burst into my office and told me they put our amendment back in the bill. The final bill.

This week it passed the Senate, then it passed the House, and now the president is going to sign it into law.

Our amendment will get no press, no one other than those of you who are reading this will ever know how all this happened, but from now on, it’ll make a difference to a lot of young families in the National Guard and Reserve.

And if that’s the type of work you’re interested in doing then you should run for office because in my experience that’s how a bill actually becomes a law.

Flowers on the floor

A couple weeks ago, Rep. Alma Adams spoke at a campaign event for me and she was incredibly kind, so I thought I’d say thank you by giving her some flowers.

I usually see her on the House floor, so that’s where I thought I’d give them to her.

So yesterday, I walked onto the floor of the house holding a bunch of flowers - and holy smokes the effect was dramatic. 

As it turns out, you get a lot of attention just walking onto the House floor holding some flowers.

Members of both parties kept coming up to me and asking if the flowers were for them. I could see the hope in their eyes.

As I walked through the crowd, it felt like everyone was watching to see who was going to get the flowers, almost like a reality TV moment.

I had to walk through a press gaggle with the flowers and all the reporters looked up from their phones with curious expressions. A couple of them asked what my intentions were with the flowers and one of them actually mentioned it in his newsletter this morning.

It was kinda great. Honestly, I should make a monthly habit of just randomly bringing flowers onto the House floor because it caused such a delightful commotion.

I did give the flowers to Rep. Adams, and she appreciated it, and I’m very grateful for her work and her friendship.

Campaign update

We’re doing our first western campaign swing soon - six western counties in two days. 

A big part of campaigning statewide in North Carolina is truly getting a sense for how big our state is. 100 counties feels a lot different when you’re driving them than when you’re just holding a map!

But I’m a big believer that showing up counts for a lot. People need to see you, and you need to be able to have a real conversations with them, face-to-face.

Our campaign can do a lot of that because so many of you have chipped in through this newsletter. It’s made a real difference in what my schedule looks like by freeing up more time to meet with voters.

I’m very grateful, and I hope you’ll help keep it going by contributing here (ActBlue) or here (non-ActBlue).

Best,

Jeff