Jen Abele
Editor
Jeff Finegan joined as one of the 50 full-time staffers under Senator Hatch on Nov. 13,2017. He graduated from Lafayette College dual majoring in Political Science and German. There are three people between him and his boss. Senator Hatch will be retiring after this year’s term.
What is it like to be a Legislative Correspondent?
The LA, Legislative Assistant, are the individuals that are responsible for policy formulation in different issue areas. So, in our office, for example, we have an LA that does health care, taxes, social security, budget issues, and military/foreign affairs. You can see that the issues are sort of grouped together. Then what LAs have are the LC, Legislative Correspondent, the job of the Legislative Correspondent is to make sure that constituents from the state who write in about any issue that falls in that portfolio gets an appropriate response. So, if you’re sitting in your house right now and you want to know what Pat Toomey’s position is on something related to the recently passed tax bill, say a provision in the tax bill, you call up the office or email and say. “Senator Toomey I’d like to know how you voted on this or what your opinion is, say on section 104 of the tax bill.”
The LC is going to get that message, and they’re going to make sure that they formulate a response to you that answers your question. I’m the person in our office who makes sure that the LC gets that message. I check our website, or the track. The track is a correspondent’s system where I can see what issue areas are getting messages from our constituents. I will group those messages to make sure they get to the appropriate staffer.
It’s also my job to make sure the LC is doing their work. Our office policy is; if you write to Senator Hatch, you will get a response within 14 days. So, what I must do is look at what we have that’s called a ‘queue’. I can go into someone’s queue, see how much correspondence they have assigned to them and look at the date when it was received.
It’s more of an administrative position. It’s not really a policy creation position, but I got really lucky because it’s my first full time job. I had enough previous internship experiences that when I applied for it and interviewed for this role I got it.
What has Senator Hatch taught you that you have found valuable?
He’s been in the Senate for 42 years, and he’s been there for quite some time. The one thing truthfully that I can say in an objective manner as possible is you sometimes in the general sense do not agree with him, but he has done a tremendous service to the State of Utah and to his constituents. I think he exhibits statesmanship, [he] has worked across the aisle with Democrats, and [he] has done a lot for the good of the country and the State of Utah.
What’s the best way to get your foot in the door on Capitol Hill?
That depends on what you want to do. If you want to work on Capitol Hill in legislative processes the best thing is an internship. To put this into perspective usually ten Capitol Hill staffers have nine who have interned on the Hill at least once. Another beautiful part about being on the Hill is that there are all kinds of things present in D.C. like Government Agencies, Big Tax, Non-Profit, Advocacy Networks, and all kinds of different things nearby as well that are important to look into. One good thing that is a common thread, if you will, in D.C. is Hill experience. So you might want to intern at a very very small tight knit non-profit in D.C., but if you’ve interned at Capitol Hill that would likely help you get a career on the Hill. Everyone kinda knows what goes on there, the importance of being there[in D.C. and the Hill], and knowing how the system works.
Then once you’re on Capitol Hill you can make all sorts of connections and become part of many networks. So, each person sort of takes a different path. The best option is if you genuinely are interested is to pursue your local Representatives. Your Congressmen is Brian Fitzpatrick, if you decide you want to be a political science major you could start laying down the foundation of an internship this summer for next year.
The one thing too is there are two types of people who go to the Hill: work horses and show horses. Most people I think go there for the right reasons because people do genuinely want to have a positive impact. They’re also usually very interested in at least one issue. They know that’s the only way to have an impact. The single greatest thing that you can do on the Hill is to do everything that’s asked of you, to do more, and to be on top of what’s happening.
Another part of it is that you want to show your superiors that you take your role very seriously and you’re not a clock watcher. You’re there to get a job done, and if you do those things there’s no way that you will not get recognized. Capitol Hill is one of the fewest instances where if you do a good job, you will get recognized.
