This is the second part of my blog about my trip to Washington D.C. July 19-23, 2023. Part 1 focused on my arrival in Washington D.C, the friends I stayed with in Takoma Park, touring the National Archives and Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) Conference to prepare for the Congressional Lobby Day.
Part 2 (below) is about my experience lobbying on Congressional Offices on Capitol Hill.
Part 3 is my recollection of the evening guided tour inside the U.S. Capitol Building led by Congresswoman Val Hoyle.
The CCL group photo on the Capitol Steps at 8 am in the morning
These are long days on lobbying on Capitol Hill. I set my alarm to wake me up around 5:30 am so I could shower, put on my dress business suit, and eat a good breakfast. I needed to leave the house where I stayed by 7 am to walk or see if I could catch the bus to Takoma Park DC Metro station to head towards the U.S. Capitol Building. I reached the Union Station Metro stop by 7:40 am. The U.S. Capitol Building Rotunda Dome looks like a lighthouse beacon greeting us coming up from the escalators at Union Station. As soon as I left Union Station, I found myself in the middle of a throng of CCL volunteers, old friends and new, in our best business suits happy to see each other and eager to lobby for the day.
All of us CCL volunteers and staff needed to be there before 8 am sharp to be in the CCL group photo of around 800 volunteers on the northeast U.S. Capitol Building Steps that would be lobbying Congressional Offices that day. We created a sea of people covering and occupying the lower half northeast Capitol Building Steps. I participated in over 10 of these lobby photos from previous CCL Congressional Lobby days. It was a motivating way to start the day. In past years, the CCL volunteers break out into singing “This Land Is Your Land” with our excitement of being together for the traditional big group photo on the Capitol steps.
After CCL staff took the group photo, I mingled with old and new CCL friends. For this lobby day, I volunteered to be in CCL publicity photos of volunteers talking to each other with the Capitol Dome in the photo background. They mostly needed young women and people of color front and center in the photos. At the same time, as 57-year-old white male, it was still helpful for CCL for me to be in the background of some of the potential publicity shots.
My first lobby meeting was at 10 am at the Hart Senate Office Building with staff of Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon. The Hart Office Building is basically two city blocks from the Capitol building, only about a 2-minute walk. After the publicity photos wrapped up, I had plenty of time to text and call my mom, my niece, and my wife Tanya to let them know I was by the U.S. Capitol Building getting ready to lobby Congressional Offices for the day. I took my traditional selfie photos on lobby day in my dress suit with the U.S. Capitol Dome behind my left shoulder. It was a beautiful clear summer day in Washington, D.C, and it was muggy and humid. Too hot to wear a suit jacket outside, except to be seen with it in photos. I chose to carry my jacket on my arm so I would not sweat as much before my Congressional lobby meetings.
The CCL Lobby Meeting with Staff of U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley
After chatting with various CCL friends in front of the Capitol Building, I started walking to make it in plenty of time to my 10 am Senate lobby meeting. I entered the Russell Senate Building, located across the street from the north side of the Capitol. The bad news is that it takes a couple of minutes to go through an airport like metal detector screening to enter inside any Congressional Building. All metal must be out of one’s pockets, such as keys, business card cases, wallet with coins, etc. The good news is that all the Senate Office Buildings on the Senate side connect with each other and the House Office Building on the House side all connect with below ground tunnels. The tunnels are open for anyone to use, not just members of Congress. They are very helpful shortcuts to get around the Senate and House Office Building, without going through the airport like security check points each time.
I made it to the front of Senator Jeff Merkley’s office around 9:30 am. I hate being late or last minute to any of these lobby meetings. Arriving early gave me plenty of time to relax until the rest of the CCL lobby team arrived between 9:45 to 9:50 am. We went into the Senator’s office reception area a few minutes before 10 am to announce we arrived for our 10 am scheduled lobby meeting. We were then led into a conference room to talk with Senator Merkley’s staff: Ben Schreiber, Director of Climate and Energy, and Kat Abrams, Legislative Correspondent.
CCL trains it volunteers to keep anything said by members of Congress and their staff confidential to build trust and a positive working relationship. I will say all the CCL participants were happy with the outcome of the meeting. We felt like we had a great exchange of ideas and insights from Ben and Kat. We learned a lot hearing Senator Merkley’s staff perspectives on the CCL priorities of permitting reform and the Fix Our Forests Act.
I started the meeting with an appreciation for Senator Merkley for all he has fought for to try to improve our democracy, especially the 2024 that he wrote Filibustered: How to Fix the Broken Senate and Save America. Ben and Kat were pleased that I brought a copy of the book with me.
I mentioned my dream for the past year since I read the book. I wanted to organize a public event with Senator Merkley, similar to what Portland CCL did on April 18, 2024, for Congressional candidates Maxine Dexter and Susheela Jayapal. At the April 2024 Climate Candidate Forum, Dexter and Jayapal shared their climate change thoughts and priorities if elected to Congress. With Sen. Merkley, I think I would be beneficial to discuss his filibuster book and his thoughts how we can improve American democracy, especially to pass effective climate policies.
Ben offered that I should email him after the meeting, and he would be glad to connect me with the staff in Merkley’s office who are focused on democracy issues. After the lobby meeting, Kat gave me the business cards of Merkley’s staff working on democracy policy. I followed up with reaching out to his staff about organizing such an event with the Senator. I have not heard little from his staff about such an event, but I am going to keep politely asking.
After the meeting, I asked if we could get a group photo with Ben, Kat, and the CCL volunteers. Ben and Kat readily agreed to be in the photo with us. They walked with the CCL volunteers to the hallway outside Senator Merkley’s office to be part of a group photo. Ben and Kat then chatted with us outside of Senator Merkley’s office for another 5 to 10 minutes. Ben was gracious to converse more about his energy and climate knowledge with his vast expertise serving as the Director of Climate and Energy for several years for Senator Merkley.
In my 10 years of lobbying for CCL and attending 11 CCL conferences & Capitol Hill Lobby Days, I never saw legislative staff hang out with CCL volunteers for that length of time after the official meeting to continue the conversation. If they were not called back into the office for another meeting, I had the impression that Ben and Kat would have talked with us longer, possibly even gone out for coffee with us. From his generous use of time and willingness to extend the interaction well beyond the allotted meeting time, we had the impression that Ben and Kat enjoyed meeting with our group of CCL volunteers for the July 22nd CCL Lobby Day on Capitol Hill.
A Chance Encounter with Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici from Oregon
After the meeting lobby meeting with Senator Merkley’s staff, I left the Senate Office Buildings to walk in front of the Supreme Court Building and the east side of the U.S. Capitol Building around 11:15 am to head to the U.S. House Congressional Offices for my three afternoon meetings. The next meeting I had was with my Representative Maxine Dexter and her staff at her office at the Longworth House Office Building at 1 pm. I made it through the security checkpoint around 11:25 am, with plenty of time to eat lunch and get ready for the 1 pm meeting.
A fascinating part of lobbying on Congressional Offices on Capitol Hill is you might just inadvertently interact with a member of Congress as they are passing in the hallway. In June 2024, I got to say hello and take a selfie with Congressman Jamie Raskin. In June 2023, I said hello to Senators Ted Cruz and John Kennedy in the hallway on the Senate side. They were both lost in their thoughts and had no interest to say hello to me.
After I entered Longworth, I opted to familiarize myself with the exact location of Rep. Dexter’s office so I would know exactly where to go for the 1 pm meeting. As I took the stairs up to find her office, I saw someone familiar walking down the steps with a group of staff. It was Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici, who also represents Portland Oregon in Congress. She walked right past and then immediately turned around to point at me to say, “You look familiar.”
I responded, “I am Brian Ettling from northeast Portland, Oregon. Like you, I was at Congressman Earl Blumenauer’s retirement party last December. We have both attended various events in Portland over the years. I am here today as a volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby.”
She replied, “We look forward to our meeting with you later on today.”
She then continued briskly walking with her staff to reach some destination. I didn’t have time to respond that I was not assigned to this CCL lobby meeting. However, I was thrilled that Representative Bonamici seemed to somehow recognize me.
Lunch at a Congressional Office Building and waiting for the 1 pm lobby meeting
Representative Dexter’s office was just a few feet away from my friendly interaction with Rep. Bonamici. After I was satisfied I knew the location of the office, I went down to the basement cafeteria to have lunch. The Congressional Cafeterias have the best food of any school, corporate, or organizational cafeteria I have seen. You can find most kinds of food that you are craving on any day, such as pizza, Mexican food, Asian food, a sprawling salad bar, various soups, made to order sandwiches, many different types of desserts, etc.
It was around noon, so the cafeteria was packed with people. There were business and industry lobbyists, Congressional staff, citizen volunteer lobbyists from other advocacy organizations, and CCL volunteers eating at several tables throughout the cafeteria. The CCLers were easy to spot since they all wore their white circular Citizens’ Climate lobby buttons. They tended to sit together to do last minute planning for their next lobby meeting. Televisions monitors mounted on the walls close to the ceiling had CNN and Fox News Channels on with the sound off. It was a sobering reminder that decisions made here daily directly impacts the up-to-the-minute news.
Around 12:40 pm, I headed up the two flights up steps to be outside of Rep. Maxine Dexter’s office to greet my team to assemble outside the office around 12:50 pm. All of us wanted to be in front of the office at least 10 minutes before the scheduled meeting at 1 pm to converse about any last-minute details. The outer door to Rep. Dexter’s Congressional Office was open and we could see the receptionist right by the door.
I shepherded my lobby team to a side corridor away from where the office staff might hear us. Once the group gathered, I mistakenly advised them that this was scheduled to be a face-to-face meeting with Rep. Dexter. However, my experience lobbying for the last 10 years for CCL in Washington D.C. is that members of Congress always run into last minute meetings and schedule changes that prevents a direct meeting with CCL. Thus, I gave it a very low probability that she would meet with us. I tried to stress again like in the prep meeting the day before to listen carefully to the staff’s responses to our questions, especially their sticking points and objections, to make sure they feel fully heard before we respond to our cherished talking points. Everyone had a nervous excitement, especially me for this meeting to start and be successful.
CCL Lobby Meeting with my Congresswoman Maxine Dexter and her staff
Right before 1 pm, we walked inside Rep. Dexter’s Congressional Office to the reception area. We introduced ourselves from CCL and stated we had a 1 pm meeting with staff. The receptionist led us to a large circular 8-person table that we all barely fit around. We asked the Energy and Environmental Aide Gillian (Gil) Mead how much time she had scheduled with us. Gil responded, “That depends upon Congresswoman Dexter who will be joining us any moment.”
We barely started our introductions with Gil when Rep. Dexter came into the room from her closed inner office door. She explained that she just finished her quick lunch. Her scheduled happened to change that day and she was eager to join us. I later learned that House Speaker Mike Johnson shut down House for the summer before the official August recess to sideline calls for Epstein transparency.
She gave me and others that she recognized in the room hugs as she went around the table to greet everyone. I was extremely surprised and ecstatic to see Rep. Dexter. I never had a face-to-face meeting with a member of Congress in my 10 years of lobbying with CCL, let alone my member of Congress. Even more, it felt even more of an elevated high wire situation for me since I led this meeting. I want to stress that our conversations in our lobby meetings are confidential to build and maintain trust with members of Congress and their staff.
I will share this: as we talked our CCL priorities such as permitting reform and the Fix Our Forests Act, Congresswoman Dexter came across as acutely knowledgeable, detailed oriented, and with informed well stated opinions on all these subjects. I was there to learn her positions, and she gave us copious verbal information. I had a hard time taking notes because I was still stunned she joined us in this meeting. Our official notetaker could not keep up with all of Rep. Dexter’s comments.
Despite all my preparation with my lobby team to do the CCL methodology of being polite, motivational interviewing, and showing appreciation, gratitude, and respect, the meeting tone shifted. To my horror, someone on our lobby team wanted to argue with Rep. Dexter about the finer points of the Fix Our Forests Act. It felt like I was starting to watch a garden hose lose control and get everyone wet. Congresswoman Dexter responded like a pro. All her years of being a doctor practicing as a lung and critical care physician showed up here. She had an excellent bedside manner and a calming way to relate to people. She asked the spirted person to tell her more why she felt that way. Maxine truly listened to the CCL volunteer in a heartfelt way while I felt mortified that the volunteer let their emotions in the moment get a bit over the top.
I attempted to regain control of the meeting by saying, “I hope we can continue to have an ongoing conversation into the future about permitting reform and the Fix Our Forests Act.”
Rep. Dexter agreed that she would like to do that.
At the beginning of our lobby meeting, I asked Rep. Dexter how much time she had available to meet with us. She replied, “15 minutes.”
At 15 minutes, we had members of our team still asking her questions. I felt it was time to wrap up to respect her time and schedule. Congresswoman Dexter still seemed like she liked answered our questions and engaging with us. However, her staff shifted awkwardly in their chairs and made big pointing gestures at their watches to her that the meeting must end.
I interjected that we did not want to take up more of her time. I squeezed in a quick question of which Republicans she likes to work with across the aisle. She enthusiastically shared names of several GOP House members she worked with on bills. I then asked if we could get a photo with her and she was happy to oblige. We took a group photo in the hallway outside of her office.
Debriefing from the CCL Lobby Meeting with my Representative Maxine Dexter
We then said our goodbyes. I then walked the CCL team down the hallway away from the office where they could not hear our debriefing. I asked the team what they thought about the meeting. They all seemed positive about the meeting. I felt disappointed and peeved that one of our team had a testy exchange with Rep. Dexter over the Fix Our Forests Act, plus I felt we were not respectful enough of their time when they clearly wanted finish up the meeting. As delicately as I could, I suggested that we really should in the future to be cognitive when the member of Congress or staff tell us they have 15 or 30 minutes to work as a team to wrap up the meeting at their 15- or 30-minute deadline. In their excitement, they pushed back to say that Rep. Dexter and her team were still answering our questions at the 15-minute mark. I responded, “Yes, but the staff were all pointing at their watches, plus Rep. Dexter and her staff were shifting in their chairs like they needed to end our meeting.”
The group did not really see my point of view. I was able to get all of them to sign the thank you card. I filled out the rest of the card thanking Congresswoman Dexter and her staff for the meeting and sharing a quick recap of the CCL priorities in the thank you card. I then dropped off the thank you card with Rep. Dexter’s receptionist and headed to my next lobby meeting.
After I dropped of the thank you card, I saw Rep. Dexter pass by me in a hallway walking at a fast pace with her aides trying to get to the next item on her schedule. Part of me wanted to thank her again for the meeting and apologize for over eager volunteer looking to challenge her on the Fix Our Forests Act. Another part of me wanted to just hide and make sure she did not see me since our group took up more than our allotted time, plus she might not have wanted to think about our group anymore that day due to our overly passionate volunteer.
My remaining two CCL lobby meetings of the day
I had two more lobby meetings that afternoon. The next one was with Congresswoman Val Hoyle’s Congressional staff, at 3pm EDT on July 22, Longworth House Office Building. My last meeting of the day was 4 pm Cannon House Office Building, a House Congressional Office Building located next to Longworth connected by basement tunnels.
The meeting at 4 pm was scheduled to be a face-to-face meeting with Congresswoman Andrea Salinas of Oregon. I met Rep. Salinas years ago when she was a representative in the Oregon Legislature. I knocked on doors for her in May 2022 when she ran for Congress. I attended one of her fund raisers in July 2024. At the June 2023 CCL Lobby day, I spotted her in a hallway as she darted from one meeting to another. She recognized me and we briefly chatted about CCL priorities as she briskly walked. She knows me so I looked forward to this face-to-face meeting.
Neither my 3 pm nor 4 pm meetings were face-to-face with the members of Congress. Like all my previous years lobbying on Capitol Hill, the member of Congress could not make it due to scheduling conflicts with other meetings or last minute changes with committee hearings. I was not disappointed Rep. Salinas could not attend because I was still decompressing from the excitement of meeting with my Rep. Dexter earlier that afternoon.
In the last two lobby meetings, the team leader asked me to be the notetaker. This is my least favorite lobbying role. I always try not to be the notetaker if I can help it. I never felt like I could write down quickly all the information that the Congressional staff shares with us. At the same time, I am a team player. I wanted these lobby meetings to succeed. For these last two lobby meetings, we had new volunteers who did not feel comfortable taking notes. I wanted them to have an enjoyable first-time lobbying experience. I know what it involves to take good notes. We strictly needed to capture the opinions, perspectives, and advice of the members of Congress and their staff for the CCL Government Affairs Team. Again, it annoys me that I can never jot down fast enough what the Congressional staff tell us in the lobby meetings.
Both lobby meetings went smoothly and uneventful. The Congressional staff in those meetings were friendly, kind, and enthusiastic to meet with us. Like most Congressional staff I met over the years, they had great people skills. They had a reverence and joy working on Capitol Hill, especially meeting with constituents and citizen lobbyists, like the volunteers with CCL.
Normally, after the lobby meetings, I would walk two blocks from the Congressional Office Buildings to the Capitol South Metro Station. I would then take the DC Metro to the Omni Shoreham for the CCL evening reception. In all my past CCL lobby days, I looked forward to these receptions to see CCL friends one last time and eat tasty hors d’oeuvres. While eating the appetizers, munching on the cupcake desserts, and chatting with friends, we would hear speeches from a member of Congress and new CCL volunteers recounting their adventures lobbying Congressional Offices in Washington D.C. for the very first time.
This lobby day would be different. I found out the day before the Oregon CCL delegation, including me, were invited to be part of a group tour of the U.S. Capitol Building led by Congresswoman Val Hoyle of Oregon on that evening of July 22nd. Stay tuned for my next blog, part 3, to read about my recollection of the this tour.
