Ruthie Vogel, 2023 AIP Mather Policy Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: University of Maryland-College Park

My name is Ruthie Vogel, and I’m a rising Junior at the University of Maryland. I’m majoring in Physics and minoring in both Sustainability and International Development/Conflict Management. I’ve loved physics since I was in middle school, but after my first experience working in an experimental physics lab, I decided I wanted to be more involved with science policy than hard research. Specifically, I want to work in Environmental Policy, a subject I’ve learned is intensely globalized. I’ve done a lot of physics outreach work with high school students, and am currently working with the Physics department at UMD to create a potential science policy track of the major. I’m really looking forward to working at the House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology this summer and being an active party of the science policy process!

Outside of the time I spend in the physics building or other academics, I sing in a UMD acappella group called Kol Sasson, write poetry, bake food to share with friends, hike, and ask my family to send pictures of my dog. Above all, my favorite thing to do is have good conversations with people I care about. I’m so excited to meet and learn from everyone this summer!

Internship

Host: American Institute of Physics

Project

Abstract

Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming more advanced and prevalent in all aspects of life, bringing to light the need for official standards and regulations. The regulatory process for emerging technologies like AI, however, is lengthy, and includes a wide array of agencies and stakeholders both within and outside of all branches of government before any legislation can be proposed, much less enacted. In this presentation I will discuss the vital importance of AI regulation, and use AI to demonstrate the overall regulatory process. While working for the House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology I was able to see a small segment of this process, but there is much more to AI regulation than just the Science Committee. The consequences and implications of AI are vast and far reaching. Through gaining a complete picture of the regulatory ecosystem, one can better understand the challenges and pitfalls that the U.S. is facing before any significant legislation – AI or otherwise – can be passed.

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Week 1: It’s ok to not know what you’re doing

Hey everyone! My name is Ruthie, and I’m the Mather Science Policy intern this summer. I’m working for the US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (or the Science Committee for short), for the democratic staff.

As the summer goes on, I’ll try to find my own style for both content and the kind of information I include in my blogs, but it’ll be a little bit of a learning curve for me right now. I’ve kept a daily photojournal for the past eight years, but to me, it still feels a little different from this weekly chronicle. Like my photojournal though, I’ll do my best to include lots of my personality, cool pictures I’ve taken, and emotional highlights instead of just going through the things I physically did. This week is a bit long, but everything was so new and felt so important that I felt like I needed to share it all.

To start with what happened though: we all moved in on Sunday, and I took the day to unpack my stuff, and meet my roommate, MJ! We did a small grocery shopping trip and made dinner together, which was a really sweet way to start off the summer. We quickly realized that we didn’t have shower curtains though, and headed to target the next morning to pick some up. Monday was also Hannah’s birthday, and so I grabbed a birthday card while we were at the store, and people came over to sign it throughout the afternoon. Around 6:30, we all went out to dinner together! It was really nice, and so good to meet everyone before we had to be official. I’ve rarely fit in so well with a group before – maybe it was something about the way we were all coming together with something in common, and maybe it’s just that physics always attracts good people, but I enjoyed every minute of it. When we got back to our building, people didn’t seem ready to split up just yet, so we all met up in someone’s room and played a fun game that presented each person with a philosophical dilemma. There was as much talking about the game as there was just general conversation, and it was fairly late before we knew it and we all said goodnight so we could head to ACP the next morning.

We all met downstairs at 7:30, but the highlight was 100% this: we were taking headshots during orientation, and so we had to be wearing business professional attire. Which meant that we were a troupe of physics nerds wearing suits walking like the Avengers to the metro and from the metro to ACP. I must be completely honest – I’ve gotten so many emails from Brad, the head of the Society of Physics Students, and probably disregarded most of them, but I can tell you that after meeting him in person I don’t think I’ll be doing that again. He’s one of the most genuine and caring people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting, and the same applies to Kayla and Mikayla as well. Though some of the orientation material itself was a little boring, one theme ran throughout it all. Everyone at AIP/SPS/APS (who even knows) who touches this internship cares so much about each and every one of us and want to do everything they can to help us succeed. I’ve really had to fight for a lot of my past experience, and I feel so privileged to have all of them with me.

My other highlight of Tuesday was watching the sunset at the Watergate steps, overlooking the Potomac river and into Virginia. It really hit home that we were right in the middle of DC, and it was really up to me whether or not I took advantage of that. I want to do my best to explore this city!

Technical difficulties were another theme for Tuesday and Wednesday. Many people, myself included, had issues with accounts or computers, which meant that I put on my “professional adult who is going to congress” outfit and went to congress (or the Ford Office Building), where the Minority staff for the Committee for Science, Space, and Technology is currently housed, and was there for... about an hour and a half. My badge, account, and computer weren’t ready so I just went home. Brynn and I used the time to go to the farmer’s market right by the metro station, which was adorable! I made a yummy dinner though, and we all hung out together near the Washington Monument which was lovely :)

Thursday was not to disappoint. I got in at 9 (full work day woo) and got my HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES EMAIL ADDRESS SET UP which was WILD. The interns sit at the front desk for the office, and so I got to meet all the professional staff for the office, along with some of the other interns (I have home interns and work interns which is really confusing for my family) and once they found out that I was a physics major, I was informed that there was a briefing on quantum mechanics at 11:00 and I should go to it.

So I did.

It was fascinating to me to see quantum explained to Legislative Aids for members of Congress instead of in the way it was taught to my physics class, heavy with math and light on applications. It was wild to me to imagine that I came into that room with more experience of quantum than most of the other people there, but I was fairly certain it was true. That briefing was in a different House office building closer to the Capitol, and on my way back I walked through a small section of the US Botanical Gardens and ate lunch. I sent one of the most excited voice notes I’ve ever sent to my best friend, freaking out that this was real and I was doing Science Policy! I was in the thick of it! But little did I know.

When I got back from lunch, I took notes on a Senate Meeting that had happened the previous day so that members of the committee could review them. Then, Alan and Dahlia, two of the Committee staffers most involved with the Quantum hearing happening the next Wednesday (which is why there was a Quantum briefing) asked me to sit in on a meeting where they met with the Republican staffers and edited the bill that would be the subject of the hearing. This is where the real legislation happens. And I got to witness it. For context, the National Quantum Initiative Act, which was passed in 2018, is now going to expire, and Congress wants to reauthorize it. I definitely felt like I was thrown into the deep end, but I was loving it.

Friday, however, really started off with major impostor syndrome. Alan asked me to write questions for the hearing. Each hearing has witnesses, and members of the committee ask the witnesses questions to try and get more information on the subject that they’re trying to create legislation on. But the congress people don’t write their own questions, and they don’t write the bills themselves. It’s the people in the committees they’re a part of, like Dahlia and Alan and my immediate boss who do. And today, it turned out, it was me. I felt so in over my head, like I couldn’t possibly write questions for lawmakers to use as just a 22-year-old intern. I sent my first question to Alan, and I thought he was going to laugh at it. But instead, he thanked me, and gave me constructive feedback on what parts of what I wrote were good and which needed improvement. It really hit me at that moment that I wasn’t expected to already know how to do this, I wasn’t expected to be perfect because I was a beginner. And because I was a beginner, I was being helped and supported along the way so that I could help others. The second question I wrote was better, and a lot of that was because I felt like I wouldn’t be punished for failure. I was going to be helped until I succeeded.

I think that’s a memory that I’m going to take with me for a long time. I hope that in the future, I can be a person who helps others feel comfortable with the skill level they’re at and help them recognize that learning is a part of gaining any new skill. It’s ok to not know what you’re doing – you just have to be willing to learn.

Week 2: Highly Motivated Personnel

Hello and welcome back again!

I didn’t write about last Sunday in my past blog, so here’s it is! I went to the National Museum of African American History, which I’ve been trying to get tickets for since last summer. The main history exhibit was crafted so beautifully and I really recommend the museum to anyone who can get tickets. There was so much thought put into every aspect of the experience. I sat on a bench in a garden outside the museum and wrote for a bit after I was done – I could have spent so much more time there, but I had planned to meet up with a friend from UMD. We wandered around the monuments for a while and I made a quick stop in the Museum of Asian Art to see the peacock room, which had been closed the last time I went (and I recommend that one too!).

This week marked my first full week in the House of Representatives – and while last week the House was out of session, this week it was Definitely In Session. That meant a number of things for me:

1. I work 9-6 during in session weeks. This meant I needed to pack more snack and also meal prep for dinners so I could get right to cooking when I got home.

2. All of the things that happen when the members of congress are around happened. This week, that meant hearings.

Mondays and Fridays are district work days for members of Congress, which means that we didn’t have any hearings and were just prepping for the rest of the week. We had an Environment Subcommittee hearing on reauthorizing the weather act, and a full committee hearing on Advancing American Leadership in Quantum. All of the hearings get live streamed and then the full videos are posted after, so if you’re ever curious about what I’m doing, look it up!

I’m going to take a brief aside to explain what hearings are, because they’re not something that gets talked about often. Basically, when there’s a topic that the house wants to get information on or investigate, they invite witnesses who are experts on the topic and ask them questions (like the questions I was writing last week!). There can be hearings for the full House/Senate, or just for a specific committee, like mine.

Before each of our committee hearings, the written testimony of the witnesses, along with a hearing charter (written by the majority party), a democratic memo are sent out to all of the committee staff. Then, we write questions, and get opening statements and questions from the Ranking Member of the Science Committee, Zoe Lofgren, and the Ranking member of the subcommittee (if relevant). The committee interns (of which there are two others) print out all of this material and put it into binders for the Ranking Members and our staff to use as reference during the hearing. Along with finishing up the quantum questions, preparing the binders for the weather hearing took up most of my Monday. During my lunch though, I took a walk over to the NASA headquarters, and then to the Botanical Gardens, where I ate my lunch. I’m so grateful to have all of that nature right near me!

On Tuesday, I worked remotely, taking notes on a hearing for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and the House Oversight Committee. Both of the hearings were intensely polarized, with minority witnesses being bullied by members of Congress and people making slanted and misleading claims. I closed my laptop at 6 feeling deeply saddened about the state of our government, and made pizza for dinner with MJ, which didn’t make me feel better about the government but did taste excellent. I’m in an a cappella group at UMD, and after pizza I got on a zoom call with two of the other members of the group to arrange a new song we’ll be singing next year (Erase me by Lizzy McAlpine!).

WEDNESDAY WAS THE DAY! The night before, my boss had sent me an email saying that she needed me to man our front desk during the Quantum hearing and that the other intern would be staffing the hearing, and I had a moment of panic before thinking back to my interview with Kayla and Mikayla. They’d told me that the Capitol Hill interns really need to stand up for themselves to get what they want out of the experience. I sent an email back saying that I understood but would be really sad to miss the hearing because of the work I’d put into it. And – she thanked me for reminding her and said that of course I could staff the hearing! I was really proud that I’d asked for what I wanted and hadn’t let it fall away just because I’d been told something else. So I put on my suit and headed into the office. We gathered up the binders the other interns had made on Tuesday, grabbed the Committee camera so that I could take pictures during the hearing, and walked over to Rayburn, the house office building where our Committee room is.

On the way in (through a staff only entrance!!) I passed a sign for the Capitol Tunnels and now it’s my mission to take them. Gotta explore next week! We waited in a side room for committee members and before the hearing started, and at some point I set out the binders at their seats, put a copy of the proposed questions on each seat, and set out the name plates for each committee member in order of seniority on the committee.

The hearing was long, but absolutely incredible. It was so nice to work in a bipartisan committee after the two intensely polarized hearings I’d watched the day before, and the members all asked really thoughtful questions. I even got to briefly talk to some as I put up their nameplates when they sat down, but it was mostly things like ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’. Still fangirling though. I definitely have favorite committee members, but that can be the subject of another blog entry once I’ve heard them all talk a bit more. (short list is Sykes, Bonamici, Jackson, Frost)

Hearing takeaway: government is theater.

Evidence:

1. Committee offices are backstage, with a door on stage right and stage left

2. There are TVs in the committee offices (backstage) that show what’s going on on stage (the hearing room).

3. The staff are stage managers (myself included). We moved props and helped out the actors (congress people)

4. The Congress people are actors. They play one role in our bipartisan committee and rant about ‘the woke agenda’ in other committees they’re a part of, ceasing to govern in favor of virtue signaling.

5. There’s a tech team with mics and lighting (enough said)

The other big lesson for the week was this: I was not going to have things to do unless I made it known that I was looking for things to do and that I was competent at doing them. I’ve been making efforts to talk to every committee staffer, get to know them, and express interest in helping them with any projects they might have come up. It works! And once I have some experience in an area, it’s much easier for people to trust me with similar tasks in the future. Whenever I need a confidence boost in an area or am doubting myself, my dad tells me that I’m “highly motivated personnel”. This brought me two exciting tasks for the end of the week. On Thursday, I wrote a statement for one of our committee members to read at a Markup next week (more on that once it happens). It was a lot of work, because I had to learn what the bill being marked up was about, and then try to pinpoint this member’s tone, and the issues they would care about related to the bill, and make sure to include all of the formalities like “I yield back my time” at the end, because every speaker gets allotted five minutes. I am really proud of what I came up with, and I could tell that the staffers thought it was really good as well. I was sent the edited and almost finalized version, and it was only a few technical questions away from what I’d initially written. I could feel the staffers seeing me in a new light and realizing they could throw more tasks at me. Which is how on Friday, I ended up writing questions for a hearing on fusion that we’re having this upcoming week!

When I was done with work on Friday, I went with some of the other interns to see the Washington Ballet School do a free outdoor performance, which was absolutely incredible. I’d never seen ballet before, and it was a really unique and special experience. Saturday was the DC pride parade, which was really close to where we live, and it was massive! There were so many groups in the parade itself, and so many people who came to watch. The American Chemical Society was there, so I think next year there needs to be an APS or AIP or SPS group in the parade! The actors for a show I absolutely love (Heartstopper) were also at the parade, and Jenna and I cheered so loud for them that they waved at us!

On Sunday I hung out with my best friend from high school, which was lovely, and then took a long walk by myself near the White House. After so much time around people, it was good to spend some time being spontaneous and alone to recharge. Here’s to a great week three!

Week 3: The world is something we make

Week three was busy.

I started off in the office on Monday, writing questions for another hearing happening on Tuesday, this time about fusion. While the quantum hearing was a full-committee hearing, this was an energy subcommittee hearing which meant that it was a lot smaller. The questions were due at 11 so that they could be sent out to the member offices, where staff choose which questions to ask or rework the questions to fit into each Congresspersons’ specific style and interests. After that, I finalized the binders that contain all the materials for the hearings, though sometimes we have to wait until pretty late to get the opening statements. I ate lunch in the botanical gardens again, and I found some really cute picnic benches right by this really beautiful fountain.

Monday ended up being pretty slow once we were done preparing for the fusion hearing. I was sitting at the front desk though, and had to answer the phone a few times and direct people to meetings with the professional staffers. We got one call from someone who was calling the Science Committee as a last resort. I listened to them and empathized with them and told them that there likely wasn’t much we could do but that I would pass their information along to my supervisors. I hung up the call feeling terrible – who was I to empathize with this woman in a way where she could feel like she was being heard and helped when there was nothing I could do? But at the same time, I was glad that I could be a supportive and caring presence on the other end of the phone. I can’t imagine what a terrible time she’s had if she was calling us for support. I left the office at six in a bit of a daze only five minutes after that phone call, and took the metro back to GW. I made a pretty good dinner, and talked to my dad for a bit, who called because he loved my second blog. Hi dad! I packed my lunch, and got ready for Tuesday.

On the metro on the way to work Tuesday morning, I started reading a book (that just came out!) called Recoding America. It’s about the challenges of policy implementation in the US, especially in the digital age, and I thought it would be poignant to read while working on the hill. I’m really enjoying it so far, though I haven’t read very much. The book started with a quote from David Graeber that I’ve been thinking about a lot this week: “The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.” I’m getting to see a lot of the process by which this world is made, and there are times when it feels very arbitrary.

When I arrived at the office, we started making binders for the markup that was going to happen on Wednesday. The first thing we did was print out the text of the bills that were going to be included in the markup. More on that later, because the fusion hearing was at two!

Lessons from the fusion hearing: If you ever thought that scientific breakthroughs don’t make a huge difference in the eyes of policy makers, take this opportunity to change your mind. Ever since the net gain fusion reaction in December 2022, members of Congress (both Democrats and Republicans) have been looking to fund fusion research and hopefully energy production as a solution to our energy generation problems. Many of them spoke about being skeptical about fusion before, but that they’re huge proponents of fusion energy now. Just like the quantum hearing, the witnesses in this hearing were highly qualified fusion experts, whether scientists, policy makers, or industry representatives. I really enjoyed getting to hear their testimony, and honestly it made me kind of excited for the future! After the hearing, I got to talk to one of the scientists who works for the US branch of ITER, a massive international fusion collaboration.

Wednesday was probably the craziest day of the week for me. I got into the office, collected all the materials for the markup, and brought them over to the Committee Hearing Room in Rayburn (which I’ve learned is called RHOB for Rayburn House Office Building). There was one on collaboration between NASA and DOE (Department of Energy), one on collaboration between the NSF (National Science Foundation) and DOE, and the last was about Research and Development for the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). I explained hearings last week, so here’s how markups work! Bills are proposed, or are “sponsored” by committee members. After the text of the original bill gets workshopped, they get sent out to everyone with the notice of a markup. At this point, members of the committee will look over the bill and identify anything they think needs to be changed, and they’ll propose an amendment. A markup usually contains multiple bills, and the committee members will go through one by one, voting on each individual amendment for each bill and then the overall bill itself before moving on to the next bill. Everything is a little rushed and last minute at this point in the legislative session. Amendments aren’t due until 24 hours before the markup, and nearly all of them came in during the last 15 minutes on Tuesday morning. The thing I’ll take away from the markup is this: Summer Lee, a Black, female Representative from Pennsylvania, tried to include a DEI amendment on one of the bills, but ended up withdrawing it so that the bill could pass through committee. The Republican Chairman, Frank Lucas, said that he thought the amendment was important and that he would hope to work on including it in other committee bills, and I really hope he was being truthful.

After work on Wednesday, I headed to the Congressional Baseball game with Amber, one of the other Science committee interns. Senators and Representatives play in the annual game to raise money for charity, and it was peak comedy. First off, sports should be played by amateurs more often, it’s significantly funnier. Second, a bunch of the members of Congress playing brought their whole staff in matching shirts. Third, I just found it hilarious to see some of the people I’d worked with in suits in committee earlier that day playing baseball (quite badly). I can honestly say that I’ve never had so much fun at a sporting event.

Thursday morning I took notes on a Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and left work early to wind my way through the tunnels under the house office buildings to the Capitol to finish the rest of my tour training! I got a snazzy booklet with information about the parts of the Capitol I could take people into, and the staff leading the tour was really helpful. Keep an eye out for a tour later in June! After the tour training, I had a little bit of time before the SPS ex-comm dinner, so I just wandered around the Capitol building for a while. It’s so incredibly beautiful, and the fact that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures in most places made me appreciate it even more. I wandered in the hallways that led to the House and Senate floors, sat in the House gallery, poked my head into the House Restaurant, and admired a series of busts of all the past vice presidents. I sat on the Capitol steps for a few minutes before walking over to Present Company Public House, where the dinner was happening.

Everyone associated with SPS and AIP is honestly incredible and I loved meeting and talking to everyone. Particularly important to me on Thursday night was meeting the Mather Capitol Hill intern from last year, Aidan (hey there if you’re reading this blog). It was really nice to talk to someone who knew what I was going through on a daily basis. Overall the evening was really incredible and it was great to spend time with the other interns and AIP staff in a fun and vibrant setting. Here’s to an SPS float at DC pride next year!

Friday I worked remotely and took notes on another hearing, but the office closed early for Juneteenth. If I learned something this week it’s that the professional Committee staff have minimal work-life balance. The email they sent out closing the office said “I know you’ll be answering emails all weekend, but you might as well do it from home”. When I leave at 6, they’re still there, and one of the staffers lamented that her phone auto-generated an album of her nanny with her kids while she’s working. I stopped working early though, and headed out with Tiffany to get boba and celebrate her being done with finals!

The highlight of Saturday was definitely the orchestra concert we went to Saturday night. The music was beautiful, it was great to get to meet some of the musicians beforehand (thanks to Jack), and one of my friends from UMD who’s a physics and cello performance double major was actually in the orchestra!!

The orchestra was my last interaction with the other interns for the weekend, because after that I headed back to my apartment at UMD so I could go to the wedding of two of my close friends. I’m really glad that I was able to go, and congrats to both of them.

For me, the overarching lesson of this week is that our world - both the internal worlds of our personal lives and the external world of society - are very much shaped by individuals, be that a good conversation we have with a friend or a member of Congress’ personal goals. I hope my next week is full of positive encounters, and that I can learn over this summer how I want to be an individual in the larger world of science and policy.

Week 4: Slowly Bending Toward Justice

This week was a shorter work week because Monday was Juneteenth, the federal holiday celebrating the emancipation of the last enslaved African Americans in 1865, two full years after the emancipation proclamation was issued. Juneteenth also had to wait a long time to get its recognition, and I can’t believe it’s only been one year since it was officially made a federal holiday. To celebrate our (completely incomparable) freedom from work and the fact that we had time to cook, all the interns decided to come together and host a potluck. It was so fun, everyone’s contributions were great, and it was just nice to spend the time together.

Tuesday was also pretty relaxed for me work wise – because Monday was Juneteenth, all the hearings and markups for the house were held on Wednesday and Thursday so members would have time to come back from their districts. This meant that all the events I had to take notes on and facilitate were jammed into the end of the week. This week also marked the last of seven straight weeks of the house being in session, an unthinkably long time. The House is usually in session for three weeks at a time, giving time for members to return to their home states and for staff to prepare for future legislation, but because of everything that happened with the debt ceiling showdown, the last week in May ended up connecting the May and June sessions, which contributed to the heightened level of craziness in the past few weeks. All this to say that this blog will be the last one that mentions hearings or markups until the second week in July, so enjoy!

Tuesday after I finished work at 6 I ate a quick dinner and then met up with some of the other interns and headed over to Tonic, where there was live Jazz! It was great to sit outside with everyone who came and listen to the music and get to be with people after a day of working remotely. Tuesday night also marked the long awaited Heartstopper watch party with MJ, Jenna, Julia, and Janessa (realizing I’m the only one without a J in their first name). I love that show so much and really could rewatch it at any moment, fully recommend. We watched the first three episodes and will hopefully reconvene at a later date :)

Wednesday was our first committee event of the week: a markup on three bills having to do with giving grants for fire-fighting teams and the development of new technologies to support them, and giving NIST the opportunity to investigate infrastructure issues. There were actually no amendments on the bills because of the way they were written, and so the markup was pretty short. After that I took notes on a House Energy and Commerce Hearing on the regulation of the Federal Communications Commission, specifically looking out for any space-related content so that our Space and Aeronautics staff could use it. The FCC is apparently trying to start combining land and satellite based broadband services to end the prevalence of huge areas without service. It’s been cool to hear about how broad the impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and CHIPS and Science are: the landmark pieces of this administration’s legislation are really making a huge difference. I also spent a bunch of time on Wednesday preparing for Thursday’s hearing on Artificial Intelligence. I made the binders and attended a briefing with the CEO of HuggingFace, an open-source AI platform and this man had the most French accent you’ve ever heard. He definitely was advocating for regulation that would positively impact his company’s business model, but he seemed very committed to advocating for AI regulation overall.

The final votes for the Wednesday markup rolled over to Thursday morning, so we ran straight from that into the hearing. This meant that there was some downtime while all the members were still there during the break while we got everything sorted, and I got to chat with Representative Andrea Salinas, one of our committee members, for a bit. She’s a representative from Oregon, and it’s her first term in the House. She definitely spoke to a lot of people, both experts and constituents, about AI before coming to the hearing, which was nice to know. The hearing touched on a lot of different topics, from algorithmic bias to competition with China. As an artist who’s pretty involved with the online art community, I especially respected Ranking Member Lofgren’s questions for the witnesses about how we can ensure that AIs aren’t being trained on data stolen from artists or other personal materials. The hearing was probably the most clearly bipartisan moment I’ve seen at all from the House, even before I started working here. Members were complimenting the questions of members from the opposite party and even continuing the lines of questioning of the person before them (hearings alternate questions from Republican to Democrat). I know, like I wrote about in Week 2, that it’s theater, but it’s nice to see the Committee members working together to help create the legislation we as a country need. I just wish that our government would create legislation proactively instead of reactively!

Because of the hearing I missed the intern lunch with John Mather, but Brad is hopefully helping me set up a chance to meet him! I felt torn about missing it, but figured that since being present for the hearing is one of the most important parts of my job, it was better that I stayed. While so many things are still online after Covid, members and staff really need to be present at events in order to contribute.

Friday was another day of remote work for me, and I was working from a bus up to New York to visit some friends I hadn’t seen in a while. We made dinner together Friday night, and just hung out for most of Friday and Saturday, enjoying each other’s company. Sunday was a different story because it was New York Pride! One of the friends I was visiting works for Brad Hoylman-Sigal, an openly gay member of the New York State Senate, and we marched with him in the parade. He was the co-sponsor of the Trans Safe Haven Bill, which the governor of New York Kathy Hochul signed into law at the opening of the parade. The now-law protects the families and doctors of trans children along with their privacy and access to gender-affirming care as attacks against trans people continue to rise across the country. As we marched through the city and past historic sites like the Stonewall Inn, people watching the march kept seeing the senator and our signs and saying ‘thank you’. It was an incredible moment to witness and be a part of.

This week, with Juneteenth, the AI Hearing, and marching in NYC Pride, I thought a lot about the timescales of change. One of the big throughlines of the hearing is that our technology is only as good as the people who train it. This especially applies to AI because the algorithms so clearly take on the biases of their creators. It’s been over 150 years since the original Juneteenth, and America is still unraveling slavery’s legacy of inequality. The movement for LGBTQ+ rights has been shorter, and while it’s made great strides there’s still so much discrimination against the community. The Supreme Court upheld part of the Voting Rights Act last week, but next week they might legalize anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. I’m reminded of the Martin Luther King quote “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” Here’s hoping it does.

Week 5: E Pluribus Unum

Week 5:

Welcome to Recess!

I told one of my friends that the house was in Recess and he wanted to know if there were playgrounds. There were, unfortunately, no playgrounds for the Science Committee, but I did see one in the U.S. Botanical Gardens. Recess meant I only worked until 5 this week, and was remote for three days instead of two. This will likely be a shorter blog because work was pretty light this week, but it’s definitely been full of other things.

I was in person on Monday with minimal work to do. The office was practically empty, and I ended up leaving early because I was the only one there and it looked like it was going to storm (it did not storm, which turned out to be a theme for the week). In the evening, I headed out to Astronomy on Tap with a bunch of the other interns of legal drinking age. Apparently there are a bunch of branches all around the world, and the goal of their events is to bring people together for a night of cool astronomers talking about their research, trivia, and just a generally fun time. This specific event was a celebration of Black Space Week, which was last week, and each of the presenters were incredible. Additionally, a whole bunch of the people in attendance were from UMD, which was cool, and I won an Astronomy on Tap glass in astronomy trivia.I really love the physics and astronomy community. I absolutely loved the event and I’ll definitely have to go back!

Tuesday was also pretty relaxed – I worked from home and then hung out with some of the other interns around dinner – we all cooked our own food and brought it to someone’s room and ate together, which was really nice after a day of no people. Because I had a light work day though, I took some time in the morning to talk to Dr. Emily Edwards. She was one of our witnesses at the Quantum hearing way back in Week 2, and she actually helped me get my first research job when she was working for the Joint Quantum Institute, a UMD/NIST partnership. I feel like so much of what I hear from professors and physics staff about potential futures is centered around academia and industry research, and it was a really wonderful experience to get to talk to someone who loves physics from outside that traditional pathway.

On Wednesday I was back in person, and it was busy! I went to an AI briefing with Microsoft’s policy director for Responsible AI, which was pretty interesting! I definitely need to do more research on some of the documents that the speaker brought up. From the briefing, I had another excursion to return a book to the Library of Congress for one of our staffers, and I got to explore Longworth House Office Building and the tunnels that connect it to Rayburn for the first time, which was exciting. After work I went to an event on offshore wind power generation hosted by the Embassy of Denmark! As an intern I was definitely out of place because I’m not in a position to make long term legislative relationships on the Hill, but it was still an interesting experience.

Thursday started remotely, where I was editing a transcript for the record of one of our Science Committee markups, but I went to the Capitol around noon to give two of my friends from UMD a tour of the Capitol. While I was waiting for them I watched the NANOGrav livestream!! It was really nice to hang out with my UMD friends, and definitely a good experience to give my first tour to two people instead of the whole SPS group of 16 other interns! I did a bit more work and then we headed across the street to the U.S. Botanical Gardens – I’ve eaten lunch in the outdoor section, but never explored inside! It was beautiful, but we were admittedly tired after walking all around Capitol Hill and headed back to grab dinner and hang out for a bit longer before they had to leave. Thanks for coming!

Friday ended up working out the same way with my big moment in the spotlight giving a tour to all the other SPS interns. I first took them to see the Science Committee Hearing rooms in Rayburn, and showed them how all the tech in the rooms worked (there’s a lot of it). We watched the Capitol orientation film called E Pluribus Unum and then headed out on the tour. Because I’m not working for a specific member office, I can say whatever I want on tours because the Committee doesn’t have specific political opinions. So in the wake of some pretty sucky Supreme Court decisions, I decided to focus my tour on the elements of the Capitol that showcased equality, the importance of individuals, and the ways that the Government is supposed to work for each and every one of its citizens. (I am the policy intern, I get to talk about politics, exercising my first amendment rights and all lol). I talked about the statues of Rosa Parks and MLK; I pointed out the monument to the suffragettes and the unfinished corner that’s supposed to represent each of us and the work yet to be done. As we walked through the halls of government, it was hard to stop comparing the past and the present, or in the words of Hadestown “to see how the world could be, in spite of the way that it is”. Though I’ve moved physically from the space outside the Supreme Court building (thanks to Jenna for organizing museum outings), my mind has stayed there for much of the weekend, thinking about the contrast between this weekend and the joy-filled experience of NYC Pride I had last weekend. Just like the experience I had talking to Dr. Edwards shows, representation matters so much: it’s so much easier to tread a path when it’s been walked on by others before. This holds true for better or for worse, and regardless of whether it’s related to education, celebrating life milestones, or something as simple as trying to find your way into science policy. We’re all better off when we support each other.

Week 6: Something Worth Recording

Hey there! Welcome back to the blog.

This week was the second and last week of recess, but it was definitely full even though I worked remotely the whole week. I was mostly editing transcripts again, along with a few other smaller tasks. The most interesting things this week weren’t on Capitol Hill – so for once, I’ll give you guys a rundown of all the things I did for fun this week before I jump right back into legislation on commercial space and fire safety.

So: Monday! I worked until about 3:30 before heading out to the Nationals game with all of the other interns! We got there really early and took a group picture with Brad before heading to find our seats. There was time before the game started – it got delayed because of some light rain – so I wandered around the whole park with some people before anything even got started. It turns out that I know a lot more about baseball than I thought I did, which was fun, and Jenna and I finally actualized our plan to get dip-n'-dots at the game, which was legendary. Towards the end of the game we headed up to the second level next to the scoreboard where we watched fireworks from when the game was over. The Nationals lost, but it was a great time all around.

Tuesday was July 4th, so I didn’t work! I had a lazy morning and then headed to finally see Across the Spiderverse after a really long wait. Devin and Tiffany can attest that I really enjoyed the movie, and might even still be processing it to this very day (feel free to ask me for my thoughts!). The animation, music, and story were all incredible and I’m definitely going to have to see it again. When I got back from the movie I rushed to pack a bag with food, water, and other necessities and trekked over to the national mall to snag a spot to watch the fireworks! It was HOT and we were all gross by the end of the night, but waiting with everyone for the sun to set and the fireworks to start was a moment I’m glad I decided to be a part of. It was definitely cool to sit between the Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Reflecting Pool, and Lincoln Memorial, juxtaposing memory with the current reality I was living. Devin brought backgammon and someone else brought cards and we just hung out listening to music until the government started playing music from a much larger speaker. The fireworks were beautiful and honestly I’m in awe of the fact that someone engineered them to spell out U S A – props to them! Science!

Wednesday I finished up editing the transcripts for a markup and started working on the transcript from the AI hearing I talked about in Week 4. Reviewing the transcript was honestly fascinating because I realized how much AI brings up conversations about ethics and the nature of humanity that don’t usually get brought up other times. People talk openly about the rights that workers have, intellectual property, what makes us human when faced with other intelligences, and other topics that don’t generally get spoken about so plainly. For the first time this summer, I went with MJ to work at a cafe and very quickly remembered why I don’t work at cafes: I get distracted waaaay too easily. Going to stick to my apartment when working remotely in the future.

I’d never worked at ACP until Thursday, but I headed out with a bunch of people who regularly do at 7:30 AM (!) to work in the Niels Bohr Library and Archives until Jenna’s presentation for the Science Trust Project. The presentation was amazing, and I’m really glad I got to learn about the project – they’re working to combat science misinformation through a number of different strategies. This one was focused on active, or reflective listening, and it was a great time. I would love to be more involved with them in the future and hope the workshops really make a difference! After the workshop I traveled back to Foggy Bottom and finished up the workday from there before going out for a late dinner with MJ and Tiffany at a sushi place in Chinatown that uses conveyor belts and dancing robots to help deliver your food. It was so fun!! The food we got was great, and we all got Tayaki, a fish shaped pastry filled with red bean paste, and ice cream for dessert and it was one of the best desserts I’ve had, I would completely recommend.

Friday ended up being a really slow day work-wise, but I headed home for the weekend to celebrate my dad’s birthday! I got to spend a lot of quality time with my family (and my dog) and one of my best friends from UMD, whose birthday was also this weekend. Over the weekend, I also finished a book I’ve been rereading for the past several weeks, called The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. It’s a story about stories, and one line I found myself returning to while writing this blog was this:

“Everyone is a part of a story, what they want is to be part of something worth recording.”

It felt relevant to my blog this week for two reasons. One, because the fact that this wasn’t the most eventful work week meant that I was able to record other more subtle aspects of my life that might have been overlooked in a busier week. And two, I really do feel like this internship is the start of me making my way into policy that could help people live better lives; I want to do so much in this sphere that it’s a story worth recording.

See you all next week!

Week 7: Scientists, Writers, and Ne’er-do-wells

Hello and welcome to... Week 7??

Recess is officially over! I was back in on Monday with things in full swing, prepping for two hearings we had this week on Fire Weather and Commercial Space. Both of them ended up being really big hearings with lots of attendance from our members, which was great! It was nice to be back in the office with other people, and one of the other interns, Amber, and I quickly got started making the binders for both hearings and doing some research for the commercial space hearing that I’m still not allowed to tell you which is kind of crazy! I also got to stop by the House Creative Services to pick up some really cool print outs of space pictures we had made, and nothing makes you feel more official than carrying a giant envelope around Capitol Hill. After I made dinner on Monday, I hung out with Jenna – we went on a long walk and then sat and talked for a while on a picnic table which is also a swing (10/10, would recommend).

Tuesday was work from home day! I attended a Washington Post livestream event about the impacts of AI on the workforce. Sal Khan, of Khan Academy fame, was one of the panelists and his voice really just took me back to high school math. Overall, the discussion made it very clear to me that people really don’t know how generative AI is going to become part of our set of tools – Mr. Khan is trying to ensure that students only use AI for specific, allowed sections of their schoolwork, but realistically, there’s no way to make sure that’s the case. Another panelist talked about how the economic gain due to generative AI would be significant, but also discussed the amount of job displacement there would be. Where’s that economic gain going? Much of the discussion, however, centered around how we would still need to maintain and encourage our “human skills”. While it seems like the skills they’re referring to are creativity and critical thinking, it seems like those skills are critically undervalued! Because I didn’t have extra time commuting on Tuesday, I went shopping and made a really good dinner before heading out to the Potomac to watch the sunset with Brynn, Tiffany, and Eva. It was really nice to have company after a long day working in my room, and the sunset was absolutely gorgeous.

On Wednesday, I was back in the office and behind the front desk while other people staffed the hearing. I attended and took notes on two different events. The first was a Center for Strategic and International Studies discussion about mitigating methane emissions in the oil and gas sector, and the second was the Summer 2023 meeting for the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee, or COMSTAC. Two of the witnesses for Thursday’s commercial space hearing were actually running the COMSTAC meeting, which was why I took notes on it, and it was very interesting to hear their perspectives and recommendations on the issues we’d be discussing the next day spoken in a less formal setting. I also got a more stakeholder perspective on the way that new legislation gets made, as they were largely reviewing their recommendations for the FAA regarding a new rule that got put out dealing with launch and re-entry. It was interesting to have that experience after reading Recoding America. During our lunch break, Amber and I walked over to Longworth to explore and also check out the House of Representatives merch store. The sweatshirts are exorbitantly expensive but I want one and will be going back. When I got back from work I went to the Foggy Bottom farmer’s market (LOVE OF MY LIFE) and ended up meeting Tiffany, Brynn, and Colin and we walked to Georgetown to find proper Barbie attire for the Cinematic Event this upcoming week. I didn’t end up getting anything Barbie themed, but it was fun to hang out with everyone and try on ridiculous outfits.

Thursday was the commercial space hearing! I wasn’t expecting to go, but the intern who’d done a lot of prep for it was out sick, and so I had to make the ten minute trek in the heat in my suit over to Rayburn and set up the room for the hearing. (Not that I’m really complaining.) Mr. Sorenson came a little early and I excitedly babbled to him about how much I appreciate the way he communicates science to his constituents in between tasks. I took some pictures to use for press (I wish I had them to share with you but they’re on the camera still!) and then made my way all the way back to Ford. I ended up in the elevator with a lost congressman and did my best to help him find his way back to his office, here’s hoping he made it. Thursday marked the moment when I started revisiting Albert Camus’ “The Stranger” as I do every summer when it gets disgustingly hot in the DC area. I’m about to completely destroy all of the philosophical meaning behind the work in this summary but the main character kills someone and all he talks about afterwards is how uncomfortably hot he was. I promise you – I’m not planning on committing any crimes because of how hot it is, but it definitely makes it more difficult to be a functioning human who goes outside and works and does things. We had our potluck after work on Thursday, and most people made foods that reminded them of home or their childhood cooking, which ranged from scallion pancakes to dino nuggets to Eva’s gorgeous dessert that I don’t know the name of. Though we didn’t necessarily have the ingredients or cooking implements to make everything the way we wanted, everything was delicious and it was fun to hear people talk about what their food meant to them.

Friday was another work from home day – I had to finish up taking notes on two senate hearings. One was a Commerce hearing about oversight of the Coast Guard, and a Judiciary hearing on AI and Intellectual Property, which I found fascinating. The conversation related in so well to current conversations that are also happening around the SAG-AFTRA strike which started this week – big production agencies wanted to pay actors for one day of work, record them, and use AI to use their voice and likeness for whatever they want, indefinitely. I know there won’t be legislation passed on this until long after I’m finished my internship, but I hope the Science Committee can be part of writing legislation that helps protect everyone from the use of this technology with ill intent. My roommate from UMD, Avital, spent the weekend with me, so I met up with her after I was done working for the day. After getting absolutely drenched in a wonderful summer rainstorm, we decided to spend the rest of the evening inside just hanging out.

We walked into Dupont on Saturday morning, and once we were done overheating, we spent most of the afternoon just reading and talking before people came over to prepare their characters for the one-shot RPG that MJ and Emily made that we were going to play on Sunday. After everyone had left, we all headed up to Devin’s apartment to have a Barbenheimer (read: Barbie and Openheimer) themed party. Everyone dressed accordingly and it was a great time. I got some late night ice cream with my UMD friends before promptly falling asleep.

I said goodbye to Avital before walking back to Dupont again on Sunday morning to check out the Dupont Farmer’s Market which was absolutely massive. I have honestly never seen one that big, and the produce was gorgeous. I got rained on a little bit but the rain felt nice and when I needed to I ducked into tents filled with peaches, flowers, or gluten free scones which I’m sure were all delicious. I worked on some projects for school before starting Lightspeed, MJ and Emily’s RPG! It was amazing and we all had such a good time. I’m playing a quick-tempered, anti-establishment investigative journalist who has no time for anyone else’s issues, and all the other characters are just as unique as mine. Also I literally get bonus points for being nosy which is fun.

Writing up this blog, the ‘choose your own adventure’ of games like this is making me think about what aspects of my life are actually ‘choose your own adventure’. One of my family friends wrote me an email this week about how when he was younger and started working in policy, he too was “as eager, awed, and hopeful” as I seem to be now. While I’m always growing consistently less awed at the people, buildings, and mechanisms I’m surrounded by, I hope to never stop being hopeful. I want to care immensely about seeing problems in this nation that need solving, continue to hope I can make a difference, and do my best to cause positive change. Even so, I think there’s a lot more complexity than simply that. I want to be frustrated when the work I’m doing isn’t making a difference, I want to question and unravel my experiences and feelings about the systems around me, I want to feel uncomfortable when faced with systemic issues and societal problems. As much as it’s nice to be excited about the work you’re doing, I think it’s much better to be passionate about what your work means. In Lightspeed, the “ragtag team of scientists, writers, and ne’er-do-wells” might be able to do what’s right and save the cows from becoming spherical and the government from stealing an inventor’s intellectual property in the space of two afternoons, but it’s a longer project in real life, and one that takes just a bit more tenacity. I hope I’m able to hold onto it for as long as possible. Here’s to being a ne’er-do-well scientist who won’t take no for an answer.

Week 8: Did you Ask a Good Question Today?

Welcome!

I felt really proud about how this week went. And, like much of the media coverage from this week, everything was fairly Oppenheimer themed.

On Monday, I got everything set up for the week with a list of events I would need to attend and take notes on. My first event was in the afternoon, but I had a couple more small tasks that I worked on with Amber before trekking over to Rayburn for a briefing by the American Nuclear Society on the construction of nuclear weapons and nuclear non-proliferation. (You can get the Oppenheimer vibes already.) The presenter discussed the different types of nuclear weapons, how various different isotopes are selected and concentrated, signs of nuclear activity that the U.S. looks for in countries, and how the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty works – it basically allows five countries to have nuclear weapons, and every other country is expected to ally with one of them to avoid being destroyed by another nuclear power. If that seems kind of funky to you, it is, but it works for the U.S., so no one’s going to change it! When I was leaving my committee’s briefing room, I ended up talking to some staffers who happened to work for Bill Foster, and I’m hopefully going to meet with them sometime next week. After work on Monday I went out with MJ, Julia, and Eva to a small but cozy restaurant where there was going to be a cabaret! The group usually meets once a month, and it was really just such a wholesome environment where people got to express themselves through music. I’d definitely like to go back in the future! It’s really nice that I’ve gotten to know about things going on in DC that I might want to come back to during my semesters at UMD.

On Tuesday, I was technically working remotely, but I decided to go into the Hill so I could attend a lunch with the House Science and National Labs Caucus. I had a zoom meeting right before, and ended up sitting in the cafe in Longworth, where I saw Lauran Boebert and AOC. The lunch panel had representatives from a number of different National Labs, like Argonne, Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and a few others, and they were mainly discussing what their labs have to do with High Performance Computing. (Meeting the director of Los Alamos was the second Oppenheimer themed part of my week.) Some of them spoke about quantum computing, some about AI, some about chip manufacturing, and some about national security. Overall, it was a really interesting look into how different aspects of the research our government is doing work together. After that I finished up the day from home, taking notes on a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the right to repair. It was a fascinating hearing, one because I believe the right to repair is so important, but two because it was really non-partisan. The Science Committee is nonpartisan in the way that everyone wants to fund research, but this hearing had two sides – people who were getting money from big companies that didn’t want to allow consumers to repair or increase the longevity of their own products, and everyone else. I got to catch up with a friend on the phone for a while in the evening, which was really nice.

Wednesday I was back in person, had another event to take notes on, and finished up the right to repair hearing. I also got asked to write an opening statement for the Ranking Member of our Committee, Zoe Lofgren, to read at a hearing we’re having next week. It was a big moment for me, and I really felt like I was being trusted by the staff of the committee. I also got Amber and the new Staff Assistant, Carlos, to come with me to a climate awareness event where they were giving out ice cream because I thought it would be fun and I wanted ice cream. It was fun, and I got to explore the Senate buildings and tunnels for the first time. I’m trying to use the last few weeks of the internship to really explore and take advantage of everything that I’m right in the middle of. I finally got through the first bit of research for Ms. Lofgren’s statement when the day ended, and I headed home to make dinner, make slides for something I was doing for the UMD physics department on Thursday, and pack because I was taking a train to New York straight from work on Thursday as well!

The slides I’d made on Wednesday night were actually for a talk I was giving to the UMD Physics Department’s summer high school outreach program. I attended and then worked at the program when I was in high school, and being asked to talk at it was really rewarding and encouraging for a number of reasons. It felt like a way to give back to the program that had given me so much, and it also felt like a recognition that my path is a real and valuable path to take with physics. I’m really happy with my presentation and the Q&A session at the end! It was a strange parallel to a lot of the events I’ve had to take notes on this summer. Once the UMD talk wrapped up, I returned to my Committee work. I was supposed to take notes on another House Judiciary hearing, but it ended up being a political circus with not much material consequences, so after about an hour of that I turned off the hearing and went back to working on the opening statement for Ranking Member Lofgren. I feel really really good about what I wrote, and I’m hoping that it gets used without too many edits. The hearing is going to discuss the cleanup of legacy nuclear waste from the Manhattan Project, and doing research on that was the third Oppenheimer themed part of my week. When I wrapped up for the day (and the week!) I headed over to Union Station to catch my train – and got to New York safely, where I was staying with my best friend, Aharon. It was his birthday on Saturday, which was the occasion for my visit.

Friday was the real Oppenheimer themed day of the week, when Aharon and I actually saw Oppenheimer! We also saw Barbie, but this is a physics blog and I am a physics nerd so I will write about Oppenheimer at the end of the blog (without spoiling anything except history). After a long but wonderful day of movies, we made a potluck dinner with some of the people Aharon lives with, and got to spend some great time together. Highlights of Saturday included meeting up with some mutual friends for lunch and attending a Korean inspired orchestra performance at Lincoln Center. We went for the music of course, but also because they’ve been working with a group that provides assisted listening devices to people attending live music events which are strapped to different parts of your body and vibrate in time with different instruments. I’ve always loved getting to experience music by feeling the vibrations at concerts and parties, and this was an incredibly special experience for me. I’m so glad that this technology is being made for everyone, but especially people who are deaf or hard of hearing! On Sunday we went to the Met Cloisters, and then I headed back to DC.

Back to Oppenheimer as promised – as a high schooler, I became obsessed with the fact that there were so many Jewish physicists that really defined the era of physics at the beginning of the 20th century. This included American born Jews like Oppenheimer and Richard Feynman, as well as a plethora of Jews who fled persecution in Europe like Einstein and Szilard. I’ve done an immense amount of research on all of these characters, but I always felt that my favorite Jewish physicist of the era was I.I. Rabi. Though before the Oppenheimer movie he was largely lost to the Jewish teenagers obsessed with physics and NBLA staff, I think the movie at least brought him to the attention of a broader audience, even if it didn’t really give people an understanding of the amazing man and scientist he was. After working with Oppenheimer on the Manhattan project, Rabi noted that Oppenheimer “would have been a much better physicist if he had studied the Talmud” (Rigden, 228). Rabi, a non-practicing Jew, recommended studying the Talmud because it would have “given [Oppenheimer] a greater sense of self,” a greater awareness of what they worked towards each day, of the forces physics explores, of the underlying truth of all things.

I don’t think that all physicists have to study the Talmud, but one of the things I’ve learned while working for the House Science Committee is that scientists need to understand the complex environment that their work is a part of. Rabi said that when he came home from school every day, his mother “would say, ‘did you ask a good question today?’” and that is what made him a good scientist. Good questions aren’t just experimental questions: they’re also questions about the consequences of your work and how it might be used. Research doesn’t just exist in a vacuum, it has repercussions outside of labs and in the lives of real people.

Rigden, John S. Rabi: Scientist and Citizen. Harvard University Press, 2000.

Week 9: Find Your Why (Thanks Nancy Pelosi)

I know I have one more blog to write after this, but Week 9 is the last blog I’ll be writing from Amsterdam Hall, which definitely feels like an ending. This week has been full of endings in other ways – it was the last in-session week before Congress’s big August recess, but that meant it was an incredibly full week too.

On Monday, I was back in the office, doing a bunch of random tasks. I proofread and formatted some questions for the record (QFRs) that were going to be sent to the witnesses in the commercial space hearing. Our staff and members send QFRs to hearing witnesses when there isn’t time to ask those questions during hearings, or if witnesses would need a lot more information than they have on hand at the hearing. Once I was done with that, I shifted to helping prep for the subsurface science hearing (the one I wrote a statement for last week). One of the other interns and I, along with the two energy staffers, split all of the witnesses up and each took one. I was writing questions for a witness from DOE, and reading her written testimony really taught me a lot about the amount of funding they’ve been given from recent legislation like the BIL (Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) and IRA (Inflation Reduction Act), and how agencies like the DOE are putting that funding to use fighting climate change and doing research on new technologies that can help.

Tuesday was technically a remote day for me, but I was on the Hill anyway, this time on the Senate side! I attended a (5 hour long!) event run by Microsoft Technet about AI. They had a bunch of panels with representatives from some of the companies Technet is involved with, and were generally discussing how companies use/expect to use AI, and recommendations for policy action in the future. There were definitely some good things to learn – NIST put out an AI Risk Management Framework, and everyone really seemed to like that (go NIST!), but there were also some frustrating comments too. A representative who was involved with the event came and spoke and basically argued that the Writers/Actors strikes were ridiculous because AI should just take over their professions. He argued that there’s a strong social safety net, and that writers and actors should just find other things to do as AI takes over – good to know he’s voted against measures that would provide people with loan forgiveness or fair housing! Just goes to show that you should pay attention to what your representatives are doing as well as what they’re saying. After the event, I met up with one of the staffers for Bill Foster (the PhD physicist in Congress) who specifically works on science policy, to chat with him about his experience and any advice he might have for me. I’ve really been learning how many people do science policy without a background in science, and I’m really glad I’ve stuck with physics. I tried to attend a Senate Judiciary hearing on AI that I needed to take notes on, but there must have been a 200+ person line waiting outside the hearing room, so I headed home finished up the notes from the morning instead. I was going to meet up with Jenna and Brynn at the Lincoln memorial to watch the Marine Band, but it started raining and the event was canceled! We still walked around in the rain for a bit, which was really nice :)

Before starting any work on Wednesday morning, I got coffee with Albert, a Committee staffer on a NSF fellowship. Unlike a lot of the people on the staff, Albert got a PhD in genetics before turning to policy, and I really wanted to know more about his experience. He gave me some really good concrete actionable advice that I know I’ll use in the future, as well as more personal motivation and introspection advice that will stay with me for a really long time. I’m glad I’ve gotten to meet people like Albert, and The subsurface science hearing – the last hearing of my internship – happened on Wednesday. It was really rewarding to sit in the hearing room, taking pictures and putting up name tags, while listening to Members of Congress make use of all the hard work I’d done preparing. It was definitely bittersweet watching the hearing end and having to head back to Ford from Rayburn, but it’s been a good run! And I definitely have more to do. I put together the binders for the markup on some Committee bills for Thursday, and started taking notes on the AI oversight hearing. I’m definitely going to talk more about this in my final presentation, but here’s another tip about paying attention to your representatives. If they’re talking about problems that seem suspiciously far away and unlikely to happen, it’s likely because they don’t want you paying attention to the real issues that are affecting real people right now! While we definitely need to focus on preventing future harms we know are coming, focusing on far-flung future sci-fi scenarios about rogue AI taking over the planet should never come at the cost of helping people who are rejected from jobs or organ transplant lists by AI because of racial bias built into the algorithms.

Thursday was a BIG DAY. I helped set everything up for the hearing in Rayburn before heading to the Congressional Auditorium to hear Nancy Pelosi speak in an Intern Lecture Series. She talked about her concern about the state of America’s democracy, as well as the hope that young people in public service give her. She spoke about how she got into politics to help underprivileged children get access to the resources they need, and that while not everything she does is directly related to that driving motivation, everything leads back in the long run to her passion for helping the next generation. Speaker Pelosi’s advice to all the interns: find your why. I really just appreciated getting to see her speak – she did an incredible job as speaker balancing her personal beliefs with the needs of leadership – and after watching almost every female scientist get edited out of Oppenheimer (something I’ve continued to be mad about over the past week) it was really meaningful to hear about Speaker Pelosi’s leadership and experience combating misogyny during her tenure as Speaker of the House. When that was over, I walked around the Capitol with Amber for a bit, and we sat in the House and Senate galleries and got to watch some of the floor proceedings, which was very cool. Though it might be difficult to believe, the afternoon was even more exciting. Most of the staff packed up for the day around 2:15 and took the metro to Farragut West before walking to the White House! We met up with our escort and spent a while outside going through security before going bowling in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building with a bunch of the staff for the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). I’d love to intern or work at OSTP in the future, and the staff were all great. I’m working on getting their contact information, but hopefully this will be a good connection for me! It was a lot of fun to spend time with everyone outside of the office too, even though I’m terrible at bowling. When I got back we finished up the RPG that MJ and Emily had written, which was amazing! We successfully saved all the cows from becoming spherical and had a great time doing it.

On Friday I worked remotely in the morning, and I actually worked from a bar nearby that turns their space into a “public living room” before they open at 4PM. I love public spaces!!! It was so nice and really just brought so much joy into my day. I headed into the office in the afternoon, but not to do work! We were having a CHIPS party/happy hour to celebrate all the good work everyone did during the session, our IT guy, Larry’s birthday, and for the one year anniversary of the CHIPS and Science Act, which my Committee was instrumental in creating. The CHIPS party entailed everyone bringing in multiple different kinds of chips, which Larry was very serious about. We brought them all into the conference room and assembled a tasting situation while everyone hung out chatting. There was a complex voting situation where we all pretended that we were the actual Committee voting on a resolution in Congress. The energy in the room was amazing. The CHIPS party was actually the first time this whole summer that the whole Committee staff had ever been in the same room and it really gave me such an immense sense of gratitude for every one of them.

I really tried to take advantage of this last weekend with everyone. Highlights of the weekend included wandering around Adam’s Morgan with Julia and Eva, going to the Piano Bar in Georgetown Saturday night when they had dueling pianos, and singing along with the whole bar and all my lovely intern friends, more wandering around Georgetown window shopping, and getting dinner with MJ and Tiffany. I love you guys and can’t wait for this next week together.

Week 10: The Next Generation of People Who Are Going to Do Great Things

Week 10:

This blog comes to you from a train in Canada! I live in DC, and went on vacation with my mom and sister. So while I’ve been a bit busy since the internship ended last Friday, this blog will travel back to last week.

Monday was my penultimate day in the office. It was slow because it was an out of session Monday, but I did a lot of work on my presentation because I’d had absolutely no time the week before. My sister actually came and visited me on Capitol Hill (my family lives just a metro ride away) and I gave her a tour of the Capitol! Elizabeth, the Legislative Intern for the Committee, came with me because neither of us had too much work to do. She had worked in a Member office previously, and pitched in with some fun facts that she learned while doing so – including a spot where a cat had stepped in wet concrete during construction. My favorite room along the tour route (and my sister agreed) is the old Supreme Court Chamber, where some of the early formative cases that defined US history were fought, including Marbury v. Madison and Dred Scott. I love Constitutional Law and theory, and I’d been a little lost in the grandeur and mythos of the Supreme Court for a long time. Though I wish I could return to that mindset now, the Court definitely has a long way to go to regain my trust and the trust of the American people. Here’s hoping! I said goodbye to my sister after walking her through the tunnels to the Committee hearing rooms, wrapped up for the day, and headed home a bit early, where I ended up on the same train as Janessa once she got on after Metro Center. I stayed in, made a delicious dinner, and finished up my presentation.

Tuesday was my remote day, but with nothing to do while I wasn’t in the office, I had finally been able to plan a lunch with John Mather to make up for the time I missed meeting him due to the AI hearing. I met up with him in College Park, and lunch was a personal conversation so I don’t know if I’m going to share everything we talked about here, but it was amazing and I was emotionally crying by the time I left to get back to DC. We discussed Oppenheimer and how Dr. Mather felt about his personal scientific legacy and the national security reality behind how all scientific research gets funded, representation of minorities in physics, teaching, the future, and a lot of other things. Most of all, John Mather is one of the most caring, most genuine people I have ever met and I’m so grateful to have a relationship with him going forward.

Wednesday was my last day at the United States House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and I did actually cry on Wednesday. I was at the front desk for my last day, and answered some phone calls and worked on my presentation for a bit longer before walking over to the Capitol through the House tunnels one last time for a resume workshop. It was pretty useful! I’m definitely going to take some of the advice they gave me. I spent a little more time wandering around the Capitol and just taking it all in once I finished getting the way I present my life examined, just appreciating the space I got to spend the summer in. I didn’t get anything done after I got back to Ford except for chatting with the few members of the Committee staff in the office for the day: Alan, Albert, Connor. They’re some of my favorite staffers though, and I’m glad I got to spend my last day with them. Alan gave me his favorite NASA pin (after showing me all the ones he had and didn’t like) which is definitely what started the crying. After my lunch with John Mather the day before and saying long-form goodbyes to Albert and Alan, I was just filled with such intense gratitude I felt buoyant. All of them really do their best to help create the world they wish they could see, a world that’s better for all the people in it, and they want to help me do the same. I really truly don’t have the vocabulary to describe how it felt physically in my body but I am so lucky that I had this experience and met all of these incredible people. Although – one of the things I’ve found myself more commonly believing now is that while I was definitely very lucky, I also got what I did out of the internship because I worked really hard both to get there in the first place, and then while I was there. I really did advocate for myself and take advantage of all the opportunities in front of me. And the last one for Wednesday was this: going to the wharf with a bunch of people for Rock the Dock and playing giant Jenga and cornhole and laughing and just getting to be. I felt full in more ways than one.

Thursday meant rehearsal day. It was honestly incredible to learn what everyone else was doing after just hearing snippets and pieces for the whole summer. It was fun getting to ask people questions about their work and research as well, and I left the rehearsal feeling prepared and excited to see the rest of everyone’s presentations on Friday. Before we left for the day, we celebrated Brad’s birthday and... also learned that he was leaving SPS to do STEM education work at NIST. I can’t believe I thought Brad R. Conrad was a stuffy old man for so long before finally meeting him and now I won’t get emails from him anymore, but I hope everything works out for the best at NIST. Thursday was also the day that Heartstopper season 2 finally premiered and Jenna and I were absolutely freaking out. We watched the first episode, internally and sometimes externally screaming the whole time, before I packed up allll the stuff in my room. My dad was picking up everything around 20:00 because no one would be able to get it on Friday, and I got to watch the walls go bare and the drawers empty as I packed my things into suitcases. Most of the interns went back to Tonic for dinner as a full circle moment because we’d also gone the first day we were all together. It was delicious and bittersweet, and there was a lot of laughter and maybe someone scrawled “We love Brad” in crayon on the ceiling next to a bunch of frats letting you know they were there. Though Jenna and I had decided we were going to hang out with everyone Thursday night and not watch any more Heartstopper, people were mostly packing by themselves and after my dad picked up my stuff we watched four more episodes. Would completely recommend.

Friday was it. We had a delicious breakfast and Kayla, Mikayla, and Brad gave everyone a personalized and inscribed book as a parting gift. We all decided to sign the books for each other and I’m so grateful we did. Then people’s mentors and families slowly started trickling into the room and then it was time for presentations. I’m so so proud of everyone. I really don’t have other words to say except that we all did really incredible work this summer. As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about science communication, I’m also so proud of the way that everyone spoke about their work or research and I can’t wait to see where everyone goes next. No one really knew what to do once the presentations were over – we ate lunch and said our goodbyes and slowly trickled back to the dorms. I was actually the first one to leave because I had to be home Friday night, and a bunch of people came down to wish me goodbye.

I’ve said it throughout each and every blog and I’ll write it out in full again here: I am so incredibly grateful for the people I worked with, the friends I made, John Mather, and Kayla, Mikayla, and Brad. I’m grateful to the physics community overall for supporting the new physicists in these wonderful ways, and though I usually roll my eyes at people saying that they “had a life changing experience over their summer break omg!” I will honestly say that I did. Thank you so much to everyone who made this internship possible. As I was debriefing from my lunch on Tuesday with one of my friends and fangirling that John Mather wanted to keep in touch with me, he said “he wants to keep in touch with you because while he is a person who has done and is doing great things, we’re the next generation of people who are going to do great things”. We are – I write this line as a promise to myself – we are.