Day 4

0800 - 1645.

Thursday was quite a surprise. Not all through the day, of course. There were many instances of "Capitol normalcy," i.e. school visits, lobbyists and so forth. Thursday's features were the Iowa Clean Water Association, who provided goodies and free lunches, Senator McCain sitting in on the Republican caucus, and a surprise visit by Gov. Culver. It was such as surprise that we had to read the paper to discover when and why he was coming: it turns out that he was signing the cigarette tax bill that the House had passed last Tuesday. There was much rejoicing, but we also got cake!

Today's actual session was relatively innocuous, even with the specter of the "right-to-work" debate hanging over our heads. When I parked in the morning, I walked into the Capitol with a Legislative Services Agency (LSA) page. She was hauling a sleeping bag and pillow, and told me she expected to stay the night. The discussion on the floor among the doormen was an all-night debate followed by more debate Friday. I heard anywhere from 140 - 400 amendments had been filed on the bill, so I well expected a long night. The House's actions during the day seemed prophetic of a long night as well: the Republicans were in a short caucus for about an hour, but the Democrats started caucusing at noon, delayed the 1:00 session, and did not come out of caucus until about 4:30. At that time, the House reconvened, and Majority Leader McCarthy requested adjournment of the House until Monday.

We were all stunned, of course, but in retrospect it appears that the Democrats did not feel they had enough votes to pass the bill. Even with the four-day session, I still put in 40+ hrs, so I am beginning to feel well-adjusted to the work as a page. I've made friends with the bill room clerks in both chambers, the House switchboard ladies, the doormen, and some of the other pages.

Summary of the week: cigarette tax passed, unamended, and was signed into effect. Right-to-work has been postponed, so I wonder if we will hear about it next week or if the wait will continue. I suppose we'll all have to wait and see. Until next week ...