Adapting to COVID-19 in the government
Zachary uses his experience working in US politics to reflect on how the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted policymaking and changed work dynamics.
I still remember my first day walking into the halls of Longworth House Office Building. This was one of the three buildings that contained the offices for all 435 members of the House of Representatives, the equivalent to the House of Commons in the Legislative Branch of the United States (US) Government. As someone coming from a town of less than 20,000 people, this was an entirely new experience. So many others were dressed in their business casual attire, hurrying from office to office to secure signatures for proposals, or running late for meetings with constituents. I was here on a fellowship to act as a healthcare staffer, tasked with aggregating data and research from stakeholders to provide recommendations to the legislative director and congressman of my district on what to sign. Pretty soon, I too was swept up in that current and whisked to Congressional briefings about prescription drug reform proposals or running to make my meetings with business liaisons.
Image credit: Unsplash
All the while, I was meeting a range of individuals—from lawyers representing large businesses to collaborating with other staff members—responsible for requesting government aid in areas affected by natural disasters. I had the opportunity to learn from many individuals from all walks of life, and I took the time to connect with my co-workers and colleagues, engaging in interesting conversations about their experiences and aspirations. I truly felt like I was building up a network of connections in Washington.
Every year, both houses of Congress—composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives—must propose a budget that the Federal Government will use for fiscal spending that year. After the Senate and the House both negotiate, the budget is signed into law by the president of the US. In the House where I worked, we advocated for budget allocations for specific programs, such as grant money to set up a protected wildlife area in Florida, or funding for the National Institutes of Health to support young researchers. To get each Congress member’s support behind these funding proposals, interest groups and congressional liaisons would reach out and meet with us to educate us about why certain funding mattered. This was fondly dubbed “Appropriations Season”.
Appropriations Season was one of the busiest times of the year for us, and this March was no different. There were long team meetings that stretched late into the evening as we decided which requests to renew from last year and which to replace. This is where those connections would play a huge role, as the rapport developed, and meetings held prior to Appropriations helped in prioritising which funding requests were directly relevant to our district in Florida. I could easily reach out to some of the large hospitals who employed a significant percentage of our constituents or meet in-person with community leaders who flew up to Washington to discuss which funding programmes would be useful to them.
It was shaping up to be a regular Appropriations session, that is, until COVID-19 entered the picture. Until this point, COVID-19 had been starting to spread slowly throughout the entire US. I would be on phone calls and meetings with my congressman as we discussed with county health leaders and local hospitals about the growing need for personal protective equipment (PPE) and COVID-19 testing. Around this time, lockdowns started around the nation. I remember the evening in March when our staff leader informed us that we would also be transitioning to working from home for the next month and that Washington’s city leaders were considering locking down the city.
Overnight the definition of ‘connection’ dramatically changed for me and for so many others. In place of dressing up, shaking hands, and meeting in the office to hear a pitch, I was now checking my internet connection to make sure Zoom was working. Faces and smiles were soon replaced by black boxes with voices. Instead of the leisurely ability to meet up with co-workers to grab a coffee during a break, we would spend our free time away from the webcam and catching up on the deluge of emails.
“Faces and smiles were soon replaced by black boxes with voices. Instead of the leisurely ability to meet up with co-workers to grab a coffee during a break, we would spend our free time away from the webcam and catching up on the deluge of emails. ”
While we were all trying to acclimatise to our new way of life, COVID-19 patient numbers were increasing every day and overloading our hospitals. The healthcare workforce was experiencing burnout, PPE was always in short supply, and testing was still difficult to obtain. As the country shut down, there were inevitable effects on our economy, and with this, Appropriations deliberations became sidelined. Instead, Congress quickly passed two acts to provide over $100 billion (US dollars) in financial support for COVID-19 supplies, and unemployment benefits for families and workers. But the biggest change was still to come.
There were discussions among co-workers of a huge third stimulus bill in the works, aiming to provide economic relief. When word reached the public that the government was planning a huge COVID-19 legislative response, the number of requests for meetings shot up, with various entities wanting to be represented in the allocations from the new stimulus. I was invested in this new legislation given that our district had a huge children’s hospital network that was being inundated with COVID-19 patients. So, I drafted an effort to get stipulations for children’s hospital funding and worked with several staffers and hospital representatives to garner support. To do so during COVID-19 required creating calendar invites for Zoom calls to quickly discuss our work plans before each of us had to attend a different online briefing.
Image credit: Unsplash
Eventually the legislation—officially known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act—was finalised and signed into law on 27 March 2020. This became the largest stimulus package in the history of the US, totaling $2.2 trillion in funding for direct payments, hospital support, and business funding, amongst other things. But this was not the be all and end all. While we successfully secured funding for children’s hospitals, there were still several small businesses and underrepresented regions that slipped through the cracks. After my fellowship came to an end, there was a continued effort, and eventually the finalised Appropriations Act was signed in December of 2020 which included $900 billion in financial relief.
I now look back at my time as a staffer with shock. COVID-19 fundamentally changed the way our Congress functioned after over a century of the process remaining the same each year. It was bittersweet to not be able to say goodbye to the congressman and staff in person, having to settle instead for a Friday Zoom “Happy Hour” farewell. Even now, as I am well into my medical school curriculum and seeing patients every day, we still offer certain medical visits via telehealth and remain masked while seeing a first-time patient. But I take solace in the fact that COVID-19 brought about a special connection amongst every single human being—we are all connected by the fact that we are trying to live each day to its fullest during this global pandemic.
