H. Res. 333 (What I've been doing for the past 2 months)

The past several weeks I've been working on gaining support for H Res 333, a house resolution honoring American POWs of WWII. Last year the Japanese government officially apologized for the atrocities committed against American POWs during WWII (like the bataan death march). This resolution officially thanks them for their apology and requests the Japanese companies that purchased POWs and used them for slave labor also acknowledge and apologize for their mistreatment. 

The first several weeks at my internship I spent creating MANY different spreadsheets and databases. I've looked up which congressman represent districts that had battalions that marched the death march; which congressman are on the Foreign Affairs committee, which congressman supported similar POW resolutions in the past, and also which congressman made recent trips to Corregidor. All this information is in my spreadsheets, including: room numbers, telephone numbers, who their Chief of Staff and Veterans Affairs Legislative Assistant are, what bills and resolutions they've supported, how many times we've emailed, called, or visited. It's a big spreadsheet.

Research complete and our resolution having been introduced and receiving a name (that was exciting :) I was gonna name it larry but apparently you gotta name it a number.. poor larry ;) ) it was time to go get some congressman to support it. I've sent out nearly 75 detailed and personal emails to congressional offices requesting their support. When I mean detailed I mean besides introducing and explaining the resolution I also told them what bills and resolutions the congressman had supported in the past, whether he had battalions that fought on bataan or corregidor, and so on. I also had different emails I'd send to Republicans and Democrats, had to changed the wording around a bit to play to their interests. After about a week I then called them up and tried speaking with their Veteran Affairs Legislative Assistant to follow up on the email. That hardly ever happened, maybe like one in eight? And generally when I was able to speak with them they hadn't read the email and hadn't heard of the resolution either. I left voice messages with those I wasn't able to speak with directly. Just gotta get the word out!

When given a name the resolution was then assigned to a specific committee. In order to pass in the Foreign Affairs committee before being considered for house vote the resolution has to have at least 25 co-sponsers, 12 of whom have to be on the Foreign Affairs committee. We've been gaining on average about a 1/4 co-sponsor each day (meaning we get another co-sponsor about every 4 days-ish) for the past couple weeks. But it's started picking up here because of the emails and phone calls I've been making! Almost one a day! We just hit the minimum 25 yesterday!!! Now we just need 6 more Foreign Affair congressman to sign up to co-sponsor the resolution. 

Haha thing is, even when we get the minimum requirements we still gotta wait for the Foreign Affairs committee chair to push our resolution to the top of the pile to have it discussed and voted on in committee. If it makes it outta the committee same thing has to happen in the house.. Speaker of the House has to push it to the top of the list and have it voted on. Still got a long long way to go but this is the first step.

I've got 4 days left.. I'm trying to convince my supervisor to allow me to go up to the hill to try and speak with the Veterans Affairs LAs in person since I've already emailed and called. Figure if my beautifully scripted emails or sultry voice aren't enough that a little in-person visual can't hurt right? Especially when you've got this face.. ;) they don't stand a chance..