New West Series

From the West, Through the Metal Detectors and Into the Offices of Congress

By Bruce Smithhammer, 3-09-11

	Members of Sportsman for Responsible Energy Development meet with members of Sen. Jim Risch's staff to discuss development concerns.

I empty my pockets of everything, take my jacket and belt off, slide everything through a metal detector, walk through a larger one myself, and I’m in. Standing in the rotunda of one of the Senate office buildings, I’m now on my way to the first meeting of the morning with a representative from the state of Idaho, tagging along with a few other Idaho residents to present the case for responsible energy development.

Other teams from Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development representing Colorado, Montana, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona are simultaneously doing the same thing. (Read the introductory post on their trip.)

The building is humming with purposeful activity. We crowd into an office and wait our turn. The Congressman’s schedule is overbooked and we will be meeting with one of his staff instead, which becomes a familiar theme throughout our time here. It quickly becomes apparent that these young staff members are the real key to getting anything done here. Every member of Congress is dependent on a cadre of generally young, smart, up-and-coming aides to handle the myriad of responsibilities and commitments that one person alone could never accomplish.

As in every meeting throughout the day, members of our team make it clear from the beginning they are not by any means opposed to energy development – that they only want to be able to have input into the process of where it is appropriate and where it isn’t, and that they hope hunting, fishing and habitat concerns are considered.

They do their best to convey that their position is not an extreme one, but a reasonable middle ground.

While Idaho does not have many of the oil and gas concerns of neighboring states (yet), there are still concerns regarding the impacts of renewable energy on habitat – wind power in particular. The staff member assures us that the Congressman shares these concerns. The staffer is presented with a folder of information about SFRED, along with Idaho-specific information about the hundreds of millions of dollars that hunting, fishing and associated backcountry activities generate for the state, as well as a plea to consider these very real economic benefits in weighing what we are willing to sacrifice for energy development.

So the rest of the day goes, repeating the same message to staff members of one Congressperson after another. Some are obviously merely accommodating, others seem to take a genuine interest. One tells us that he dreams of coming out West and learning to fly fish. Another tells us of a place he’s gone pheasant hunting not far from where I live.

On a few occasions throughout the day, I find myself imagining these meetings from the point of view of the Congressional staffers who are meeting with us.

They are having similar meetings throughout the day, back to back, on a spectrum of issues and concerns brought by other groups with their own agendas. It’s entirely possible that, in the same day, they will be meeting with a group presenting a case for the exact opposite agenda as Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development. The sheer volume of individuals, organizations and coalitions trying to make their concerns known is hard to believe without being here, in the middle of it. People line the halls outside of Congressional offices, waiting for a chance to make their case.

This is democracy, and in the present age, it seems to run on smart phones and coffee.

But it is also obvious that casting a pall over everything right now is the budget crisis. Everyone is preoccupied with whether an agreement between the two parties can can be reached, with whether they will even be coming to work next week. By comparison to the specter of a government-wide shutdown, our agenda here can seem miniscule, the mission daunting, the issues a world away from the political nexus of the country.

But then I remember that these wild places that can seem so far away to someone in the bustling urban environ of D.C. are my places; that these issues are very real in my region, and that the best wild habitat left in the country can’t be sacrificed or shoved aside in favor of seemingly more pressing, short-sighted matters –- because in many cases, all it takes is having them sacrificed once.

It is our last meeting of the day. We’re all a little spent at this point, but it’s nothing compared to the people who are working in offices all around us, who seem exhausted, and it is only Monday. We sit down with a staffer working for Sen. James Risch, Republican junior senator from Idaho. He is startlingly young-looking, but immediately sharp and conversant on the issues. He looks a little ragged, as many staffers seem to right now, and he reaffirms what we’ve been hearing all day – that the mood is as tense as they’ve ever seen it, that nobody is sure what is going to happen with the Congressional spending battle, that it is affecting everything right now. He tells us we are his 12th meeting that day, but that we are, “a breath of fresh air” because we are the only folks he’s talked today who aren’t asking for any money.

Suddenly, just as the meeting is winding down, Sen. Risch bursts into the office, the only member of Congress we get a chance to talk to all day. He says he really wanted to talk with us, and that unfortunately he only has a few minutes. His questions are to-the-point and savvy, and he appears to have genuine interest in the cause that SFRED is advocating. And then, after a few minutes of talking, he asks if we’d all like a picture with him. I get the feeling that this is a familiar ritual. We take a few pics, shake hands, thank each other for taking the time, and he zips out.

I try to imagine what it would be like to spend every day of my life this way, and I can’t really, but many do in this frenetic engine that drives so many decisions for our country. I want to believe that SFRED has made an impression, and that the message got through. I believe that in at least some cases, they truly did. In others, we’ll have to wait and see. And this is how things happen, or don’t happen, in Washington, D.C.

Bruce Smithhammer is a freelance writer and editor, a columnist for the Teton Valley News and a contributing editor for The Drake magazine. He is also among a group of hunting writers who contribute to the blog Mouthful of Feathers. He’ll be blogging about his D.C. trip for New West in the coming days. Read his first installment, A New Congress, a New Chance to Be Heard on Wildlands.

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