By Peter Sachs / The Bulletin
WASHINGTON - Oregon's congressional delegation had a younger-than-normal face in the nation's capital this week, cheering raucously and shouting across the room as debate raged in a committee chamber usually reserved for staid discussions of finances.
They haggled for votes over strawberry fondue, pulled each other aside in corridors and cafeterias to lobby for projects and met with Democratic and Republican party officials.
While many have political ambitions, and some have spent time working on campaigns, all of the nearly 200 members of the U.S. House of Representatives this week are college students.
The first U.S. Model House of Representatives arrived here after two years of planning, according to the program's founder, Dr. Alexander Kashef. He said this year's inaugural session was kept deliberately small, but next year he hopes to have a full "House" of 435 members.
Oregon's delegation included two students from Western Oregon University in Monmouth, one from George Fox's Newberg campus and one from the University of Oregon. Central Oregon's 2nd District was not represented.
Almost all of the students are taking time off from school, missing a week's worth of lectures, papers and projects.
On Wednesday, as junior Jeremy Riel, 20, and freshman Ryan Farley, 19, sought compromise in the chaotic finance hearing, down the hall senior Sara Rivas, 22, was looking upbeat after a morning of debates.
"We're going to try to pass two more Republican bills and kill a Democratic bill," she gloated during a break. Her bill, to protect the jobs of air traffic controllers, passed the committee handily, and she had moved on to privatizing Amtrak. Although many of the students here quickly identified themselves as Republicans or Democrats, the program was designed to be nonpartisan, with only "majority" and "minority" groups on each committee.
Rivas is completing her education degree at Western Oregon University and will receive a teaching certificate in a few months. The three others - Farley, from George Fox; Riel, from the University of Oregon; and Carl Fisher, also from Western Oregon University - all have thoughts of going into politics. Farley floated the idea of getting a summer internship on Capitol Hill, but Fisher is leaving his options open, citing arcade owner and astronomer as professions he had recently considered.
The application process for the model legislature requires several essays from the students and recommendations on their behalf. While Kashef's organization, the American Youth Scholarship Foundation, made most of the selections this year, he hopes eventually staff in every congressional seat will pick a student in respective districts for the weeklong program.
The elaborate simulation is designed to replicate how the political process in Washington works, although the mock lawmakers work on a much-accelerated schedule. Earlier this year, every student researched and wrote a bill he or she hoped to get passed during the week. The event's organizers vetted the entries and picked a select few which, just like real legislation in the House, went first to committees for hearings, debate and amendments.
To cover the $1,500 per-participant cost, students were encouraged to raise money, and many did. They tapped networks of churches, friends and even politicians for donations. The money was still rolling in as the would-be congressmen launched the program on Monday.
The legislative process played out in the cramped committee rooms used by congressmen when the House is in session. The entire model House will not convene until Friday to vote on those bills that make it through committee.
Even with Congress on recess this week, the politics were palpable on Capitol Hill. As a portrait of Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, loomed over them, Rivas' colleagues chipped away at the Amtrak bill, ultimately leaving it only as a grant program for light rail projects across the nation.
By lunch on Wednesday some of the committees had spiraled into partisan bickering, but the spirit of bipartisanship was still strong in Farley and Riel. Even though they come from different political persuasions, they joined forces.
"Someday Ryan and I are going to run in the first bipartisan campaign for president of the United States," Riel declared half-jokingly.