Monday, May 16th marked the start of the final week of my internship with Rep. Hill’s office. Today, I accompanied Rep Hill to an informal session which he had to cover for another Rep who had an out of office meeting. During an informal session about three or four Reps from each party go to the House chamber where they vote on certain bills. These bills however are more or less formalities and usually go through with no problem. If a rep disagrees with a bill however, he or she can vote it down with a single vote or place a hold on it which saves it for a later date. In this session Rep Hill and his GOP colleagues considered placing a hold on a bill which would allow the city of Lawrence to hire someone outside of their fire department as their next fire chief. This was considered because of the ongoing acts of corruption by the City of Lawrence’s mayor. Come to find out there was already a hold placed on the bill by the Democratic leadership. This was something that surprised Rep Hill and his colleagues. After a few more bills were passed I got to meet Rep Don Wong of Saugus and Rep Betty Poirier both of whom were at the informal session with Rep Hill. Rep Poirier like Rep Hill also holds a leadership position in the GOP. After the session adjourned Rep Hill and I left the chamber and headed back to the office along the way I met Rep Adams. Once back at the office I began going through the newspapers once again. This task took up the rest of the day.
