8 items my office passed today in the House NDAA: Psychedelics, arms sales limits, NY/NJ watershed grants, reporting on assassinations and human rights abuses in Colombia 🇨🇴 , and more - we did a LOT. Here’s some of it ⤴️ . NOW, before anyone freaks out on an assumption, NO I did not vote for the defense budget. But I DID offer to amend it. Here’s why: while we do not support final passage of the massive amount of US defense spending, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least try to shape and steer those funds if we know people voted for reps who ARE going to pass it, right? . I don’t often highlight this for reasons you’ll see, but this is one of several legislative strategies my office employs to get things done in the House. Sometimes I work behind the scenes to change legislation and intentionally try NOT to put my name on it or keep as low a profile on our legislative successes as much as possible as to not draw attention from lobbyists/Republicans/anyone with an axe to grind in the House or Senate. (One example: my $8 billion FEMA funeral reimbursement program I got into the COVID relief package - largest in US history). . Other times I’ll take my full bills and repackage them as amendments to must-pass legislation so we can actually get our legislation passed - even if it doesn’t look like a standalone “law,” it still becomes law as part of a larger bill (many members do this, too). . One of the things I find fascinating about policymaking is that the most “boring” parts - like procedure and process - is where so much of the politics goes down. It’s kind of like the tax code: it’s really complicated and boring so powerful people hide behind that and employ expert resources to manipulate it for gain. I like quietly observing and learning about how people like this use procedure and process to accomplish their goals, and then I try to riff on that and use what I learn for good. Kinda like loopholes for the global working class 😉 After all, if the powerful do it, then why shouldn’t we? 😇