HR 6018

"To authorize appropriations for the Department of State for fiscal year 2013, and for other purposes," so reads the opening of House Resolution 6018 that I watched pass as a member of the gallery last night.  My night class was not meeting this week so I was able to attend to the evening as I saw fit.  I decided to look up what the voting schedule was for the House and Senate, and discovered that the votes for the day had been pushed back until 6:30.  This left me just enough time to swing back to the RAF, and pick up my gallery passes.  There were a number of other people in the gallery, and it was interesting to hear the decibels rise as the members of the House made their way into the room.  What a noisy crowd!  The members place their vote by swiping a card into one of the scanners that exist on the back-side of their chairs, and select the green button for "Aye," red for "Nay," or yellow for "Present."  The bill passed by a wide margin, with only 30 or so of the present members voting against it.  I saw many familiar faces in the Chamber, but many of the elected officials were entirely new to me.  There was a second vote that followed, also passing easily.  Afterwards there was time for general speeches.  One member highlighted the life of a recently deceased constituent.  Another spoke in memory of a pair of pilots that crash landed on Osprey 10-years ago, and that were still blamed for the accident despite the Congressman's protest.  He was attempting to get the Marine Corps to issue a statement to the pilot and co-pilot's wives that their husbands were not at fault, citing the circumstances of the crash that caused the death of 17 soldiers.  I was the last person present in the gallery (E Pluribus Unum?) when the third speaker came to talk about the middle class, and I decided to move on for the evening.  You are not allowed to bring any cell phones, cameras, or really anything with you inside the gallery.  I couldn't even bring in my pad of paper and a pen to take notes on what I observed...that doesn't seem right.  I picked up some postcards on the way home, and enjoyed the rest of the evening reading and writing back at the RAF.