“Liberals push their big government ideas using congressional hearings,” Morton Blackwell, the President of LI, stated in an email. “Conservatives must learn to harness legislative hearings effectively to promote their principles.”
This new school adds to the already impressive diversity of LI’s forty-four political trainings.
Day 1
Morton spoke during the introduction, asserting conservatives must learn the legislative hearing process and use it to their political advantage.
Thirty-four people in the audience, made up of everyone from members of prominent think tanks to Capitol Hill staff, listened intently as Shant Boyajian from the Committee on Environment and Public Works presented an overview of the entire committee and hearing process. He finished by including all participants into a simulated legislative hearing, assigning character roles and pitting team against team.
Katy Talento, a member of Sen. Thom Tillis’s office, ended the night, energetically explaining how to prepare for a hearing on the Hill. Even at 9:30 p.m. on a Wednesday, she had everyone laughing throughout her presentation.
Day 2
The second day of LI’s Effective Legislative Hearing Training brought the same excitement as the first.
After a networking dinner, Neil Siefring of Hilltop Advocacy, LLC, began an energizing presentation on how to prepare a Member of Congress for a hearing. Neil stressed how legislative hearings allow each Member of Congress to: showcase expertise in the subject area, demonstrate understanding of current issues, and display active support for constituencies.
Katy Talento then returned for her second night. With her usual energy, she taught the audience how to prepare witnesses and the difficulties a minority party faces. Katy brought her years of experience to life, revealing fantastic ‘tips and tricks of the game.’
The night ended as Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer at Bruce Fein & Associates, Inc., held the class in awe with his vast knowledge of the constitutional issues that now plague America. He explained the importance of Congress checking the power of the executive branch, hearings being the primary way Congress achieves this goal.
At the end of the training, all who participated left prepared to take on the challenge of a congressional hearing.
The school equipped each student with a better understanding of the committee process, and ultimately fulfilled LI’s mission to “increase the number and effectiveness of conservative activists and leaders in the public policy process.”