Capitol Hill crash course awaits Cotton

— WASHINGTON - The last time he was in the U.S. House chamber, Tom Cotton was a 16-year-old high school student watching theaction from a balcony with his family. But this week, after carrying Arkansas’ 4th Congressional District, he walked onto the main flooras a congressman-elect and the youngest member of the state’s congressional delegation.

Cotton, 35, won’t cast a vote until after he’s sworn in Jan. 3, but this week, he and several dozen other new members began their official Capitol Hill orientation.

Before the 113th Congress starts, Cotton said his first priority is assembling a staff. Cotton said his experience as a U.S. Army infantry platoon leader in the Iraq War would help him gather a team and serve effectively.

“It’s not my first rodeo, so to speak,” he said.

Cotton said the problems facing the country - rising debt, joblessness and increased government spending - will not be completely solved overnight, or next year.

But Cotton, a Harvard Law School graduate, sounded confident progress could be made.

“It’s exciting to be a part of the Congress that will hopefully be part of the solution,” Cotton said.

The results in six House races have not been made official. But there will be at least 80 new members on the House side and 12 new senators.

The orientation for the incoming lawmakers included a dinner Tuesday in Statutory Hall in the Capitol, which was hosted by Speaker of the House John Boehner and included a talk by Richard Brookhiser, a historian who Cotton said told the incoming class to “put principle above politics and party.”

Next came a tour of the House floor. Cotton said it was “humbling” to stand where wars are debated and declared.

Before Cotton casts any historic votes, he’s got to find an apartment. He also needs to learn where the cafeterias are in the Capitol, get a cell phone, have his official photo taken and learn how to set up a congressional office.

Between now and Nov. 30, when new lawmakers choose office locations in a lottery, the congressmen-elect will learn the ropes. They’ll be briefed on congressional ethics, receive their identification cards and get safety tips.

“It’s basically ‘being a member of Congress 101,’”said Steve Dutton, spokesman for the House Administration Committee, which runs the orientation.

The committee gave members a 2-inch white binder full of materials instructing them on how to set up an office, hire and pay staff and abide by the House rules.

Accompanying the binder were pamphlets from the House Rules Committee on the chamber’s code of ethics and the U.S. Capitol Police Threat Assessment Section on “Handling Unwanted Guests, Callers, Threats and Demonstrators.”

Some advice from the police: Check caller ID when you receive a suspicious phone call, and if an agitated person enters the office, “always treat the abnormal person as a human being in crisis and above all take steps to protect yourself and others.”

Dutton said a big part of orientation was simply allowing the incoming members to learn how to get their bearings in the labyrinthine Capitol complex, which has its own subway system and miles of underground corridors and passageways.

Cotton said the rules and precautions were “common sense” and he wasn’t worried about getting lost on Capitol Hill.

“I aced land navigation in [U.S. Army] Ranger school,” he said. “I found my way out of the woods, and I can find my way out of the Capitol.”

Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who will retire at the end of the current session of Congress, attended a welcome meeting for new members Wednesday. Afterward, in an interview, Frank said the biggest challenge for the incoming lawmakers willbe how to manage their calendars.

For new congressmen, the default answer to requests for meetings, unless it is with an important constituent group from the district or local media, should be “no,” said Frank, who served 16 terms in office.

“There are tens of thousands of people in this city who are paid to waste their time,” Frank said. “Meet in the office. Nothing useful happens at receptions.”

Since being elected, Cotton said he’s already been deluged with e-mails from fellow Republican lawmakers eager to secure Cotton’s vote in party leadership contests.One of his first impressions of being a new legislator, he said, is “there are a lot of congressmen.”

In addition to getting acquainted with his fellow legislators, in the next two weeks, Cotton will receive committee assignments. He did not express a preference, but said having one assignment that focused on domestic issues and one assignment that focused on international policy would be a good balance.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat who worked for Heifer International in Little Rock in the early 1970s, said the best advice he could give to new members was “to thine own self be true.”

A new member should “be very careful about voting against your own conscience to please leadership or someone else.”

In order to take the “toxicity” out of Capitol Hill, Connolly suggested new members respect other lawmakers’ motives and cautioned them not to take disagreements personally.

“Long after the debate is over, we remember the personal sting,” he said.

As Cotton was introduced to the House, on the Senate side, Arkansas’ Sen. MarkPryor, a Democrat, tried to make incoming senators feel welcome.

Pryor was one of four senators who formalized the upper chamber’s orientation program in 2006.

This week, Pryor gave talks to incoming senators on how to operate on Capitol Hill until they are sworn in (new senators get phones and shared temporary office space) and Wednesday night, he planned to attend a dinner with the new members at the National Archives.

Cotton and members of his transition team have met with outgoing Rep. Mike Ross, a Democrat from Prescott who announced his retirement early this year.

Members of Cotton’s staffwon’t be able to obtain full records of Ross’ leftover casework until they get Privacy Act releases from constituents who want the incoming congressman to investigate their cases with government agencies, such as the Social Security Administration or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

But Jarrod Yates, Ross’ chief of staff, said the transition is going smoothly and both Ross and Cotton are working to ensure that none of the casework “falls through the cracks” during the transition.

“I don’t anticipate any hitches,” Yates said.

Cotton agreed: “It’s going to be a smooth and well-coordinated transition.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 11/16/2012

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