By Scott Nicholson
The Mountain Times
Republican U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx officially took on her new Washington, D.C.
duties last week, after being sworn in on Tuesday afternoon.
Foxx met with President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney on Monday
afternoon for a Republican conference meeting, and Foxx said the groundwork was
already being laid for the party’s legislative plans.
“We talked about issues,” Foxx said. “The President talked about his agenda.
He’s not shying away from that at all.”
Foxx voted on rules and procedures at the conference, and Tuesday cast her
first official vote for Dennis Hastert to continue serving as Speaker of the
House. She expects a busy legislative week.
“There’s talk of a lot of work early on,” she said.
Foxx moved into an apartment this month, though she expects to spend much of
her down time in Watauga
County and traveling the
district. She is in a 1915-era building and she and husband, Tom Foxx, spent
the previous weekend painting the interior.
Her Washington
office opened Monday in the Cannon House building, one of three office
buildings housing legislators. She said many of the 37 new Congressional
members were on the same floor as her, though some long-time members kept their
offices, such as third-term Congressman Tom Osborne. Seven of the North Carolina delegates
are in the building.
Foxx hired a chief of staff, legislative director, staff assistant, legislative
assistant and office manager and said she was pleased with the experience of
her team.
Foxx said there were big from her previous stint as a North Carolina senator. “The obvious
difference is dealing with 435 people as opposed to 50 people in the (state)
Senate,” she said. “It’s a huge adjustment, just in the sheer number of people
to deal with.”
Another big change is the amount of security surrounding the capitol. “Security
here is very, very strong,” she said. “That’s something that strikes everybody.
There are police on every corner.”
Foxx said she isn’t physically afraid and doesn’t feel in danger, but is affected
by the amount of security just the same. “It saddens me how much we have to
spend on police and security since 9/11,” she said. “It’s frustrating.”
Foxx also has a different way of voting and gets more time to cast votes. She
said the vote for House speaker was a roll call vote, meaning each of the 435
names of the Congressmen are called. Each legislator then had 15 minutes to
enter a vote. Foxx said there are no assigned seats in the assembly hall, and
there are 22 outlets for voting. A secure electronic card is inserted into a
voting station to cast a vote and a large board shows red or green to indicate
whether the vote was for or against. For some votes, she will have five minutes
to register her vote.
Foxx said the atmosphere is politically charged, but for the most part everyone
is friendly. She said the Democrats nominated Nancy Pilosi to be Speaker of the
House even though the party didn’t have enough votes to get her elected.
“The Democrats make things political,” she said. “We talk about getting things
done. The President invited Democrats to the White House when we met Monday and
reached out to them to work together for the good of the country. The
Republicans talk constantly about working together on issues and haven’t been
critical of Democrats at all.”
One of Foxx’s missions for this week is to get her technological equipment
working. She said part of the security functions in the capitol is for all
members to be able to be contacted if needed at any time. “Technology is
playing a more and more important role in what we do,” she said.
Foxx said setting up a Congressional office was no different from setting up
any other business office, with the additional complications added by security
measures. Gathering office supplies, organizing desks, and getting the phones
turned on are just part of the job. Foxx worked until 11 p.m. her first day on
the job, and even got locked in her building because she worked so late. She
had to go through one of the other buildings to get home.
She said experienced Congressional members were very welcoming of new members
and she was impressed that they made an effort to get to know their
backgrounds. “Most of them knew my name, knew me, and knew something about me,”
she said. “They obviously took time to learn about the new members. There were
people who knew our area and knew I was from Watauga County.”
Foxx has a number of conferences and workshops scheduled in the weeks ahead,
many of them to initiate new members into how to perform their legislative
tasks. The typical work week and voting sessions will run from Tuesday through
Friday, though the legislature shuts down for a week for Martin Luther King Day
and President’s Day. “During the time off, I’ll be in the (Fifth) district,”
she said.
Foxx will maintain a district office on N.C.
105 in Boone and one district office in Clemmons. Open houses at each of the
locations will be held later this month.
Foxx, of Foscoe, is the county’s first U.S. Representative and the third woman
elected from North Carolina.
