What Arguments Work for Our Programs

I have mentioned this before but we continue to go through the exercise of rethinking Weatherization. The old tried and true arguments of the past 30 years are not working. If people have ideas on how to improve Congress’ idea of weatherization, particularly the skeptics in Congress, please let me know. I can tell you that it is not sufficient to say the program employs six people in one congressional district or that x-amount of energy was saved in ten years. We need different arguments. The Administration also remains squishy at best and we need to change opinions.

A few House democrats have visited with the White House Administration recently to deliver a strong message in defense of LIHEAP and CSBG. I know their meetings were with individuals at high levels within the Administration. I have breakfast this week with one of those messengers. I am anxious to see how she describes the response from the White House. 

Books: Steve Jobs

I finished Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. I highly recommend this book. Jobs was a very complicated man with a complicated personality who, in a lot of ways, had simple tastes. He seems to have been a difficult person to work for. His goal in creating Apple was to “put a dent in the universe.” He wanted to create something significant. And he succeeded.

I found the Isaacson book a fascinating look at the man. Once again, here is the story of a leader, a visionary, who most of the time sailed against the wind and often times did so alone. I have read a number of books about leaders and visionaries. The majority of them share the experience of having to preserver through setbacks in order to succeed. They continually got back up off the mat and tried again and again. This was Steve Jobs experience as well. Jobs basically left Apple in 1985 because he could not get along with anybody. His vision was not compatible with that of the Board  or the CEO John Sculley. Yet he persevered. If his Act I was the founding of Apple and Act II was his leaving Apple, Act III was returning to the company. He was a brilliant man. I admit I found some of this habits strange, such as his enjoyment of acid and LSD. While he was quirky, he knew what he wanted.

Walter Isaacson’s biography is about 600 pages which will take you a few days to get through. It is one of those books, when you finish reading, you put it down and think to yourself, thank heavens Steve Jobs graced the earth for 56 years. What a difference he made. I highly recommend the book.

Legislators Aware of Community Action

I was with Harry Reid last week. I spent time with the Majority leader and a woman running for Senate in North Dakota - Heidi Heitkamp. Some of you may remember Heidi’s uncle – Dennis Heitkamp was a CAP Director in Minnesota. I have been meeting a number of candidates running in this year’s election and it has given me a great sense of satisfaction that a number of them know Community Action and CSBG. They have had good experiences with our agencies. The most recent example of this is Heidi.

Spending time with Senator Reid also gives me a sense of satisfaction. He is still engaged with our programs and continues to ask about how we are doing and about problems in general regarding our programs. When Senator Reid asked me about general program issues, I admit I was tempted to talk with him about the slowness in CSBG funding going to the states. I decided to wait until after a series of meetings I have this week on the Hill with other Members. I want to see how Members respond to this issue in these meetings before going to the Senate Majority Leader. It is good to know that he is keeping up with how we are doing though.