The Congressman delivers statements at a House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee hearing on the nation’s potential default crisis
Late this summer, the country was fixated on the back-and-forth between Congress and the White House. The debt ceiling needed to be addressed. Long days became even longer evenings for lawmakers; working weekends were the norm as the Hill once again found itself in the national spotlight. For some members of Congress, it was, to a degree, old hat. Seasoned politicos are familiar with deadlocked standstills, filibustering, factions divided. For others, particularly Congressmen such as David Cicilline of Rhode Island, scrutinizing the critical economic issue was an opportunity to be a cog in the wheels of lawmaking, to watch them grind to a halt, restart, grind again and, ultimately, find a common speed, and to do so for the first time. As an elected representative, he is a man with a mission who in his relatively short experience as a United States Congressman had just been a witness to some of the most electrifying debate the country has seen in quite some time. That is to say, Cicilline doesn’t know a “typical” day.
