Facing coronavirus pandemic, Bay Area members of Congress learn to work from home
WASHINGTON — Rep. Mike Thompson is growing a beard. Rep. Zoe Lofgren is cooking something new every night. Rep. Jared Huffman is doing yoga with his wife and daughter. And they’re spending a lot of time with their Bay Area constituents where many Americans are these days — online.
This is Congress in the age of the coronavirus.
Like many people, members of Congress are trying to figure out how to do their jobs remotely during the coronavirus pandemic. No in-person legislating is scheduled until April 20 at the earliest.
“The best part and the worst part is we’re all in it together,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin.
Most disasters devastate only some areas or certain populations, he noted. “It’s never been something that affected and tested all of us,” Swalwell said. “That’s a massive challenge for us, but also, I think, there’s some solidarity in that.”
Some of the lawmakers’ challenges are exactly the ones constituents are facing — staying connected to relatives who can’t safely visit, juggling child care and homeschooling with work, even learning how to mute and unmute conference calls.
But for a legislative body built around in-person negotiations and arm-twisting, social isolation raises the stakes at a time the country needs urgent action.
“This is that moment that the American people have got to know and rely and count on their government to work for them,” said Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. Public health is one of government’s “essential purposes,” she said, “so we need to be up and running.”
Many in the Bay Area delegation and their staffers say they are working even harder now than when they are in Washington. Nearly every legislative priority has been replaced by coronavirus issues, and constituent work is near an all-time high. Days are filled with conference calls, Zoom roundtables and Facebook Live town halls.
“I must spend, I’d say, seven to eight hours a day on the phone. It is pretty exhausting,” said Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo. “There’s a level of disjointedness that is uncomfortable, but I feel like my job right now is to do the district support that is always there. But at this point in time, it’s on steroids.”
The job includes working with the State Department to bring home thousands of Americans who were stranded abroad, telling workers and businesses how they can benefit from recently passed recovery legislation, and helping local hospitals secure medical supplies that are being rapidly depleted.
Lawmakers also are finding new ways to connect with constituents in a world where social gatherings are banned, such as by holding video town halls in their often poorly lit homes.
“We’re seeing what everyone’s house looks like,” Swalwell said. “My wife is like, whenever I do a Zoom, saying, ‘Don’t make our house look bad.’ I still wear jeans during video conferences even though a lot of people will confess to me they’re in sweats or basketball shorts. ... I would feel bad if I was wearing a dress shirt and sweatpants.”
Legislative work is also still happening from afar, with Democrats led at the negotiating table by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The San Francisco congresswoman remains in Washington, making plans for a follow-up bill to the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package that Congress passed last month, staying in touch with members by phone.
“I have certainly been on more conference calls than any other time in my life — and I am a lawyer,” said Huffman, D-San Rafael. “But it’s really the only way that groups of us can function.”
The House has been out of town since March 14, except for the day when half the body gathered to pass the relief bill. The Senate, however, held votes throughout March, even after one senator tested positive for the coronavirus.
Harris, 55, and fellow California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 86, both had their staffs working remotely by then. Feinstein had only her chief of staff on hand, and Harris had her husband drive her to and from the Capitol to keep staffers away.
In a legislative body where the average age is 63, putting many senators in the highest risk group for serious reactions to the coronavirus, the delay in closing down was “very frustrating,” Harris said.
“We were having these briefings where senators were sitting literally shoulder to shoulder in a small room,” Harris said. “So while they were saying the best practice was social distancing, it was the opposite of what was happening in the room with United States senators.”
Harris said her office transitioned to telework in early March. Lofgren chairs the House Administration Committee, a position nicknamed the “mayor of Capitol Hill,” and said the panel scrambled to procure “hundreds and hundreds” of laptops and phones for congressional offices suddenly needing to telework. And in the era of sheltering in place, it’s not possible for an IT person to come help a lawmaker sign into a Zoom account.
“Some members, like, have a flip phone, and some members can program a computer themselves, and everything in between, so (it was also) providing support for people who are technologically challenged,” the San Jose Democrat said.
There are some drawbacks to the setup. Speier said the important function of Congress right now is oversight as the government doles out $2 trillion to respond to the crisis. That’s harder when lawmakers can’t order an administration official in front of their committees to testify.
Several lawmakers said they missed the camaraderie of Congress and being able to collaborate in person. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont, said the moment clarifies what technology can replace and what it can’t.
“The negative, of course, is there’s a huge empathy gap,” Khanna said. “There’s only so much you can comfort people on the phone or on text or on Facebook Live. There’s something about sitting down with someone, hugging someone, having coffee with someone.”
Lawmakers are also navigating the personal dimension of the pandemic.
Lofgren, 72, is home, but she and her husband are not seeing their kids or grandchildren, who also live in San Jose, in order to maintain social distance. They talk via Zoom, and their children drop groceries at the door.
Huffman’s college-age daughter, high school-age son and his wife, a schoolteacher, are trying to find quiet places in the house to do their work. Once a day, at their urging, the 56-year-old congressman moves the furniture for a yoga session.
Speier, 69, says she tries to walk 4 miles daily and catches up online with family and friends a few times a week.
Swalwell, 39, and Khanna, 43, both have young children and are having to keep distance from other family members. Both also mentioned newfound appreciation for workers providing essential services.
“At home, I’ve found that I’m not a very good preschool teacher,” Swalwell said. “I do think we’re all going to come out of this more grateful, I hope, for our teachers, our grocers, our pharmacists.”
Pelosi, 80, is working around the clock, but is also taking the time to dance. She urged reporters during a news conference held via telephone last week to follow her lead.
“As I always say, you can never dance too much — especially at home,” she said.
Several delegation members said it was important to help first responders and health care workers. Harris said she was focused on people who were not able to participate in the online economy, noting that 3 million children in America don’t have access to broadband internet.
“If a child misses 10% of the school year, they’re almost permanently behind,” Harris said. “Or all the people who rely on their AA meetings once a day or at least once a week. The seniors whose entire social life revolves around church.”
She added: “What is happening in real time in America — and for those who are privileged, they’re having these Zoom cocktail hours and not seeing the kind of devastation that is occurring — it’s profound.”
By: Tal Kopan
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Next Article Previous Article