Schoolhouse Rock! screen capture of Bill explaining how bills become laws.
I grew up watching Schoolhouse Rock! between Saturday-morning cartoons. While those short videos on grammar, math and American history were great for my education — the preamble song is why my entire civics class scored 100% on that quiz — one video had an outsized impact on my understanding of the legislative process.
“I’m Just a Bill” stars a frequently forlorn scroll (“Bill”) explaining to a child how a federal bill becomes a law. (The kid wears a red-and-white-striped shirt and blue pants — we see what you did there, animators.)
“I’m just a bill, yes, I’m only a bill, and I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill,” Bill sings. “Well, it’s a long, long journey to the Capitol city. It’s a long, long wait while I’m sitting in committee. But I know I’ll be a law someday!
“At least I hope and pray that I will, but today I am still just a bill.” (Thanks for singing with me.)
Bill explains that bills are argued over in committee. The lucky ones get a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. If the House votes yes, the process starts again in the Senate, then continues to the White House.
“Gee, Bill, you sure have a lot of patience and courage,” the kid says.
I now know “I’m Just a Bill” is a simplified explanation. But because of it, I learned that the legislative process is laborious, and I believed that one voice mattered little.
Therefore, I was surprised when Mickae Lee — Permobil’s senior manager, government affairs, and the president of the board of directors for the National Coalition for Assistive & Rehab Technology (NCART) — talked about how impactful just a few emails or phone calls to a member of Congress or senator can be.
Mickae said this during the International Seating Symposium (ISS) session “Carbon Fiber: A Panel Discussion with Manual Wheelchair Industry Experts” in Pittsburgh last month. She was referring to S. 247 in the Senate and H.R. 1703 in the House, bills that would improve the process for Medicare beneficiaries to upgrade to carbon fiber or titanium frames for their ultralightweight wheelchairs.
I’d long assumed that nothing short of lighting up the Congressional switchboard would matter. I thought no legislator would be moved to look at a bill unless swamped by hundreds of emails.
“It’s not always about site visits, traveling to D.C. or attending local town hall meetings, although those are great tools,” Mickae said. “Legislators and their staff track constituent messages to gauge concerns and key issues. Even one or two well-crafted emails to an office, a quick phone call, or engaging respectfully on social media can help bring attention to important topics and increase the likelihood that legislators will prioritize a specific issue.”
Occasionally, a bunch of people contact their legislators at the same time about the same issue. But that’s rare. If the health-care aide for a member of Congress receives two emails about carbon fiber/titanium wheelchair upgrades on a typical day — given the nearly infinite number of potential email topics — that aide will notice.
If I receive two emails from different people on the same topic, I notice. So will your legislators.
“Together, we can influence policy and legislation through the most basic types of stakeholder engagement,” Mickae said. “Every single voice matters, so never underestimate the power of reaching out!”
Use this web page from the American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) to contact your legislators and move H.R. 1703 and S. 247 forward.
Bill would want you to.
