My boss has pro bono clients of the Northern Panhellenic Council (NPC) and the Northern Inter-fraternal Council (NIC). (someone told me yesterday that they were using a bunch of acronyms when explaining a story about the government shutdown and mentioned that if he was talking to anyone outside of Washington DC then they would have been totally lost) So basically, every fraternity and sorority that is registered with their national headquarters is represented by a lobbying firm in DC. Among the many things that Patton Boggs does for fraternities and sororities, each year they try to get CHIA to become a law. Until actually being involved in the process of passing a bill, I never knew how much work it actually was. Everyone has seen the cartoon "a bill on capitol hill" or something like that but never did I know how much actual work it takes to get a bill through the house, through the senate, and have the president sign it. I will explain the bill and some initial steps that Patton Boggs has taken in order to get this bill passed.
The Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act changes the tax code regarding charitable contributions made to student housing. Right now, if I were to write a check to the University of Illinois for Scott Hall, then I can write that donation off on my tax returns. However, the same check written to other not-for-profit student housing such as fraternities and sororities does not fall under the same tax provision. CHIA changes the tax code to allow such contributions to be tax-deductible.
The first thing you need to do in order to have a bill introduced is to have a lead sponsor. Meaning someone in the house and senate must agree to introduce the bill and in a certain time line. After the bill is introduced, an effort to persuade as many members of Congress to co-sponsor the bill is the next step. There are many different many different ways to influence a member of Congress and one of them is to appeal to their constituencies. Members of Congress are always concerned about their constituents because they have the ability to throw them out of Congress. So if you can get constituents to talk with their members of Congress about CHIA then it is easier to persuade them to sponsor the bill. Knowing this students from across the United States are chosen to represent their schools to work on getting the bill passed. There are wonderful things about asking student from Universities to come and lobby on behalf of a bill. First, they have the possibility of appealing to four members of Congress. If you live in any state in the US you have two senators and one Congressman or Congresswoman from the district which you live. Even better, if you go to a University outside of the district to which you live, then you will have another representative in Congress. Second, is being from a university allows you to represent that schools interest. Since you are at the school, it is possible for you to go to the President/Chancellor/Vice President and ask them to sponsor the bill. Having a letter from a President of a university is a powerful motion knowing that members of Congress realize the potential power of a university.
So 83 students from around the US are selected to come to DC and lobby on behalf of their school and home. They are asked for letters of support from Presidents of their schools along with some ideas on how to help get the bill passed. At the firm, we have to organize all the meetings with 435 representatives and 100 senators, provide training material for the students, help them draft letters to their university presidents, provide information about the bill, help get sponsors for the bill, and other things as well. They are coming in April.....
That was one part of my week and the other was intellectual property work. I think that intellectual property is widely interesting and definitely an area of interest for future study. The thing about intellectual property is that from now on it will only get more complex and provide more work. The Internet is always changing and new devices and gadgets come out every week that feed the intellectual property work. Right now, advertisements on the Internet from online tracking is being targeted by the FTC. They published a report on how they were going to introduce "Do Not Track" legislation, allow individuals to surf the Internet free and clear of tracking. The advertisement companies as you can image are not too happy about all this legislation. They ask, why do you think you don't have to pay for google, facebook, amazon, youtube, and other websites? Why do you think that Google has the best search engine in the world? Why do you think you can have a street view of an entire city and the Internet has made it virtually impossible to be lost? ADVERTISEMENTS!! They pay for it all. Its a trillion dollar industry and only getting larger. And the way that it is so profitable and companies want to invest is because of online tracking. It provides high quality adds that appeal to the user. If i log into my gmail account I am not getting Victoria Secret Ads (I promise I have never shopped there), I get LSAT review courses, sports illustrated reviews, and Spanish courses. Why? can they read my mind? no, they have computers that look at where I have been on the Internet and know that I am interested in certain things. If there must be ads on the Internet to have it paid for, then why wouldn't I want ads that i might use. Take this for example.
I am a photographer from Texas and I want to expand my photography business. I pay Facebook money to advertise on people's pages that have just changed their status to engaged. I get a potential client, the engaged couple doesn't need to look for a photographer (they can obviously choose someone else if they want), and facebook stays open for free and public use. Everyone wins. Was your privacy violated? Did you want to keep your engagement a secret? If it was a secret and you never want to have any advertisements follow you around about photographers then don't be a member of Facebook and don't update your profile.
Obviously, there is a difference between putting information up about yourself and simply surfing the net, but there is a quick explanation of how advertisements benefit everyone.
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