Monday, March 17, 2014

Rep. Joe Garcia leads phenomenal Capitol tour for public power utility executives

Rep. Joe Garcia leads a tour of utility executives from
Florida's public power utilities 
I learned something last week while touring the U.S. Capitol with Rep. Joe Garcia. I learned you can still be a good, humble person while taking responsibility for representing 700,000 people.

Congressman Garcia, who's district includes the public power communities of Homestead and Key West, led a group of municipal electric utility executives from around Florida on a tour of the U.S. Capitol. His knowledge of U.S. history is deep, as he explained to us the importance of events while actually standing in the places where history took place. Also, Rep. Garcia's enthusiasm for representing his entire South Florida district was evident throughout the evening. I say this even though he was not afraid to challenge his utility visitors and ask them to evolve towards using cleaner energy fuels and away from coal. Rep. Garcia is a straight talker, eager to stand up for what he believes in.

In the Old House of Representatives, Rep. Garcia shows 
how the acoustics work. There were no microphones,
yet representatives could still hear each other,
even while whispering. In this photo, Rep. Garcia is 
whispering  at our group from across the room while 
standing in the exact location where John Quincy Adams 
sat at his desk from 1833-1843. 
Highlights of the tour include the opportunity to 1) Walk around on the Senate floor; 2) Tour the floor of the House of Representatives, and 3) Get a resounding, presidential standing ovation from 200 people also touring the House floor. They did that just to give us the feeling of what it's like. Pretty cool. Check out the photos.

This is the main door to the U.S. 
House of Representatives. The 
black dot in the middle is where 
the President of the United
States stands when the 
Sergeant-at-Arms calls out  
before the State of the Union 
address "Mr. Speaker, the 
President of the United States!"

This is the carpet outside the House of Representatives
chamber. Ok, it's just carpet, but really nice carpet.

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