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.