The Moscow Times | Sitting In on a U.S. Congressional Visit

Sitting In on a U.S. Congressional Visit

Dafna Hochman and Kara Calvert sat down at a giant conference table with three dozen Russian security experts from their parents' generation, but these two young U.S. Senate staffers were unflustered, tossing about budget figures for chemical disarmament programs and nuclear nonproliferation protocol clauses like an extra language they spoke fluently.

It was only after the six-hour-long session wrapped up Wednesday that Hochman, a foreign policy assistant to New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg, conceded that the working group's dynamic was a bit awkward, because there were only two representatives on the American side, and they seemed so junior.

"I'm afraid they thought we were interns and took offense. They don't understand, Capitol Hill is run by 25-year-olds," Hochman said, herself 26.

She and Calvert, another recent college graduate who works for Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi, are among Washington's elite cohort of legislative assistants who have the much sought-after task of doing policy grunt work for their bosses, conducting their research and penning the bills they introduce.

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http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/04/16/002.html