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Show 'One of the ten most effective senators' Sen. Hatch works hard for his home state By BRENDA BAUMGARTNER Editor's Note: This is the first ia a three-part series. Clipper correspondent Brenda Baumgartner recently spent an in ternship in Washington, D.C. During her stay she spent time with our busy Utah legislators. Her account does not include time out for eating, but she explained it is not an oversight. The busy politicians just ate on the run. Sen. Jake Gam, Sen. Orrin Hatch, Hat-ch, Rep. James Hansen. We hear these names on the news and during campaigns, but do we really know what these men do when they leave our state and go to work in Washington. Wash-ington. I spent a day in Washington, D.C. with each of these men, and I was surprised at the amount of time and energy it takes to be a Utah politician. Sen. Orrin Hatch's biography reads similar to a blockbuster movie rating "one of the ten most effective effec-tive senators' says columnist Jack Anderson. 'One of the top 10 most admired conservatives in America' reports The Conservative Digest. Hatch is one of the most polished and well known senators in Washington, Wash-ington, and yet as he walks the halls of the Congressional buildings, everyone from the elevator operator to Sen. Paul Simon are greeted with the same warmth and friendliness. It's March 14 as we walk to the Labor and Human Resources hearing hear-ing for the nomination of Bernadine Healy to the position of director of the National Institute of Health. 'He's always great,' comments one of the security guards as he shows us into the hearing. Hatch gives his support and asks that she be aware of his concern that grants go to young researchers and not just those who are good at grant writing. He invites her to the University of Utah to tour the Eccles Institute. As we leave the hearing, a reporter questions him outside the hall. He stops and takes his time answering an-swering his questions. He begins to leave again and is stopped by a scientist to discuss an issue. He is late to another meeting, yet he spends as much time as needed to satisfy the man's questions. At 12:30 is a steering committee meeting and at 1 p.m. he meets with Jewish leaders. He walks quickly to a Foreign Relations hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. on a bilateral free trade agreement agree-ment with Mexico. "This is important impor-tant to Davis County because of the high technology firms who are in favor of free trade. Mexico is our third largest trading partner, states Hatch. At 2:30 Hatch is in the Senate gallery for a vote. Hatch is a clear leader even among the likes of John Glenn and Edward Kennedy. He races back to the Foreign Relations Re-lations hearing at 2:45 in which he reads his statement in favor of the free trade agreement. It is an issue he personally believes is important to the LDS church because of the high number of Mexican people who are joining the church. At 3:30 he is back in his office for a phone interview with the Congressional Con-gressional Quarterly magazine. His office is elegant and comfortable. He relaxes back in his chair and tries to comfort the cold he has been fighting for days. Hatch is told that Salt Lake Tribune publisher, Will Fehr, is Clipper correspondent Brenda Baumgartner recently spent an interchip in-terchip with ABC-TV in Washington D.C. and spent a day with Sen. Orrin Hatch, who represents her home state. retiring after 40 plus years, and he makes a phone call to congratulate him on the job he has done and the respect he has earned. At 3:45 he makes another phone call to a reporter from the Wall Street Journal. She questions him about a speech he made on the Senate floor. At 4 p.m. he meets with Prolitha and at 4:05 he has a courtesy call from Chief Judge J. Clifford Wallace (U.S. Court of Appeals for the ninth circuit). He is supposed to be meeting with Beth Quist from the Utah Governor's Commission for Women and Families at 4:20, but he is called to the floor for another vote and she must talk with him as he races to the Capitol. At 4:40 we are back in his office for a meeting with Ambassador Nuzhet Kandemir, the Turkish ambassador am-bassador to the United States. They discuss Hatch's proposed trip to Turkey, and the ambassador expresses ex-presses his willingness to make the trip an enjoyable one. Hatch tells the ambassador that the position that Turkey took during the war was heroic. "With the way congress works, explains Hatch, "there was no guarantee that the President would have the backing he needed.' need-ed.' Randy Benson from the resource management department for the LDS Church meets with him briefly at 4:55 concerning labor issues. At 5 p.m. he must again walk to the Capitol where he speaks on the Senate floor. At 5:20 he meets with his advisor in the Senate lobby to go over an article he is working on for the Washington Post. "I want to be as effective as I can be back here for my state and country," says Hatch, 4I write all the OpEd pieces I can. To get my position out.' We walk to the Senate recording studio at 5:45 in which Hatch will tape a statement for an Osmond production saluting the families of the Persian Gulf War. At 6 p.m. we are back in the capitol for the nomination nomi-nation of the new Secretary of Education, Edu-cation, Lamar Alexander. And from 6:30 to 7:30 he is briefed for tomorrow and takes care of any last minute phone calls before heading home to watch a BYU basketball game. l I V L - . i n rnt i ii 1 1 i i iiMMIlliWi -MWIf iT I X h - - SEN. ORRIN HATCH Sen. Orrin Hatch shakes hands with members of handicapped groups after the passage of the Americans iwth Disabilities Bill. People in the gallery applaud Hatch's action on their behalf. |
