Lance Ledet ’21

Office of Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, Washington, DC

Lance standing above the ledge where the Presidents have given their inaugural addresses to the crowds.
Lance standing above the ledge where the Presidents have given their inaugural addresses to the crowds.

I was born in a rural part of Mississippi where few things go on and where few people ever leave. My parents were never able to make it all the way through college, and we frequently moved to wherever 
work needed to be done. Through a series of extraordinarily fortunate events, I eventually found myself 3,000 miles away from home in Williamstown, Mass., this past year. Over the year, I was accepted to intern for one of the senators from my new home state of Nevada. ASIP allowed me to go to a city no one 
in my family has ever been, working in a position that no one I know could have ever imagined, and I know that the experience I gained this past summer will help me in everything I do moving forward.

Politics in America have become all about glitz and glamor. It is extraordinarily easy to load CNN or Fox News onto one’s phone or turn it onto one’s television and get whisked away by pointed commentators explaining the latest political blunder. When I arrived in my Senator’s front office on the first day of the internship, I remember that I put immense care into my appearance; the constantly updating news cycle and endless stream of “breaking news” gave me the impression that was what mattered. My jacket was charcoal, my shirt white, and my tie a deep red. On my lapel, I had a small silver pin representing the time I spent competing in Speech and Debate, figuring that if someone asked me about it, I would be strongly postured to enter into an elevator pitch. After meeting the kind and caring people who work for Senator Cortez Masto, I realized that I couldn’t have held a more incorrect first impression. While I understand that my experience is not a representative sample of all intern experiences—I heard plenty of horror stories about other offices during my stay—Senator Masto’s office staff was not focused on appearance or suit colors. Instead, they cared only about improving the quality of lives of the people living in Nevada, and more broadly, every state of these United States. Their mission was to listen to constituent complaints and concerns with actual care (so much so that, unlike many offices, constituent mail was read through, sorted, and relayed to the Senator, herself).

In this mission of serving the people who live in the state that I call home, I had a lot of responsibility. From the beginning, all of the interns in my office were given a great deal of work. Rather than force us into the classic intern jobs like only ever sorting mail, answering phones, and giving tours, we were also tasked with researching for memos, one pagers, and sponsorship requests. There came a point where manual data input—in my opinion, the epitome of intern work—was actually a relief and came to break up the headache that is researching dense case law.

Lance and fellow interns gather on a staircase leading out of the Russell Senate office building Rotunda.
Lance and fellow interns gather on a staircase leading out of the Russell Senate office building Rotunda.

The best assignment that I was given was one regarding the Department of Labor’s 2012 guidance released in the unemployment insurance program letter UIPL 19-12. UIPL 19-12 specified the manner in which consumer reporting agencies (CRAs), state workforce agencies (SWAs) and lenders had to interact. The guidance effectively mandated that when a lender is verifying the credit information of an individual seeking a line of credit, they must forward a transfer of informed consent form to both the CRA and the SWA. Moreover, the CRA, who should effectively serve as a secure conduit between the state and the lender, has to maintain a backup of all informed consent forms that they are forwarded. From additional research, I learned that this proves problematic because CRAs have no authority to ever use any of the information from the informed consent forms past the initial instance that they are forwarded. Despite that, the forms are maintained for no shorter than three years by the CRAs. Aside from the privacy concerns from the CRA itself, this redundancy also opens consumer informed consent forms up for data breaches in the future. The flipside of all of this is that this perceived redundancy is actually a massive time saver and efficiency booster for state governments who wish to audit lenders and ensure that they are making fair and equitable lending decisions, regardless of the identity of the consumer. After researching this topic intensely, as well as reaching out to researchers at both the Senate Library and the Congressional Research Service, I condensed my thoughts into a memo displaying the background of the situation. Later, I was asked to also draft an argumentative statement as to why the senator should take a public stance on the matter, one way or the other. I cannot explain how much I gained from talking with employees of the Senate Library, my office’s finance and banking staff, and the Congressional Research Service about a complex issue that affects so many individuals in my state. While all my research assignments varied in topic, they all gave me a wealth of respect and understanding of what a legislative office does behind the scenes, and I feel that I now understand more intimately how questions become research assignments that become memos that become sponsorship proposals before eventually arriving as legislation on the floor of the Congress.

Lance and a high school student in front of the United States’ Capitol building.
Lance and a high school student in front of the United States’ Capitol building.

When I wasn’t researching, I deeply enjoyed interacting with Nevadan constituents. I answered phone calls sporadically throughout my stay in DC, but I was only ever assigned to the phones for a long period of time on one occasion. On this same day, President Trump had held a press conference about the situation at the border with regards to child separation. During this conference, our office received well over 200 calls that had to be fielded by me and one other intern. While my fellow Nevadans were sad and often close to tears on the other end of the phone, I gained a deeper respect for the jobs that staff assistants and front desk workers in congressional offices have. In that hour and a half, I effectively reflected my Senator’s beliefs: when concerned and distressed Nevadans felt the need to contact the person they themselves delegated to Washington, I was the one to pick up the call. In a state that has a close split of Republicans and Democrats, I heard all kinds of thoughts and opinions on the matter, and I had to treat everyone equally. Everyone’s opinions were recorded and everyone’s opinions would be inevitably relayed to the Senator. While the time I spent on the phone was stressful, I quickly realized that I was participating in what makes the United States such a great country: the fact that anyone can call and say anything they feel strongly about to their Senator.

My other interaction with Nevadans came through their scheduling of tours through our office’s front desk. As interns, we were often tasked with giving full tours of the United States Capitol—a building I had only ever seen in pictures—to anyone who desired one. At first, this proved incredibly nerve wracking. Not only was I star-struck at the history that surrounded me, I am also laughably bad at remembering directions. Needless to say, my first few tours had a few ‘detours.’ Once I got the hang of it, though, I prided myself on giving the best tours I could. One thing I gained from my internship is that, even if one is not good at everything they are tasked with, one should make at least one aspect of their job something they take pride in. I was not the office’s premier memo writer. However, if a tour needed to be given, I could give a tour better than anyone else in the office. I truly cherish the time I got to spend with other Nevadans as I showed them the walls erected around our Founding Fathers as they shaped the course of our nation.

My time in Washington, DC was like nothing I could have imagined. I am beyond grateful for having had the opportunity to live in Washington for six weeks, working for a Senator. No one in my family has ever worked in politics, and no one in my family has ever had the ability to see the great monuments of our nation’s history. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity that was given to me, and I know that my time in DC has changed my outlook on our country and has certainly shaped me into a more critical thinker and a more thorough researcher. To all who contributed to my ability to go, thank you.