Carlos, thanks for the idea of searching his website (sometimes I wonder if I really have an education), I used it, and both the Congressman and his staffer came with the 2 page statement printed out with a few questions. I tied in his authoring the NCMEC and some other stuff and then got into why international parental child abduction was a problem (stats from latest Hague Compliance report), brief information about Mexico, Brazil, and Japan followed by specific examples. I also pointed out how OCI shouldn't close cases when they are being appealed just to look good. I then detailed HR 3240 and HR 2702 and requested support. I stated they wouldn't raise spending significantly as I've been asked that by staffers lately. I put sentences in bold throughout so that the document could be skimmed in 2 minutes, which I expected would be done. [If anyone wants it, PM me]
My meeting started out just with the staffer (Christina), and she said the Congressman had a committee hearing at 10 and was finishing up a breakfast, so he may just pop his head in here to say hi to you. I was disappointed, but Christina and I started talking with her wanting to know how I got involved with this issue. I've developed a good elevator speech about it already, which she found interesting. Then the Congressman arrived and amazingly he stayed for 15 minutes (5 minutes past his 10AM commitment). He wasn't willing to commit without more information and research (by Christina), but I was glad he seemed concerned about the issue, asked questions, and didn't appear to have any major problems with the bill at this time. I told him I was pleased he was able to attend so I wasn't just speaking with Christina about the issue. He told me that she was more important to be meeting with than him, which I'm guessing is because her job is to vet legislation for him as I do not think speaking with my Congressman is unimportant. Christina told me when we were finishing up (after the Congressman stepped out) that he would support the legislation on the house floor, but it was unclear yet if he would co-sponsor it. I created a binder with information from BSH (including TWeinstein's articles and pptoland's essay) and Bachome.org as well as a few news articles, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission Hearing transcripts from Chris Smith's website, and most of the Hague Compliance report from 2009. I didn't have a global table of contents or page numbers, just a table of contents (sans page numbers) for each section of the binder, which I felt wasn't great, but that it was something. Christina commented to me that I was as prepared as a 'legislative person on the hill', which made me happy especially since she didn't look thrilled at the start of the meeting when she asked if the binder was for her and I said yes. Perhaps her realizing that the binder was organized and contained practical information made her change her mind. I asked her if a week from today would be a good time to follow-up and she said that it would be.
