Reason for a Congressman to visit the White House

Drachen Jager · Feb 25, 2015

A Congressman has to get himself into the WH and as close to the Oval Office as possible.

To do that, he needs to invent an excuse to visit with the Chief of Staff, the Press Secretary, or the Prez's secretary.

According to the actual map of the WH, the Prez's secretary is the only adjoining office, but in the West Wing WH, the Press Secretary and the Chief of staff are adjoining. I only need this to be plausible (plot is near future, so offices could change, and people are probably more likely to be familiar with the fictional WH than the real one, so any of these three will do).

What sort of plausible reason could he have to book a meeting with one of those three on short notice? He has to get in and out without too much suspicion, so he can't just fake his way through, it has to be something they'd bite on and he could fake his way through.

The Congressman in question and the Prez are from opposing parties, (I don't specifically say, but in my head the makeup is similar to now, with the R's controlling Congress (my guy's party) and the D's in the WH).

I haven't given the guy specific duties, so if there's a panel a freshman Congressman could sit on that would help, that would be good to know.

blacbird · Feb 25, 2015

There almost certainly needs to be a legislative issue involved, and the congressman needs to be in a position of some legislative significance. Right now, we have a President (Obama) from one Party and a Speaker of the House (Boehner) from another. There's almost no way a Republican Congressperson will have direct access to the President without the Speaker's permission.

caw

vagough · Feb 26, 2015

Agree with ^^ about legislation being a good reason. A variant would be that the representative in question has a special interest in pushing forward legislation near and dear to the President's heart, and gets invited to the WH to discuss it (by the COS, for instance, or VP or even the President, whatever your story needs). This can happen regardless of political parties and whether the person occupying the WH is from the same one that holds the House of Representatives. Actually, it not only can happen, it has happened and still does, though to a lesser extent at the moment. Representatives will inform the Speaker, ML, or maybe the Whip that they've been invited to the WH for a meeting (and are smart to do so), but they don't need permission to go, especially if it's with, say, the COS. Even with the current acrimonious state of affairs and legislative gridlock between Capitol Hill and the WH (which is unusual and is the exception rather than the rule), there's more back and forth going on than one might think because it stays under the radar unless folks want it out for PR or political reasons. Just mho (having lived in the Wash DC area for a long time).

In other words, you can find a way to finesse it to make it work for your story.

Drachen Jager · Feb 26, 2015

Okay, thanks. That's about what I thought.

Now I just need to come up with a plausible bit of legislation the Congressman can feign interest in.

King Neptune · Feb 26, 2015

In times not that far past there were social events that would have gotten some Congress people into the White House. I have read of poker games and watching football games. Those were in naddition to more formal social receptions and such.

vagough · Feb 27, 2015

King Neptune said:
In times not that far past there were social events that would have gotten some Congress people into the White House. I have read of poker games and watching football games. Those were in naddition to more formal social receptions and such.

^^^
Absolutely right! (No pun intended with the name of the BB.) How soon we forget!

Reason for a Congressman to visit the White House

Drachen Jager

Professor of applied misanthropy

blacbird

vagough

Traveling down the Query Road...

Drachen Jager

Professor of applied misanthropy

King Neptune

vagough

Traveling down the Query Road...