“My name is Aaron, and I work for a lobbying firm”

I have always cringed when I heard that word. My teachers, parents, CNN and basically everyone had resolved to decry a whole profession as “unethical” and “corrupt.”

Even now, as I rushed to tell family and friends about my new job in D.C., veiled smiles said “you’re one of them now.” Upon my arrival in our nation’s capital, I had resigned to embrace my new role: a puppet, ruled by special interest.

Only Venn Strategies isn’t like that. There are no smoke-filled, back room meetings. The office isn’t filled with power-hungry D.C. elites or slaves to special interest. We don’t work to control government, we work to understand it.

The federal government is an incredible complex machine with lots of moving parts. As a government affairs firm, our job at Venn is to keep tabs on what’s going on and report the results to our clients. Weekdays days consist of tracking legislation, attending and reporting on congressional hearings, and compiling research at our clients’ request. I’ve come to view our work as not only necessary, but fulfilling.

Venn’s clients are primarily based in the healthcare and finance sectors. I am currently working on the health team (a nice non-controversial topic), conducting research into the field of healthcare and producing memos for our clients. After a few days of research I came to a realization: I am so glad that there are people that do this work full time. Having met with congressional staffers, I’ve more often than not found myself face to face with an individual my age; somebody with nearly identical levels of education and experience. There’s a poorly kept secret in Washington: congressional staffers, while underpaid and overworked, run this town.

Single lines in 80 page bills have the capacity to affect the lives of millions of Americans. Among those millions are not only my family, friends and neighbors, but people I have never nor will ever meet. Having experienced what analyzing policy looks like, I am relieved that experts like the ones at Venn do the work that they do. Using a heavily researched argument, Venn exposes these staffers (again, the “real” rulers of D.C.) to the fact based stances that they would never have the resources or time to discover themselves. With legislation passing through the halls of congress on a daily basis, I find myself more and more confident that our policymakers are being exposed to well-researched arguments as diverse as the constituents they represent.

“My name is Aaron, and I am proud to work for a lobbying firm.”