NMAL Class Goes to Washington!
Just before the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, myself along with the rest of the NMAL class 15 group traveled to Washington D.C. The group got a good introduction of government leadership in February with a trip to our state capital in Sante Fe, NM. However, we took things to the highest level with the trip to D.C. My family had had some personal experience with how D.C. worked from a bureaucratic vantage point years ago. My father had been appointed by President Ronald Regan to be the Director of the Office of Service Mining within the Department of Interior. One goal for me with this trip was to see how things may have changed from an adult perspective. The visit made me realized how even more layers have been added through either policy or regulation, just to get something done. I know this was my father’s primary frustration in his short tenure in D.C. By their own admission, these policies and regulations have slowed progress significantly. Either through