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2019–2020 GSA-USGS CONGRESSIONAL SCIENCE FELLOW REPORT
All Hands on Deck: What a Scientist

Brings to the Front Lines of a Crisis

“OK, we’ll plan for that. Or not. No one the steps in the “regular process” are similar to designing and under-
knows anymore.” taking a research project: In particular, I found substantial similarities
That phrase captures a Congressional Science between the art of writing a scientific proposal and the art of writing a
Fellowship experience that, although only half- bill. Both require rapid and creative synthesis of a wide variety of
way done, must be at least in the running for the viewpoints and information, and both require the ability to communi-
strangest, and most interesting, of all time. cate those concepts to wide audiences that are outside your field of
My first day in Congressman Paul Tonko’s expertise. As scientists, I’d like to think we’re quite good at that.
(D-NY) office was Thursday, 26 September Post-pandemic life, at first glance, looks nothing like academia.
Mike O'Connor 2019, and I was greeted upon my entrance to The precious weeks to months afforded in the regular process to
the Rayburn House Office Building by the entire Washington Press develop thoughtful, community-based legislation simply don’t exist.
Corps. Joe Scarborough waved hello to me on my way in. They were The office has morphed into an all-purpose crisis hotline as thou-
all there, of course, to cover the earth-shattering announcement that sands of requests from individuals, businesses, nonprofits, schools,
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was formally directing Congress to and any other group imaginable pile up. Our primary jobs became to
begin the process to impeach the President of the United States. It was manage and advocate for these requests. I was assigned requests
the third time in history such a thing was happening, and I thought, related to agriculture and education, and the requests I had to advo-
without a doubt, this cataclysmic political development would be the cate for ranged from government buybacks of surplus milk to pay-
lens through which my Fellowship year was to be viewed. check protection for children’s museums. It is my job to figure out any
Oh, to be young, naïve, and within six feet of other people. pathway to assist our critically important but ailing constituent
Yes, it was impossible to predict the onset of a pandemic in groups, through whatever means necessary: letters, appropriations
September 2019. However, had I known, I would still have been eager language, public TV interviews, even Twitter posts. There is seem-
to work in Congress, in the House, and in Tonko’s office. Although ingly nothing in my current job that sounds related to the time-inten-
the substance of my work changed dramatically, the lessons learned sive, careful, and painstakingly slow process to develop Ph.D.-level
from it remained the same. research. However, with just a little digging, I was able to find some
The COVID-19 crisis demanded a massive shift in our office pri- very clear analogues.
orities: Our top priority in September was to lead the comprehensive Scientists, particularly early career professionals and Ph.D.s, are
Democratic effort to pass meaningful clean energy legislation. The often confronted with tasks they have no idea how to complete. My
time scale of this work was long term, and the topics to be addressed years of fieldwork and modeling were replete with these experiences.
were specific, technical, and related to my training as a geoscientist. I had had to develop a method from scratch to sample slushy, peaty
COVID-19 flipped the script. Our job was to lead advocacy efforts mud without compression, and before my degree, I had no experience
for hospitals, small businesses, and nonprofits, and to provide assur- in soil sampling. I had to develop code in C++, XML, and Python,
ance and comfort to an exceptionally frightened constituency. without ever having taken a coding class. The scientific training pro-
Everything about it was opposite: the time scale was NOW (and cess is replete in valuable lessons, but paramount for me was this:
often, now wasn’t soon enough), and the topics we worked on were You give me any task, and I’m confident I can get it done, somehow.
extremely broad, far-reaching, and had absolutely no tangible connec- Leaving the lab for the government took a leap of faith and required
tion to the geosciences. It is easy to look at that situation and, well, me to get over some serious fears, but I wish I wasn’t so nervous. As
chalk the year up as a loss. scientists, we’re lucky enough to be trained thoroughly in skills the
There is one crucial mental reason why I am still exuberant to work world desperately needs: competency, communication, and creativity.
each day: My goal entering this Fellowship year, simply put, was to This skillset, I believe, makes us as useful in regular business as it
use my scientific training to help make a tangible, beneficial differ- does in crisis. I am so thankful to GSA that this opportunity exists,
ence. Working in Congress during the COVID-19 pandemic ensures and I hope to help continue its legacy as my career moves forward.
that you not only can, but you MUST, make that difference. The pub-
lic demands it. This manuscript is submitted for publication by Mike O’Connor,
COVID-19 changed my day-to-day in a huge way. Pre-pandemic, 2019–2020 GSA-USGS Congressional Science Fellow, with the
my primary job was to shepherd a number of climate, energy, and understanding that the U.S. government is authorized to reproduce
science-related bills through what our office calls the “regular pro- and distribute reprints for governmental use. The one-year fellowship
cess.” The process follows a standard blueprint: research the topic of is supported by GSA and the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of
interest, reach out to as many expert groups as you can find to get the Interior, under Assistance Award No G19AP00110. The views and
their opinion on the topic, identify where the federal government can conclusions contained in this document are those of the author and
be useful, identify if there is a political appetite for such legislation, should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official poli-
write the legislation, publicize the legislation, edit the legislation as cies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. government. O’Connor
feedback pours in, drum up support for the legislation, and then works in the office of Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) and can be contacted
(hopefully) vote on the legislation. It is relatively evident that many of by e-mail at michael.oconnor@mail.house.gov.

28 GSA Today | July 2020