Congress Watch Advocacy Internship
Congress Watch, a division of Public Citizen, is seeking interns. Public Citizen is a national, non-partisan, public interest group with over 300,000 members and activists. The Congress Watch division engages in public education, grassroots organizing, and advocacy before the Congress and administrative agencies on money in politics, open government, corporate accountability, financial regulation, health and safety, and access to justice.
The internship is designed to provide a better understanding of the legislative process in the U.S. Congress and experience in public interest policy and advocacy work. Interns work in one of the following areas:
• Civil Justice
• Financial Reform
• Government Reform (Money in Politics)
• Regulatory Affairs
• Occupational Safety and Health
Public Citizen hires interns for the fall, spring, and summer semesters with flexibility regarding start and end dates. Please note that course credit can be arranged, but all internships are otherwise unpaid.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Providing research support on pending legislative issues. Interns will search for and review original documents (e.g. on-line databases, Library of Congress resources, and documents from governmental and non-governmental agencies) as appropriate to fulfill research requests.
• Assisting a lobbyist, who is an issue specialist, with the public and news media. Duties include: responding to information requests from Capitol Hill, the news media and national organizations; developing briefing papers, reports, fact sheets and other educational and lobbying materials; and aiding legislative campaigns, coalition building and media strategies.
• Providing a wide range of administrative support including database management, data entry, copying, faxing, deliveries, errands to Capitol Hill, and other tasks as assigned.
REQUIREMENTS:
Knowledge: Basic knowledge of public policy issues required. Law student preferred for Civil Justice and Regulatory Affairs internships.
Skills: Excellent analytical thinking, oral and written communication, and organizational skills.
Qualities: Conscientious, accurate, and tenacious. Strong commitment to public interest work.
TO APPLY:
Submit current cover letter, resume, and writing sample to Kelly Ngo (kngo@citizen.org). Please indicate in the subject line of your email the issue area in which you are most interested in working on. No phone calls please.