Legislative Assistant
Global Trade Watch – Public Citizen
Public Citizen seeks an organized, motivated person interested in exploring a career in public-interest advocacy to fill an entry-level Legislative Assistant position in our Global Trade Watch (GTW) division. As scheduler for GTW's Director, the person in this position gets an overview of all of GTW's activities and programs.
General Description:
The Legislative Assistant assists the GTW Director, Lori Wallach, with her scheduling and practical arrangements, prepares policymaker briefing materials, conducts strategic research around paid speaking opportunities for GTW staff and schedules these, and assists with field and press campaigns and various administrative tasks. The Legislative Assistant is supervised by the GTW Deputy Director.
Specific Responsibilities:
Serve as Executive Assistant to GTW Director responding to urgent calls to Director from Members of Congress, press and key domestic allies, and accompanying Director to some Congressional meetings.
Serve as the scheduler for the GTW Director. Schedule the GTW Director's congressional lobbying and other U.S. and international meetings and speaking opportunities. Schedule travel and practical arrangements, and handle the accounting of these. Coordinate materials the GTW Director will need for both D.C. and away schedules. Respond to requests made regarding the GTW Director's invitations to attend events and meetings. Correspond with national and international coalition partners regarding the GTW Director's travel and speaking arrangements, and coordinate with the GTW press and organizing team to schedule events and press meetings around the Director's travel.
Schedule congressional lobbying meetings for Citizens Trade Campaign coalition team and coordinate with attending parties representing U.S. environmental, labor, consumer, family farm and other public-interest organizations. Coordinate attendance at these meetings and meeting materials.
Ensure that the general administrative needs of the entire GTW staff, along with the Director, are met. This includes booking travel, accommodation and venues for other GTW staff and coalition partners.
Edit and print materials for meetings and presentations; maintain a system of all current, frequently used GTW printed and digital materials for urgent requests. In coordination with the Research Director and Director, prepare and maintain a biannual 200-page congressional briefing book.
Maintain and regularly update GTW's Congressional Address book.
Research and develop strategic speaking opportunities for the GTW Director with the goal of raising money for Global Trade Watch through paid events. Develop and maintain a database of colleges, universities, associations and organizations that have paid honorariums for speakers and work with the GTW Director and Deputy Director to systematically promote the GTW Director to those through mailings targeting university speaker booking cycles, follow-up calls and more.
Field phone and electronic general inquiries, as well as press requests in coordination with the press officer, and help the Deputy Director and Director assign response to team members and/or help the Director respond in a timely manner.
Contribute to field organizing during priority campaigns by conducting phone and email outreach to allies in key states/districts, coordinating phone banks, participating in local coalition work and demonstrations, tracking conferences and events, and maintaining databases.
Other duties as assigned.
Requirements:
Education: College degree preferred
Work Experience: Two years of office experience through employment and/or internships preferred. Campaign experience, including with student organizations, a plus.
Skills: Good communication and interpersonal skills. Good typing, database management, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and computer skills. A demonstrated, exceptional eye-for-detail and well-organized a priority. Familiarity with html editors and graphic design helpful.
Capabilities: Ability to work well under pressure, manage up, handle multiple tasks at once, adapt to rapidly changing situations on a daily basis and work well with a wide range of people.
Public Citizen is an equal opportunity employer. Public Citizen employees are proud members of SEIU Local 500. People of color, women and LGBT candidates are encouraged to apply.
To apply: Please send a cover letter, resume and writing sample to mgroch@citizen.org . No phone calls.
About Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch:
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1971 to represent the public interest in Congress, the executive branch and the courts. We fight for openness and democratic accountability in government; for social and economic justice in globalization and trade policies; for clean, safe and sustainable energy; for strong health, safety and environmental protections; for safe, effective and affordable medicines and health care and for the right of consumers to seek redress in the courts. We have six divisions based in our Washington, D.C. offices and an office in Texas
The mission of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch division is to ensure that in this era of globalization, a majority have the opportunity to enjoy America's promises: economic security, a clean environment, safe food, medicines and products, access to quality affordable services such as health care and the exercise of democratic decision-making about the matters that affect their lives.
Public Citizen started working on globalization and 'trade' issues in 1991 when we recognized that this was necessary simply to remain effective advocates for the public health, consumer safety, environmental and economic justice goals Public Citizen had promoted over decades. Motivating this strategic initiative was our realization that today's international commercial agreements, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), were no longer mainly about trade per se. Rather, these far-reaching agreements were backdoor delivery mechanisms to implement an expansive, enforceable package of non-trade policies - limits on financial regulation and food safety, new monopoly patent rights over medicines and seeds that limit access, new investor rights that promote job-offshoring and subject public interest policies to attack and more. This corporate-led version of globalization is designed to limit governments' role in regulating the economy and to eliminate many of the public interest safeguards Public Citizen and like-minded organizations and activists had won over decades. And, it shifts decision-making on matters previously determined in national, state and local venues to international bodies where those affected by the decisions have no meaningful role.
Since its inception in 1995, GTW has been a leader in popularizing the globalization and trade debate by connecting these seemingly arcane policies to peoples' everyday experiences – and helping people make a difference in the future of globalization by giving them the tools they need to educate their communities, hold Congress accountable for policy choices, and hit the streets to protest. GTW works with diverse national and international coalitions. For more information, please see our website: www.tradewatch.org
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