Two former members of the House of Representatives, Milton Robert “Bob” Carr and Ann Marie Buerkle, concluded their three-day visit to Tufts as part of the Congress to Campus program yesterday evening.
The program, which is facilitated by a three-way partnership between the Stennis Center for Public Service Leadership, the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress and Tufts, is intended to encourage students to consider spending a portion of their lives devoted to public service, according to Carr.
On Monday, Carr and Buerkle attended two Tufts classes to discuss the executive branch of the U.S. government and voters rights, allowing students to lead the discussion, Buerkle said.
“I think oftentimes you establish relationships, you can act as a mentor in a one-on-one situation with students we’ve met within the classes," Buerkle said. "We’ve talked ... about possibly expanding intern possibilities -- internships down in some of the government agencies -- so it opens up a whole lot of doors.”
According to Carr, they wanted to encourage students to take part in any form of public service, not just politics on the national level. This could include working at a non-governmental organization, a nonprofit organization or in lower-level government.
“In other words, devoting your life, rather than to the accumulation of your own wealth, to the improvement of the human capital at large," he said. "Helping underserved people, helping lift up people who are disadvantaged ... it’s doing something for somebody else without regard to how much money you make from it.”
Buerkle agreed and pointed out the benefits of volunteerism to one’s self as well as those who are helped.
Another main goal of the visit, according to both Carr and Buerkle, was to show Congress in a different light.
“Just casually seeing on television ... commentary about the Congress -- when I see that, I don’t see the institution that I knew," Carr said. "We’re trying to convey the more human side of the institution as opposed to what you read in the media.”
Buerkle stressed that the stagnation in Congress is not a new phenomenon, but rather something that has been happening since its inception.
“One of the things that impressed me so much is that you look around and you see hundreds of people, good Americans, who want to do the right thing," she said. "The dysfunction is a much longer, more difficult story, but at the end of the day most people have very good intentions and want to do the right thing for this country.”
Carr said that he did think that cooperation in Congress seemed more difficult now than in the past, but he also believes the portrayal is sometimes skewed by the media. While there are people who do not operate with the country's best interests in mind, they are not the majority, he added.
“The problem today is that the predominance of the narrative of the hidden agenda or the ulterior motive, I think, far exceeds that which really exists,” he said.
Buerkle said she has been on three Congress to Campus visits since she left Congress in 2012, while Carr said he has been on approximately one visit per year since he left Congress in 1995.
“Many of mine have been abroad,” Carr noted. “The Congress to Campus program is active in the UK and in Canada, and in those sessions we talk more about comparative politics -- comparing their system of government to ours -- rather than trying to encourage citizen involvement ... In the United States, our pitch is more to public service.”
Both Carr and Buerkle thanked the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service for their hospitality, accommodation and organization of the trip.
Carr, a Democrat from Michigan, served in Congress from 1975 to 1981 and from 1983 to 1993. Prior to that, he served as assistant attorney general in Michigan for two years. He is now an adjunct professor at George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management as well as an adjunct faculty member at the Brookings Institution, where he helps guide the Legislative Fellows program.
Buerkle, a Republican from New York, served in Congress from 2011 to 2013. She began her career as a registered nurse before choosing to attend law school at the Syracuse University College of Law. Prior to her time in Congress, Buerkle served as the the assistant New York state attorney general from 1997 to 2009. She is now a commissioner at the United States Consumer Products Safety Commission in Bethesda, Md.
