Butler County natives intern on Capitol Hill
Butler County natives Sam Weiland and Brett Palmer, both of Mars, spent their summer serving Pennsylvania’s 16th Congressional District in Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly’s office.
“I would say the most surprising part is how much each side actually works together, because I think the news, a lot of the time, always pits Democrats and Republicans against each other,” Weiland said. “There’s a lot of the bills that we look at and analyze where Democrats are on our bills and we’re on Democrats’ bills. There’s a lot more bipartisanship than I think people let on.”
Palmer said the experience impressed on him the diversity of concerns throughout the district, spanning social, environmental and economic issues.
“It’s really seeing how big and diverse the district really is, and how you need to manage people’s concerns differently based on, kind of, where they’re from,” he said, “and how you can best help them.”
Weiland, who will be a junior at University of Lynchburg this fall in Virginia, is working on a double major in economics and political science. He said he has been passionate about politics and government since he was 9 years old.
“And then as I got older, I got interested in economic policy, specifically tax policy,” he said. “With Mike Kelly on the Ways and Means Committee, I was always drawn to him, and being from the area I live in that attracted me to him.”
Palmer, who will be junior at Lehigh University, said his grandfather inspired his interest in government.
“He’d always talk to me about how important limited government is and everything, so I’d always love to listen to him — of course, when I was like 7 or 8 I didn’t really grasp it,” he said. “As I got older it started to stick and resonate with me more and more.”
Double-majoring in finance and economics, Palmer said he saw the internship as an opportunity to hone his interests.
“I decided that I wanted to come to D.C. for the summer just to learn even more,” he said, “and then decide if it’s something I want to do full-time, or whether I wanted to go into pure finance, or go to law school, or something like that.”
Weiland and Palmer said their summer on Capitol Hill has regularly brought them into contact with county residents, frequently assisting with passport and tax return backlogs.
“They call our office every day, so I love getting that information to our caseworkers, plugging it into our system to help people get their tax return or help people get a passport,” Weiland said. “Because, you know, their lives depend on it, people need that tax money.”
For Weiland, assisting these constituents has deepened his motivation to pursue a career in government.
“I think it’s kind of enabled, or kind of pushed me toward it, because I love helping people,” he said. “I have a strong customer service background, and a lot of the stuff we do, it affects people directly back home.”
While Palmer said the internship has been “eye-opening” in seeing how the federal government works, it has ultimately emboldened him toward another path.
“I’m not sure its something that I would like to do full time, but I think having this background would be really helpful for me as I go down the road and make decisions in the financial sector,” he said, “knowing how to work with the federal government in order to maximize my potential clients’ returns.”
For county students interested in following in their footsteps, Palmer emphasized the value of being able to “think on your feet.”
“You’ve got to make decisions based on the facts of the situation and not just based on how you would normally handle it,” he said. “You can’t be by the book, you’ve got to think outside the box.”
Weiland said the key was passion, punctuality and communication.
“You don’t have to be perfect, I make mistakes and people understand that,” he said. “But if you’re willing to communicate and be clear, you’ll succeed. And that’s anywhere, not just on the Hill, but anywhere in life.”
