Living Aloud on the Hill
Former Staffer Cathy Travis Recalls 25 Years
Roll Call Staff
Recently retired Hill veteran Cathy Travis was never shy about meeting the mighty and powerful.
Travis was a newly hired staffer walking alone through the Capitol late one afternoon. Turning a corner, Travis says, she literally ran into President Ronald Reagan, who was about to address Congress.
“I took his hand and said: ‘I’m happy to meet you, but I disagree with your policy in Nicaragua’ — something mouthy like that,” she says.
That outspokenness shines through even today. After 25 years of working on Capitol Hill, Travis seems to know just about everyone. As she sits in the cafeteria of the Rayburn House Office Building, she greets staffers walking by.
But she is aware of the drawbacks of speaking her mind. “You can’t be mouthy on the Hill and not get in trouble,” she says. After putting in the years, though, Travis says she was able to get away with more freedom of speech “because I was old.”
Travis’ last job before retiring was as senior adviser and communications director for Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas). “I don’t have the illusion I’ll do anything more important than working for Congress,” she says.
But she won’t miss working on Capitol Hill, with its hectic hours and partisan tensions.
Day Into Night
A general Hill day, Travis says, started with 5:30 a.m. exercise, followed by e-mail correspondence, news stories and information updates before 8 a.m. Then she dressed and went to work.
Photo Courtesy Cathy Travis
Longtime Hill staffer Cathy Travis has written several books using her 25 years of working on Capitol Hill as material.
“It’s a race to get through the day, and get through the piles of stuff.” Often, she stayed at the office until around 8 p.m. and worked a couple of hours at night.
“It’s an incredible amount of pressure and an incredibly backbreaking workload. But on the same hand: This is where you play hardball. If you can’t handle it, leave,” Travis says.
In fact, she has no regrets: “I know for certainty that during my time on the Hill I did the most important work I’ll ever do in my life, for the Members I’d worked for, for the people I’d talked to and for the problems I helped them solve.”
At the Beginning
In 1983, 23-year-old Travis arrived on Capitol Hill from Arkansas State University with a bachelor’s degree in public relations with an emphasis on political science. Initially, she worked for the then-Office of the Doorkeeper and as deputy press secretary for Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.).
A Jonesboro, Ark., native, Travis first met “Uncle Bill” in her parents’ living room when she was 12. “I really thought politics was what I wanted to do,” Travis says. Alexander advised her to get involved in campaigns, and she started her career “cleaning bathrooms and licking envelopes — not simultaneously, obviously.”
At the Office of the Doorkeeper, Travis gave directions, informed Members about votes and answered questions from reporters.
Travis met Ortiz on the House floor. “He is the nicest man in Congress, and a wonderful man just to know,” Travis says. In 1990, Ortiz told her he was looking for a press secretary. “Are you interested?” he asked. “Hell yes,” she answered.
During her last years on Capitol Hill, Travis dealt more with policy, including advising the Democratic members of the Texas delegation.
Still working for Ortiz, Travis made her authorial debut, “Constitution Translated for Kids,” in 2006. She got the idea when she heard Ross Perot misquote the Constitution in the 1992 presidential debates.
“I said, somebody should just write the whole thing down at a fifth-grade level right next to the Constitution and be done with it. And a friend of mine ... said, ‘Cathy, I can’t think of any better person to do that than you.’”
Travis says writing a book for children was quite easy. “As a press secretary, I write at a fifth-grade level, because you don’t want to use big ol’ fancy words people might not know. You want them to hear your message.”
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