ABOUT:
Defense policy analysis, commentary and discussion.
Checks and balances will take on a whole different meaning at the Verizon Center tonight. Six Members of Congress, Hill staffers and an opposing team of lobbyists will take to the ice usually occupied by the Washington Capitals for the third annual Congressional Hockey Challenge.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and five House Members — returnees Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) and Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), and newcomers Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) and Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) — headline a team that also includes 16 staffers. Brad Dayspring, press secretary for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), plays defense for the Lawmakers team and is its spokesman.
The Lobbyists team is made up of 19 men and defensewoman Melissa Lavinson of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. Jeffrey Kimbell, president of Jeffrey J. Kimbell & Associates and Magnum Entertainment Group, is the team spokesman.
The Lawmakers vs. Lobbyists contest benefits the hockey program for inner-city youths at the Fort DuPont Ice Arena in D.C.’s Anacostia neighborhood and is staged with assistance from the National Hockey League and its “Hockey Is for Everyone” campaign.
The game’s goal of promoting youth participation fits the core mission of the two-year-old Congressional Hockey Caucus, which works to provide hockey equipment for recreational and therapeutic Wounded Warrior programs for injured military personnel.
Quigley founded the caucus after he won an April 2009 special election for the North Side Chicago seat previously held by Democrat Rahm Emanuel. He now co-chairs the caucus with teammate Higgins and nonplaying hockey fan Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.).
Higgins said the mission of the caucus is to promote hockey “as a way to instill good values in young kids,” while building self-esteem and sense of purpose and offering incentives to excel academically.
Quigley said a big part of the caucus’s youth hockey efforts are aimed at overcoming obstacles that inhibit participation, especially in urban areas where ice rinks are rare and expensive to maintain or rent. The skates and protective gear needed to play ice hockey also can make it prohibitively expensive.
Want Roll Call on your doorstep?
SIGN UPAlready a subscriber?
Sign up to have the print PDF emailed to you.
Roll Call has launched a new feature, Hill Navigator, to advise congressional staffers and would-be staffers on how to manage workplace issues on Capitol Hill. Please send us your questions — anything from office etiquette, to handling awkward moments, to what happens when the work life gets too personal. Submissions will be treated anonymously.
