Special Report
CAPITAL CONNECTIONS
Beltway from page 11
consequences of the financial crisis."
In May, Schram had a unique opportu-
nity to see his hard work come to fruition
in a way that could help millions of people.
For three years, he'd been working on a
bill that provides reforms and strong con-
sumer protections for credit card users.
It wasn't moving forward until President
Obama supported it and eventually signed
the Credit CARD Act into law.
"We were making very incremental
progress. Then, we won the election;'
Schram recalled. "Five months later, I'm
at the White House, in the Rose Garden,
watching the president I worked to elect
signing a bill I helped write. That moment
made it all worthwhile."
Sen. Carl Levin, Zachary Schram, Elise Bean, staff director and chief counsel of the Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
"It's an incredible opportunity," Ellman
says. "On the campaign, we came up with
a lot of great ideas. Now, it's incredible
to have a hand in making those abstract
ideas a reality"
She is just one face in a small crowd
of 20- and 30-somethings from Metro
Detroit who are deeply ingrained in the
inner workings of our government. They
are lawyers and political advisers; they
help set policies and investigate fraud.
They're tackling some of the most impor-
tant issues of our day, from health care to
the economy to the environment and rub-
bing elbows with some of the most power-
ful and influential leaders in the United
States. And they're all local Jewish kids
whose dreams took flight right here in our
community. Some of them have known
each other since grade school.
Well Connected
"Lisa and I go back to our bar/bat mitzvah
days, though we can't remember exactly
when:' says Zack Schram, 31, of West
Bloomfield.
He and Ellman both attended Andover
High School in Bloomfield Hills and the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In
2003, Ellman actually introduced Schram
to then-Professor Obama; Schram has
volunteered on Obama's campaigns ever
since.
"It can be very bleak on a campaign,
when you're living out of your car in
southwest Ohio or rural New Hampshire,
eating cold pizza and sleeping where you
fall:' he said. "You have no guarantee of
victory or future employment. It's only the
conviction that you are fighting the good
fight that gets you through."
During the presidential race, Schram
took an unpaid leave from his job as coun-
sel to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee
on Investigations. He worked at Obama's
campaign headquarters in Chicago. These
days, he's back in Washington, D.C., and
back at his desk at the Russell Senate
Office Building investigating waste, fraud
and abuse. His boss is Sen. Carl Levin, D-
Mich., the subcommittee's chairman.
"Sen. Levin has been focusing on white
collar crime, tax evasion and money laun-
dering:' Schram explained. "Right now,
we're looking into some of the causes and
Michael Simon works at the Department
Rachel Tronstein works at the
of Health and Human Services
Department of Energy
At Home and Abroad
Michael Simon, 29, of Birmingham and
Rachel Tronstein, 28, of Huntington Woods
and Bloomfield Hills are immersed in two
other pressing issues at home and abroad:
health care and the environment. Both
started out together as interns for Sen.
Levin in the summer of 2000.
Now, Simon is a regulatory officer at
the Department of Health and Human
Services. Like Ellman and Schram, the
University of Michigan and U-M Law
School grad also worked on President
Obama's campaign.
"I work in the office of Kathleen
Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human
Services:" Simon explained. "I'm respon-
sible for screening all regulatory actions,
letters and briefing materials, and I work
closely with various agencies like the Food
and Drug Administration and the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention."
Simon recently helped draft a letter to
Congress responding to criticism about
distribution of the H1N1 vaccine, but his
primary focus has been health care reform.
"I've been working on a couple of differ-
ent task forces that will be responsible for
implementing whatever Congress passes:'
he said.
Tronstein, a graduate of U-M and the
London School of Economics, has spent
recent months jetting back and forth
to Beijing, China. She works with the
Department of Energy and is in China
right now helping shape domestic and
international energy policies.
"The U.S. and China are the two larg-
est emitters of greenhouse gases, so
not surprisingly we are advancing our
bilateral cooperation:' Tonstein said. "I've
been working specifically on the U.S.-
China Clean Energy Research Center that
Secretary Chu announced in July and also
on electric vehicles. When it comes to
clean energy and climate change, this is a
transformational moment for our country.
I can't imagine not being part of it."
Beltway on page 14
12
November 19 • 2009