A child prepares to affix a small teddy-bear to an installation calling for the return of an estimated 20,000 Ukrainian children abducted by Russia. The installation of 20,000 teddy-bears was constructed on the National Mall in view of the Capitol. A press conference at which Congress-members spoke was held April 23, 2026. Photo: Jonathan Brook.
Defying the President the and Speaker of the House, 218 Congress-members signed a petition forcing a vote on the Ukraine Support Act. The 218th signature, the last one needed, was added by Californian Independent Congressman Kevin Kiley May 13.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, following President Trump’s directives, has delayed voting on pro-Ukrainian bills, referring them to committee or just not scheduling them for a vote. The petition, called a discharge petition, forces a vote.
We did that. If you called or wrote to your Congress=person, or expressed your pro-Ukraine opinion in any way: flying a flag, writing a letter to the editor, posting on social media, talking to your friends and family, it all contributed to convincing Congress-members that supporting Ukraine is important to their constituents.
As I told a Substack author who was feeling like their efforts were having little or no effect, we’re all small drops of water in the wave.
Arount forty Congress-members stepped up to co-sponsor pro-Ukraine legislative bills in the days following a three-day intense lobbying effort last month called the Ukraine Action Summit. I’m pleased to say I was part of it.
We may have helped influence scoring the final discharge petition signatures, too.
All good news. But ….
The bad news is that the vote on that one bill could still be scuttled. Trump might bully Republicans co-signers into voting against it. Also, a House vote is not the final step. It also needs to pass the Senate. So, don’t furl that Ukrainian flag in your window, our work is not done, yet.
Most of the NH delegation: Curtis Register, a Durham town representative and aid activist (Cars for Ukraine, NH Battalion), three Dartmouth students from Ukraine: Kyrylo Fomin, Marta Hulievska and Sasha God’dina, and myself. We were fortunate to have the three students, who were very sharp on all the important details and could expertly discuss legislative points and strategy with Congressional staffers. All I had to do was smile and nod. Photo by Curtis Register.
Over 700 people attended the Ukraine Action Summit. Every state plus Puerto Rico was represented.
Congressional office buildings are a scene: serious, surreal and sometimes silly. The halls and cafeterias bustle with professional and volunteer lobbyists, office staff, and elected officials en route to pre-arranged half-hour meeting. These meetings happen in whatever space is available. Often it is a room in a Congress-member’s office, but it might be in the reception area, the hallway, or a cafeteria table.
Lobby groups set up office in the cafeterias, conferring over coffee or lunch between meetings. Like our group, they are at the Capitol to see multiple politicians, so they could be there for a whole work-day or more. They bump elbows with advocates of every conceivable cause, some of them directly opposed to each other.
The NH delegation talks to US. Representative Maggie Goodlander (in white jacket) and staff-person Libby (on far left) outside the representative’s office. NH Delegate Leader Marcia Amadon (n blue) stands next to Goodlander, who showed how supportive she was by meeting us in person, and in her subsequent co-sponsorship. Photo by Curtis Register.
Not only do they roam the Congressional office building hallways, they can be observed all over Capitol Hill in hotels, restaurants, meeting and conference spaces, coffee-shops, and bars. They hold press conferences featuring Congress-member speeches with the Capitol in the background. The lobbyist trade, especially the high-end, high-stakes corporate and wealthy interest-group sector, is one reason hotel, restaurant, meeting room and office-space prices are so high in Washington DC, much to the disadvantage of tourists and locals.
Most advocates wear formal business-attire, but some wear ethnic, regional, work or military clothing. Many in our group wore Ukrainian traditional embroidery. Another group all wore cowboy hats. Group identity is shown by matching color-coded lanyards and literature, bags, scarves, patches, buttons and other accessories.
What are they advocating about? I didn’t ask. It’s my sixth Summit. The first time I asked a tired-looking advocate from another group sitting on a bench outside the Cannon office building what she was there for. I got her entire speech. I don’t ask any more.
Advocate activity: a press conference on the Capitol grounds, advocate-group in cowboy hats, lobbyists/advocates in the security-check line to enter the Cannon Congressional Office Building, the pile of plastic bottles discarded by advocates/ lobbyists because they are not allowed to take them into the building. Photos by William L. Brown.
Every advocate in the room has a brain primed and loaded with a brief personal introduction, talking points, intricate details of specific legislative bills, their congress-member’s voting record, and “the ask.” The ask in our case was to co-sponsor three legislative bills.
One is the sanctions bill discussed above. Another comes down on Russia’s “shadow fleet” of cargo vessels used to illegally transport sanctioned goods. The third calls for the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.
Sometimes it feels like an exercise in futility. All of these bills, with the exception of the sanctions bill, will be held back by House Leader Johnson under Trump’s direction.
But then, actions sometimes pay off - as with the discharge petition. As with Ukraine’s armed forces, all their combined efforts seemed futile against a bigger, solid foe. But, then cracks appear, such as in today’s announced collapse of a Russian line in Zaporizhia Oblast. It’s small, it may be temporary, but the foe is not invincible. Even the smallest effort helps make those cracks.
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