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On Jan. 12, 1993, I went to the Racine City Hall to hold my very first listening session. When I ran for the Senate in 1992, I made a promise to the people of Wisconsin: to hold a listening session in every one of Wisconsin’s 72 counties each year. Fifteen years after my first listening session, I’m more convinced than ever of the value of these town hall meetings.

They are one of the best parts of my job, and they are an essential way of making sure I know what Wisconsinites are thinking.

I’ve listened to more than 50,000 Wisconsinites at more than 1,000 listening sessions and traveled the equivalent of more than six times around the world to attend listening sessions. What I hear from Wisconsinites at these sessions informs everything I do in the U.S. Senate, from my legislation to redeploy our troops from Iraq, to my effort to help states pursue innovative methods of providing health insurance to all their residents and my work to reform the badly flawed No Child Left Behind law.

I hear so many good ideas and suggestions at these meetings, some of which I’ve been able to get passed into law. Based on a suggestion I got from members of law enforcement at my Rock County listening session in 2001, I authored a bill to create a program to allow first-responders to volunteer aboard airplanes in the event of an emergency. The Safe Skies program began in 2006.

For more than six years, I helped a successful effort to designate 80 percent of the Apostle Islands as a federally protected wilderness, again based on a suggestion I heard at a listening session. Time and again, these meetings have helped me to bring Wisconsinites’ ideas to Washington.

Listening sessions have also contributed to my work to protect the integrity of Wisconsin’s ginseng, help charitable organizations retain volunteers and improve the health of the Great Lakes. Over 15 years, my office has been able to help hundreds of Wisconsinites who have stood up at listening sessions asking for help to navigate sometimes daunting federal agencies for benefits, grants, and other issues.

As 2008 begins, I look forward to another year of listening to Wisconsin’s ideas in every county. Congress has a lot of vital issues to address in 2008 — Iraq, health care and education, just to name a few. I hope you will check my Web site and your newspaper for information on when you can attend a nearby listening session this year, so you can give me your thoughts about these and other issues. I look forward to hearing from you in person.

Russ Feingold is the junior senator for Wisconsin. His La Crosse County listening session is planned for 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, at Holland Town Hall, W7937 Hwy. MH.