3L enjoys thrill of federal work

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – After interning with a congressman as an undergraduate, Penn State Law third-year student Rob Casturo knew that he wanted to spend the summer before his final year of law school in Washington, D.C., doing legal work for a federal agency. So to find that job, he went right to the source: the federal government’s official employment website.

He landed a summer position as a legal intern for the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a federal agency that provides budget and economic information and analysis to Congress.

“I would love to be in D.C. and work for the federal government after graduation,” said Casturo. “This is a great step in that direction.”

This summer was a particularly high profile one for the agency, whose assessment of the proposed American Health Care Act of 2017 was constantly spotlighted in the news media.

Casturo’s time with the Office of the General Counsel of CBO was spent doing what he calls “a little bit of everything.” He worked on a significant amount of legislative legal analysis, especially on the controversial healthcare bill, where he focused on mandatory versus budgetary impact, and drafted inter-agency memos on how to deal with certain aspects of the bill if implemented. In particular, he analyzed drug revenue impact. Additionally, he analyzed Supreme Court and other federal court cases, and was involved in supervised counseling of clients on issues involving government ethics.

And though he learned a lot of valuable skills, to Casturo, the most important aspect of the summer was being in the middle of the fast-paced environment that is Washington, D.C. This opportunity allowed Casturo to meet so many different people, from members of Congress to employees of federal agencies.

“D.C. is ideal for interns,” said Casturo. “There are so many areas of interest outside of just the work you’re doing. Being able to make connections and see so many different avenues of legal work was an incredible opportunity.”