Early Political Career
Pickering then very briefly served as a Southern Baptist missionary to Hungary, after the end of Hungarian government persecution of religious believers. In the same year, 1989, President George H. W. Bush appointed Pickering as a Department of Agriculture liaison to the former European Communist countries. This appointment provided Pickering with official diplomatic immunity.
After returning to the United States, Pickering served on the staff of Senator Trent Lott from 1992 to 1996. After a subsequent year as a government employee of the Senate Commerce Committee, Pickering ran for Congress in Mississippi. During his time as a member of Lott's staff, and then as a staff member on the Senate Commerce Committee, Chip helped shape the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the first major overhaul of US telecoms law since 1934.
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