Congressional Staff 101:

We noted in an earlier post that most Congressional offices have legislative staff based in Washington D.C. and casework staff based in the Congressional district. In this post we'll examine those two types of staff and also talk about the career path most Congressional staffers follow.
Each Member of Congress in the House of Representatives may have 18 paid employees. These employees will be split between the Washington D.C. office and the district office. Many offices will place more employees in the district office so that the Congressman can have his staff representing him at many events across the district.

District staff are usually drawn from the district and are often either career Congressional staff, former government employees in the civil service, or political operatives from a Member of Congress' campaigns. A district office is headed up by a District Director who oversees all activities and personnel in the district. The District Director may also be involved in fundraising and other political activities. If so, he or she will be paid by the Federal government and the Member of Congress' campaign at the same time. Under the District Director will be several field representatives who also serve as caseworkers. These staffers will represent the Congressman in the district at a variety of political and community events. They will also perform casework for the public, which is essentially any function of the Congressional office not related to legislation. As we noted, it most typically includes activities like helping the public navigate the bureaucracy. The district office may also employ support staff, such as a secretary or scheduler, and often has several interns to answer phone calls and do other routine office work.

The Washington D.C. office will be headed up by a Chief of Staff, who is also the highest ranking staffer in the office. The Chief of Staff is also the ultimate supervisor of the district office, though the day to day management of the district office is usually left to the District Director because of the typical distance between the D.C. office and the district office. The Chief of Staff is responsible for the Member's representational allowance, which is a lump sum of money given to each Congressman to operate his office. The typical Member of Congress receives around $1.1 to $1.3 million to run his office each year, though that amount varies based on the distance between the Member's district and Washington D.C. Members with districts that are further away get more money to cover the increased cost of travel between D.C. and their district. The Chief of Staff also does campaign work, such as fundraising, and will often act as the Congressman's campaign manager or the individual who hires the Congressman's campaign manager. The Chief of Staff makes many strategic decisions for the Congressman and advises him on overall political strategy.

Directly below the Chief of Staff is the Legislative Director, who is also sometimes called a Legislative Counsel or a Deputy Chief of Staff. This person will be in charge of all legislative strategy for the Member of Congress and the person ultimately responsible for the day to day legislative operations of the office. The Legislative Director oversees the Congressman's committee work, advises him on how to vote on legislation before the House, and serves as a liaison with special interest groups that seek to lobby the Congressman. The Legislative Director is expected to make sure that the Congressman's legislative actions further the Congressman's legislative agenda and do not cause the Congressman problems with interest groups, leadership, or voters back in the district. The last major duty of a Legislative Director is to oversee all outgoing office communications with constituents, which means approving letters and setting the tone of the communication strategy.
Legislative Aides serve below the Legislative Director and shoulder some of the same responsibilities as the Legislative Director, but they have less authority to make decisions. They will advise the Congressman on votes, specific pieces of legislation, and work with special interest groups, committees, leadership, and constituents.

Legislative Correspondents write letters at the instruction of the Legislative Director and manage all incoming constituent contacts. Congressional offices receive on average around 25,000 contacts per year, or more, so there is enough work writing letters and managing incoming contacts to keep one or two people fully busy at this job.

Staff Assistants are an entry level position. These individuals answer phones, greet visitors to the office, handle routine office logistics, take visitors to the office on tours of the Capitol, answer the phones, and perform any other task assigned to them.

Schedulers handle the continually changing schedule of the Congressman. They manage meeting requests, campaign events, floor votes, committee schedules, and all other movements of the Congressman to make sure that the Congressman is in the right place at the designated time. The Scheduler may also answer phones and do some other limited office logistics, but the job of keeping a Member's calendar is a full time job.

The Press Secretary handles all of the office's interaction with the media. They schedule interviews, write op-eds, create quotes that are attributed to the Congressman in press articles, talk to reporters, and develop the Congressman's media communication strategy. Today's Press Secretaries also handle the "new media" platforms that are growing popular as a means of political communication.
There are two main ways that an individual "breaks in" to Congressional staffing work, especially in the Washington D.C. office. The first way is through the Congressman's campaign. When a new Member of Congress is elected he may decide to bring some personnel with him who helped him win election. Campaign personnel may start at any level in the office; some Members will put a trusted campaign manager or other advisor in charge of their new office as a Chief of Staff. This happens often enough to be worth mentioning, but it is by far the less common route for a Congressional staffer.

The vast majority of Congressional staffers begin their careers on "the Hill" (as it's called in D.C. parlance) in entry level positions such as an intern or a staff assistant. Once the new staffer masters his or her current job they will seek to advance to the next level. A Staff Assistant becomes a Legislative Correspondent. A Legislative Correspondent becomes a Legislative Aide. A Legislative Aide becomes a Legislative Director and a Legislative Director becomes a Chief of Staff. It usually takes around ten years for a new staffer to go from Staff Assistant to Chief of Staff.
Congressional staff may have other experience, such as prior private sector experience and a significant number are attorneys. However, most Congressional staffers are fresh out of college with a standard degree, often in political science. The average age of a Congressional staffer is very young, 22-28, though there are a very few career staffers who spend their entire lives on the Hill, usually as very senior staff. As a result, the pool of Congressional staff is a very hidebound institution. Staffers frequently move between offices and develop deep ties in the Hill community. Since the Hill community places are great degree of value on personal relationships most staffers are eager to conform to the community norms. Staffers will try to promote each other as much as possible in other offices so that they will have connections to those offices. This aids staff in lobbing each other for legislation and other types of cooperation.

Senior staff receive significant pay, but junior staff receive very little pay. A Chief of Staff may receive between $100,000 and $160,000, while a Staff Assistant will receive between $20,000 and $25,000. Legislative Assistants will receive in the $30-$40,000 range. Legislative Directors will receive between $60,000 and $90,000. Schedulers and Press Secretaries typically are in the $50,000 to $60,000 range. Of course, the pay of any staffer is at the discretion of the Chief of Staff and, ultimately, the Member of Congress.

The reason that Congressional staff are willing to work for long periods of time in a high cost of living area (Washington D.C.) at modest pay for much of their career is because few staffers remain on the Hill after 10-15 years. After spending 2-5 years at a senior staff level (Legislative Director or Chief of Staff) the vast majority of Congressional staff "go downtown." That is, they become lobbyists. By the time the average staffer becomes a lobbyist he or she has likely worked for a half dozen Members of Congress or more. Their previous bosses are most likely still on the Hill and reaching the point in their careers where they have significant seniority. If the staffer is lucky an old boss will have a high rank on an important committee. Staffers use their previous jobs and far flung network of acquaintances on the Hill, along with their knowledge of how Congress works, to market themselves to lobbying firms or other groups that have interests in legislation. An average staffer can make two or three times the salary lobbying that they could make as a senior staffer. The best staffers, which is to say the most connected staffers, can command prices in excess of a million dollars per year to lobby. This is the career endpoint that most Congressional staffers have in mind when they begin their careers on the Hill.

As you can probably see at this point, the system has some significant weaknesses that many Tea Party activists are critical of. When a new Member of Congress arrives on the Hill he or she is immediately confronted by an entrenched staff that try to make their new boss conform to the orthodox methods of operation. A Member of Congress that wants to shake things up must not only resist the bureaucratic inertia of the government and other Members, but also his own staff. Of course, a sufficiently strong Member of Congress can be fully in control of what happens in his or her office, but unfortunately, too many Members are all too willing to integrate into the system. A deeper critique of the Congressional staffing system is beyond the scope of this post. Hopefully you now have an idea of how Congressional staffing works. If you have any questions please let me know in the comments below.

Contacting a Congressional Office 101:

Contacting your representative in Congress is one of the most simple steps you can take to make your opinion known.  Yet unfortunately most of the general public has no idea how a Congressional office operates and so they contact their representative in a way that may diminish the effectiveness of their effort. Let's talk about how a Congressional office operates and then we'll go over a list of tips to observe when calling to voice your opinion.

All Members of Congress have a Washington D.C. office and most have one or more offices in the district they represent. The district offices primarily handle casework helping people who need something from government.  For example, if a senior citizen isn't getting their Social Security check a Congressman's district office will be tasked with calling up the bureaucrats and sorting out the problem.  If you want to inquire about a Congressman's position on a legislative issue or leave your opinion about a legislative issue then you want to contact the Congressman's Washington D.C. office.

A Congressional office has a number of different ways for constituents to contact it and a number of staff that are partially or completely dedicated to handling constituent inquiries.  The easiest and best way to contact a Congressional office is usually e-mail, for several reasons that we'll discuss below.  You can also contact through the phone, or direct mail, but the latter method should be avoided whenever possible. 

Before you start, make sure you know the district you're located in.  This may seem like something that goes without saying, but the reality is that if you call a Member of Congress that doesn't represent you, he or she will likely disregard your contact completely.  At best, they may pass it on to your actual representative.

If you contact by e-mail you'll likely use an online form at your Congressman's website.  You can find your Congressman's website and contact information using this handy website: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/  If you're looking for your Senator go here: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Your e-mail will go into a central database that your representative maintains specifically for constituent mail.  This database will record whatever contact information that you provide and the contents of your message.  If you want your Congressman to pay attention to your letter it is important to at least leave your name and zip code so it will be clear that you are a constituent.  If you want a response letter then you must leave a method of contact, preferably an e-mail.  Some offices will call you back or send you a physical letter if you do not leave an e-mail address, but not all will.  Leaving an e-mail address is the best way to ensure that you get a response.  A Congressional office typically receives around 25,000 pieces of mail per year, a Senate office can receive many times more, so the harder you make it for your representative's staff to answer your contact the less likely it is they will be able to respond to you.

Your e-mail will then be sorted by a Legislative Correspondent, who is a staffer completely dedicated to handling constituent mail.  If your contact expresses an opinion on an issue before Congress, for or against, that information will be noted and your contact will be assigned a form letter.  Some offices will give you a substantive response that explains your representative's opinion on the issue that you wrote in about.  Other offices will give a more generic response.  The quality of the response you receive will depend on your representative.

Congressional offices generate the form letters used in responses in a number of ways.  I will describe the most typical process.  The Legislative Correspondent will draft a letter to cover an incoming batch (Members of Congress usually receive dozens of contacts on the same issue, especially if its a "hot" issue in the news) of constituent letters.  The Legislative Aide that handles the issue in the contact may review the letter, or if the issue is particularly difficult the Aide may draft the letter.  A Legislative Director, the person who oversees all legislative issues in a Congressional office, will then review the letter again and approve the letter.  Some Members of Congress will also review and approve all letters that their office sends out, but most will only review the difficult or controversial letters.  Once the letter is approved, it is available to send out to all constituents who contact the Member of Congress on that particular issue.  If you don't know what a Legislative Aide or a Legislative Director is, don't worry.  We'll talk about Congressional staffers in another post.

If you decide to call your Congressional office to voice your opinion you should almost always contact your representative's Washington D.C. office.  Remember, it is the Washington D.C. office that handles legislative issues.  The person that answers your call will probably be an intern, a Staff Assistant, or a Legislative Correspondent.  These staffers will most likely not have detailed knowledge of the issue that you're calling in about.  If you're calling about a "hot" topic in the news they may have a script, but they will not have the knowledge or the authority to discuss the issue with you or sometimes even to tell you what the Congressman's position is.  They will dutifully take down your contact information and put your message into the constituent contact database for a response.

At this point you may be tempted to ask for a higher level staffer who can answer your question more definitively and discuss your representative's position.  This is not usually advisable for several reasons.  If Congress is in session senior legislative staff will be busy assisting the Congressman with committee assignments, floor debates, votes, meetings, and other similar duties.  Remember, the average office receives around 25,000 contacts per year.  That works out to nearly 70 contacts for everyone one of the 365 days in the year, including Sundays, a staffer's birthday, their kid's little league championship, and everything else.  If 70 people per day asked for a personal phone call and a lengthy discussion a Congressional office literally would be unable to handle the volume without massive increases in staffing.  It also isn't necessary; more on that later.

The third major way to contact a Congressional office is through standard postal mail.  This is the least desirable way to contact a Member of Congress because it is very slow.  Due to concerns over explosive, chemical or biological attack, all physical items that are mailed to a Congressional office must go through a rigorous scanning process prior to delivery.  This adds several days on to an already slow process.  If you send your representative a physical piece of mail it will likely be over 2 weeks before your Member of Congress receives your mail and then an additional period of time before it can be processed and answered.  It goes without saying that if the object of your contact is urgent or time sensitive in any way you should e-mail or call instead.  This same delay also applies to packages and overnight mail.

Now that we know something about how the process works the question I suspect many people have is, "Why bother?"  If my representative isn't even going to see my message then why send it to him?  The answer is that even though your representative won't see your specific message he will hear your opinion and in an amplified way.  Your Congressman's staff will tally up all the contacts that are received and let him know how many people were for or against a particular issue.  That may not sound like much, but think about it this way.  Let's say 500 people write in about one bill, 200 are in favor and 300 oppose.  In the mind of the Congressman this is fairly compelling and he will probably draw generalizations about the feelings of his district based on this information.  One of 500 seems insignificant until you remember that each Congressional district has over 700,000 constituents in it.  You just went from being one in 700,000 to being one in 500.  Not bad.

Finally, some people want to meet their Member of Congress in person.  This usually isn't necessary, but it can be desirable and it is typically very possible because relatively few people want to meet their Member of Congress in person.  The easiest way to meet your representative is to contact his district office and see if he keeps regular office hours when Congress is not in session.  If so, his Scheduler will likely be able to work with you to set up a time for a face to face meeting.  Additionally, most Members of Congress have dozens of events in their district throughout the year, many of which are open to the general public.  The Congressman's district Scheduler will again be able to help you find a time to attend one of these events.

Other tips:

1. Be polite.  Congressional staff are routinely abused by constituents who are angry, incoherent, and demanding.  They're not in charge of anything; indeed, if they're interns, they're likely not even getting paid.  They're just someone's granddaughter who is trying to learn about our system of government and get some office experience over their summer break or through a college program.  Be nice to them.

2.  Know what you're talking about.  Constituents waste large amounts of their own time and Congressional staff time by submitting inquiries about issues that a person should be able to reasonably research on their own.  Chain e-mails, disreputable "news" websites, and plain old rumors can and should be dispelled by doing some background research before calling your Congressman.  Visit Thomas.loc.gov to find out about legislation, including its status in the legislative process.  We'll go into more detail in a future post, but there are thousands of bills introduced in Congress each year.  99% of them are never passed into law or even considered by the full House.  Learn to figure out which bills should worry you and which are dead on arrival.  If you know what you're talking about you will have much more credibility and respect with your representative and his staff.

3. Don't believe everything you hear.  This goes hand in hand with #2.  The world of politics is filled with people who are trying to get what they want and they need your help.  They'll try to enlist you in their cause in any way possible, including with false information.  Make sure that you really support their cause before you call your Congressman or donate money on their behalf.

Please keep in mind that this guide is not comprehensive.  Each Congressional office and Congressman is different.  If you have knowledge of your Member of Congress or his office that you trust then you should tailor your contact based on that information.  This guide is meant to outline how things typically work.

If you have any questions or comments please leave them in the feedback.  I will do my best to be responsive.  

Blog Reborn

I originally started this blog to comment on news items of the day.  I still plan to do that.  However, our nation has plenty of talking heads rattling off their opinions.  Instead of just commenting on the news I plan to offer a series of posts about how the average Tea Party Patriot can better influence Congress, communicate with their representative, and hopefully provide some insight into the inner workings of Congress as events unfold. Also, if anyone has questions please let me know in the comments section.

No promises on how rapid updates will be.  If there is no interest in this I may not keep at it very regularly.