Congressional staff

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congressional staff are employees of the United States Congress or individual congressman.

Video Congressional staff

History

Before the American Civil War, members of Congress lacked the help of staff or even the office, and "most members worked on their desks on the floor."

In 1891, the Congress had a total of 146 staff members: 37 Senate personal staff, 39 senate committee staff, and 62 parliamentary committee staff (37 of whom only worked during congress sessions). The House of Representatives first approved the personal staff for the Representative in 1893. At the beginning of the 20th century, congress staff had become a well-accepted feature of congressional operation.

In 1943, the House committees employed 114 staff members, while the Senate committees employed 190 staff members. The personal staff size of each member is still relatively small, with the senator having an average of six staff and the limited representation has five staff. In the 1946 Legislative Reorganization Act, which reformed the Congress and greatly reduced the number of congressional committees, Congress firmly authorized professional permanent committee staff for the first time. This law provides much needed improvement in committee staff, enabling up to four professional staff members and six administrative staff for each fixed committee, except for the allocation committee (which has no limits on the number of staff members). The 1946 Act also reorganized the Library of Congress and created the Legislative Reference Service (which later became the Congressional Research Service) as a different entity. The size of the personal staff and committees increased rapidly after the passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act. After a significant increase in 1947, there was a gradual growth in the number of both types of staff for about twenty years. Increased specialization of staff also occurred during this slow growth period (ie, staff began to be divided into roles of press, legislature, and casework).

In the 1970s, there was another sharp spike in staff numbers. This is a "partly to increase workload and partly for confrontation with the executive branch on a range of issues, including Presidential arrest and Watergate crises." Political scientist Morris P. Fiorina, in his book Congress: Keystone of the Washington Establishment , found that the number of congressional staff more than doubled between 1960 and 1974. This increase mostly occurs in district or state offices. ; the percentage of congressional staff working in the district office increased from 14% in 1960 to 34% in 1974.

In the 1970s and 1990s, "the number of staff was generally detained and the increases continued to be suppressed." After 1995, staff numbers declined slightly.

Maps Congressional staff

Type of staff member

C-SPAN classifies staff members into five categories:

• Personal staff , working for each member of Congress
• Committee staff , serving the majority or minority in the congressional committee
• Leadership staff, working for speakers, majority and minority leaders, and majority and minority whips in the House of Representatives, and minority and minority leaders and minority assistants and minority leaders in the Senate
• Institutional Staff , including majority or minority floor staff and non-partisan staff such as Capitol Police, Capitol Architects (facilities and maintenance employees), and legislative staff.
• Supporting agency staff , non-partisan employees of the Congressional Research Service (CRS), Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and Government Accountability Office (GAO).

In 2000, there were 11,692 private staff, 2,492 staff committees, 274 leadership staff, 5,034 institutional staff, and 3,500 GAO employees, 747 CRS employees, and 232 CBO employees.

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Personal staff

In 2000, each Representative employs 14 staff members, while the Senator averages 34. In 2000, the Representative has a limit of 18 permanent staff and four part-time staff; Senators have no restrictions on staff. The budget for staff is determined by the country's population; Senators from California, the most populous state, get more money for staff than Senators from Wyoming, the most populous state. Members may choose how to distribute staff between their offices in Washington and the offices or offices of the United States district congress office.

The Congressional Management Foundation (CMF), a nonprofit and nonprofit organization based in Washington, conducted a survey on congressional salaries. The table below provides the average annual salary in 2000. Also below is the annual salary list and number of staff with certain positions in 2009 computed by Daniel Schuman of the Sunlight Foundation. The figures are taken from the House Disbursement Statement Letter from 1 July 2009 to 30 September 2009.

Quarterly earnings multiplied by four to get an annual salary, so data eliminates bonuses and does not take into account staff who are not working throughout the quarter; staff carrying different positions for the same job, or staff who changed jobs during the quarter. The graph also removes committee staff and a number of positions that can not be easily classified or have fewer than 50 people.

Not all offices have the same type of organization, and different titles can be used for jobs that are substantially similar. The public works are:

• Chief of staff : The highest-ranking legislative staff and usually the highest paid in the offices of members of Congress, usually head of office operations, reporting directly to members. Supervise a dozen or more other employees. Some chiefs of staff are charged with personnel decisions and policy initiatives. From time to time a chief of staff may be based in the district office, but they are almost always found on the Capitol ("on the Hill"). Chiefs of staff are usually highly experienced political staff, often with previous years working at Hill, or personal friends Members. Some of the previous staff chiefs were campaign managers.
• Vice-Chief of Staff : Reported to the Chief of Staff.
The Legislative Director (LD), senior legislative assistant (SLA), or legislative coordinator (LC) is the person who oversees the legislative staff, including all legislative and correspondent assistants. There is usually one in every office.
• Legislature correspondent : Responsible for composing letters in response to comments and questions of constituents and also generally responsible for some legislative issues. According to the Dirksen Congressional Center, most House offices have one or two, while senators have three to five, depending on the population of their state.
• Press secretary or communications director : Responsible for Member relations with the media; is the local and national press liaison; press release issue.
• Field workers or constituent service representatives : Responsible for helping constituents deal with issues related to federal agencies. For example, social workers help individuals get veteran benefits, assistance with Social Security and Medicare, and resolve immigration issues. Social workers can also provide mediation services to constituents and obtain government information and publications.

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Staff Committee

Each congressional committee has staff, of varying sizes. Appropriations for committee staff are made in the annual legislative design bill. Majority and minority members hire their own staff except on two elected committees in every home - Official Behavior Standards Committee and Fixed Select Committee on Intelligence in Parliament and Select Committee on Ethics and Senate Committees Select on Intelligence in the Senate. These committees have one staff member.

In 2000, House committees had an average of 68 staff and an average Senate committee of 46. The committee staff included both the staff director, the committee committee, the committee's investigator, the press secretary, the head of the clerks and the office manager, schedules, document clerks, and assistants.

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Safety and security

Like members of Congress, congressional staff are sometimes subjected to violence or threats of violence. Between 1789 and 2011, there were five incidents affecting several congressional staff with members of Congress. The following recorded violent incidents against congressional staff have taken place:

• In 1905, "Doc" Thompkins, private secretary for Representative John M. Pinckney from Texas, was wounded in a riot where congressmen were killed.
• In 1935, Earle Christenberry, secretary of Senator Huey Pierce Long of Louisiana, opened a parcel (unexploded) bomb.
• In 1978, Jackie Speier, then a staffer to Representative Leo Joseph Ryan of California, was badly wounded by a gunshot wound in an attack in Guyana, where Ryan was killed.
• 1998 shooting incidents in the United States Capitol: In 1998, two Capitol Police officers were killed by an armed man.
• The 2011 Tucson Shooting: In 2011, a Jared Lee Loughner gunman attacked a public event held by Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona in Tucson. Six people were killed, including Gabriel Matthew Zimmerman, Gifford staff member. Thirteen others were injured, including Giffords and two of his staff members, Ron Barber and Pamela Simon.
• 2017 Congressional baseball shoot: In 2017, an armed man attacks Republican congressmen and others who train in Alexandria, Virginia for Congressional Baseball Matches. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and several others were wounded, including two Capitol Police officers; a staff member for Representative Roger Williams; and former members of the congress and lobby staff.

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Note

Source of the article : Wikipedia