How Many Congressional Personal Staff Work in DC Versus Districts and States?
House members and Senators have personal staff who may be assigned to work in DC or back in their home districts and states. The below charts break-out data on these… Read More
How Many Congressional Staff Are There?
Graphic by the R Street Institute based upon Congressional Research Service data. Data excludes officers and officials of the chambers (e.g., chaplains). Congressional Staff, 1987-2014 This blog post and the… Read More
House Spending Data Shows Where the Staff Are
As DemandProgress’ Daniel Schuman reports, the House just began publishing its spending reports online as data. The House’s “Statements of Disbursement,” which show who how much money… Read More
Spending on Congressional Staff Is Less Than Lobbying Expenditures
“The entire House and Senate combined now spend less on staff ($2 billion a year) than corporations spend on reported lobbying ($2.6 billion a year). But since that reported… Read More
Senate Does Not Raise Staff Salaries
Senate appropriators did not follow the House’s lead and increase funding for personal staff…(Read more at RollCall.com) Meanwhile, a recent report by the Congressional Research Service shows… Read More
House Appropriators Approve Small Pay Raise for Personal Staff
Something remarkable happened a week ago: a committee in Congress voted to spend a little bit more money on congressional staff. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., offered the amendment to… Read More
Trends in Congressional and Support Agency Staffing
Lee Drutman and Steven Teles’ article, “A New Agenda for Political Reform,” include charts showing the decline in the number of staff….(Read more at Washington Monthly). This… Read More
To Be Effective Legislators, Members of Congress Need Expert Resources of Their Own
Professor James Curry (University of Utah) is the author of Legislating in the Dark: Information and Power in the House of Representatives (University of Chicago Press, 2015). He writes: “Public… Read More
Should Congress Pay Staff Overtime?
In the Hill, Veronique de Rugy writes: “Five million salaried workers will be directly impacted by the Obama administration’s decision to expand overtime pay mandates. Under this new rule, salaried… Read More