Staff and Support Agencies

Chapter 5: The Organization of Congress

Congressional Staff Role

• Staff members do most of the important work on legislation

• Lawmakers rely on their staff for:– Handling the growing workload of Congress– Communicating with voters– Helping with committee hearings– Drafting new bills– Helping with reelection

Congressional Staff Growth

Personal Staff

• Personal Staff members work directly for individual senators and representatives.

• Both houses receive an allowance for staff.– Lawmakers can hire and fire staff members at will.

• Administrative Assistants (AA):– The AA runs the lawmaker’s office, supervises the

lawmaker’s schedule and gives advice on political matters.

– Deals with important people from lawmaker’s district or state.

Personal Staff

• Legislative Assistants (LA):– Makes certain the lawmaker is well informed

about the many bills with which she or he must deal.

– Also assist with committee meetings & track the work that is taking place on the floor.

• Caseworkers:– Staff members that handle the requests from

people in the lawmaker’s state or district.

Committee Staff

• Every committee and subcommittee in Congress has staff members.

• Committee staffers:– Draft bills -- study issues– Collect info --write memos– Plan hearings --write reports

• Too much power?

Support Agencies

• The Library of Congress– Created in 1800– One of the largest libraries in the world– Contains more than 100 million items• Including: books, journals, music, films, photos, & maps

• Congressional Budget Office (CBO)– Established 1974– Coordinates the budget-making work of Congress

Library of Congress

Support Agencies

• General Accounting Office (GAO)– Established 1921– Nation’s watchdog over spending of funds Congress

appropriates.

• Government Printing Office (GPO)– The largest multi-purpose printing plant in the world,

prints for the entire federal government– Prints: Statistical Abstract of the United States every

year since 1878.• Also, Congressional Record (daily)