Congressional Workplace Fairness and Inclusion

To reduce the power of special interests, Congress needs expert staff.

Our research on the decades-long defunding of the Legislative branch makes it clear that Congress needs to appropriate funds to pay staff more; improve benefits and work conditions for staff; and commit to equity for interns. When Congress pays its staff and interns appropriately, it removes personal wealth as a precondition for public service. It improves the First Branch’s ability to recruit and retain a representative workforce that can better serve the needs of the American people.

The Revolving Door

Personnel is policy — and currently, the financial incentives for members of Congress and congressional staff encourage personnel to flow from government to the private sector where their expertise and connections are invaluable to corporations.

This constant churn of a transient congressional workforce gives lobbyists and special interest groups disproportionate leverage over policy.

We’re working to close the revolving door and rebuild the institution’s capacity to govern by improving pay and benefits for congressional staff and interns, securing all congressional staff the right to collectively bargain, investing in staff diversity, strengthening the Legislative branch support agencies, and more.

We’ve had some significant wins on this front — including increased funding for congressional staff salaries and new mandates for both chambers to pay their staff at least a living wage — but there’s more work to do. Stay in the loop by subscribing to our newsletter.

Union Rights for Congressional Staff

We played an instrumental role in pressuring Congress to let House staff unionize, and are extending our efforts to the Senate.

Between exposure to COVID-19, ongoing threats of political violence, overwork, and underpay, many congressional staff reached their breaking points in 2022. The Dear White Staffers Instagram account propelled their anonymous stories about toxic workplace conditions to the fore, and Congress faced more public scrutiny.

We offered a policy solution — congressional unionization — which we helped push onto the political radar by educating Congress and the media about a long-forgotten provision in a Gingrich-era law that eventually paved the way for House staff to unionize, just as other Legislative branch staff had decades ago.

Throughout the House union drive,

• we kept a public tally of which lawmakers supported the resolution to approve the 1990’s-era regulation extending unionization rights to congressional staff;
• organized a broad coalition to keep the pressure on congressional leadership, testified to Congress;
• provided analyses of the process, kept readers of our First Branch Forecast newsletter consistently updated;
• informed the press about what we knew; and
• collected and published all the relevant documents.

The House adopted its resolution in the 117th Congress, the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights instituted corresponding regulations in July 2022, and several House offices unionized soon after.

While we defend the House union rights from attack and track ongoing House unionization efforts, we are also leading the call for the Senate to adopt a similar resolution to grant Senate staff the same protections.

We continuously educate staff and the media about their rights to organize, and published Unions in the House of Representatives in the 118th Congress and Union Organizing Rights on Capitol Hill, primers authored by former counsel from the congressional office responsible for implementing House union rules.

We’re working to extend these rights to all congressional staff, including joint committee staff, and support the Congressional Workers Union and the Congressional Progressive Staff Association in coalition efforts.

When congressional staff have a seat at the bargaining table, it results in higher wages, better benefits, and a healthier workplace. That’s good for the sake of our democracy.

Promoting Diversity

Members of Congress and their staff must be reflective of the diversity of our nation. Both chambers must invest in hiring staff from diverse backgrounds and leveling the playing field for staff and interns by providing robust benefits packages. Thanks in part to our advocacy, the House has taken strides to diversify Congress:

It’s past time for the Senate to establish an equivalent office committed to staff equity that could carry out a study of Senate diversity, something we’ve long advocated. (Currently, data is only available for Senate Democrats.) Especially considering that less than six percent of top staffers in the personal offices of senators in the beginning of the 118th Congress were people of color.

Good benefits for staff and interns improve retention and allow people with a variety of life experiences to work in Congress. Updating the House Rules is one good potential vehicle for these changes, but not the only option. We have long championed addressing insufficient child care resources available to staff, and also support providing a need-based stipend for congressional interns.

We continue to make the case to Congress to improve the pathway for more diverse staff to work in the Legislative branch through better employment tracking, including reporting and analysis trends based on information from the House Office on Diversity and Inclusion and the Senate Democratic Diversity Initiative.

Our bipartisan report with the Foundation for American Innovation (formerly known as the Lincoln Network) included a recommendation about the value of keeping the House Office of Diversity and Inclusion in the House.

Unfortunately, the future of this office is in limbo, as House Republicans are seeking to dismantle and defund it as part of a systemic effort to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion offices across the federal government. That said, there is a good chance its work will continue under direction of the Chief Administrative Officer.