Underappreciating our Elected Representatives

People Don't Understand What the Job Entails; It's Not as Glamorous as You Think

People tend to look at being a Representative or Senator as glamorous. Getting elected is a massive popularity contest; when people say “You should run for…” what they are really saying is “You’re really liked!” Getting elected to Congress in their eyes is getting the key to the kingdom! You’re making good money, hobnobbing with celebrities, always on television, a household name.¹ The old stereotype of the fat cat with a cigar in one hand, a bourbon in the other with his feet on the desk talking with big money donors dumping tons of cash on them still persists. People all think they don’t work, that everything just magically falls into their laps and all they have to do is push a button yea or nay a few times a week. We look at it the way television and film depicts it as; as powerful figures who control, extort, blackmail, slander, undermine and double cross their way to the top. It’s a simple way of viewing it. In actuality, it’s nothing of the sort.

In the real world, working in a Congressional office is more Office Space than House of Cards. You’d be surprised seeing it first hand; as I write this, on a laptop that is close to its end after 5 years, I can still feel comfortable that it’s probably more up to date than most anything provided in a Congressional office.

As for the life of a Congressperson, I have nothing but pity for them. Growing up and coming out of college, I thought it was what I wanted to do with my life. After seeing it first hand as a staffer for two years all I could think of was getting out and making an alternative career choice. It’s a depressing job that wears on you, your family, and your peace of mind.

A Typical Work Week

During weeks when Congress is not in session, Congresspeople are going around their districts meeting constituent groups, giving town halls, talking with civic leaders and going to city council meetings. These occur at all times of day and all over the district.

When Congress is in session, that’s a whole different kind of marathon. It means flying out on a Monday (or Sunday night) to get to D.C. in preparation for the week. Once arriving, you meet with constituents and issue advocates about particular bills currently being considered; what’s in them and how it impacts your particular district. At some point in the day, you usually take a walk to a location away from the Capitol and Office Buildings to make fundraising calls, because the only way you have job security is by raising a campaign war chest. If you already have one, then you are making phone calls on behalf of others, building up chits and favors that will help you get what you need for your district through Congress. Then there are committee and subcommittee meetings, party caucus meetings, and staff meetings.

You may think that Congressmen spend all their time in fine dining establishments. The fact is most eat snacks and fast food and practically live off the finger food and hors d’oeurves common at the staff receptions in the office buildings. They have to remain close to the Capitol for potential votes and there aren’t very many restaurants close by, other than some local pubs usually overflowing with 2 hour wait reservation times. Occassionally, a savvy hostess will notice the member pin and put them at the front of the line. However, more often than not, its just easier to get fries and a burger, takeout or pizza delivered.²

Although they’re not supposed to, many Congressmen, particularly low in tenure, sleep in their offices. Rents around Capitol Hill are expensive and having to pay for a mortgage back home and an apartment in D.C. (when you are only in the city half the time) seriously limits what is left over. After the reception where they may have had a drink or two, some cheese and crackers and perhaps something substantive if it was a fortunately good reception, they return back to their office or apartment to read through dozens of policy papers, Congressional Research Service analysis, notes from their staff and other assorted papers until late and possibly perhaps make a call or two.

Then it’s Tuesday and they get to do the whole thing over again, along with some likely Committtee and Floor votes mixed in. This cycle happens again, and again, and again, usually 16-20 hour days, until its ready to go back to the home district on Friday. Then when they get back to their district, more work is waiting for them.

They return back home and have to travel the district again, to meet and greets, to parades, to high school football and basketball games to meet people, to “office hours” meetings at coffee shops, diners and libraries and so on. If they are lucky, they get to spend a Sunday with their family. One day, if that. They lose out on seeing their kids during the week, watching them grow, they lose out on spending time with a spouse, they miss everything many of us take for granted about the kinds of lives we aspire to.

And then it’s Monday and they get to do this all over again. Its a soul draining cycle.

The Persistent Pressure

Most of us want to be liked, elected officials most of all.

Imagine taking a job were half of the people hate you from day one (and I don’t just mean they dislike, but genuinely hate you and are very verbal about it, even though they don’t really know anything about you personally) for what you represent, and that half of those do so with a vitriol that would result in people seriously questioning their sanity.

Mind you, this is not just people from your district. This is everyone in America. With the decline of local news and the expansion of national cable coverage, along with the growing polarization nationwide, there is a constant stream of hatred constantly targeted and aimed at your office in D.C.. Calls routinely come in from all over the country.³ Likewise, people often meander the halls of the office buildings advocating for particular issues, and sometimes can be unruly, arrogant and the more performative ones potentially dangerous.⁴ Gabby Giffords and Steve Scalise were actually both shot for essentially doing their jobs and for what their jobs entailed.

Back home, every newspaper in your district, whether weekly or daily, has a constant barrage of (mostly negative) stories and Letters to the Editor talking about the horrible job you are doing. It’s very easy to critcize governmental inaction, particularly when it isn’t even you or your party at fault for it. That doesn’t matter, you’re getting the blame either way. Everyone has an opinion of government and seldom is it ever a positive one.

Lastly, there is something many of us like to refer to as a “personal life.” If you get elected to Congress, good luck finding one. You’re working for the public now and the public tends to decide what is private or not. If you go out for dinner, expect interruptions as people push you to vote on a particular issue one way or another. Watching your son or daughter’s soccer game is going to result in everyone wanting to chat you up and offer their opinions. Everyone you meet is a critic. Your kids?— they’ll get bullied by other kids whose families don’t align with your political position. As more and more activists also find it easier to dox and protest outside elected officials homes now, not only are you unlikely to get some much needed rest, you and your family are unlikely to ever really feel safe.

People Hate Every Congressman Other Than Their Own

It’s an old adage but a true one; people hate every Congressman but their own.

But it’s taken on new meaning as more and more Congesspeople with no real authority or seniority in Congress get more an more attention. People look to early tenured Congresspeople such as AOC, MTG and Lauren Boebert as the norms, as opposed to the exceptions. It’s become so easy to be a bombthrower on cable news and social media that they give a bad name to the ones who just put their heads down, do the work, talk to only local media and get what they need for their districts. The norm is usually someone moe affable, average, intelligent and polite than what you see on cable news. More often than not they look at the extremists on both sides with disdain.

But for those who campaign against sitting Congressmen, its easy to elevate the crazy over the norm and smear the whole side as a “party of AOCs” or a “Cult of MTGs.” Polls show its pretty effective too, pointing at the least approved members and scaring voters with them; that’s why Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell are regularly featured on national ads.

The Staff and Office

Congressional staff often varies based on how long they’ve been there. The more seniority, the more responsibilities, usuallly the more people and more qualified the staff. If you’re a first term Representative, you likely have about 6-9 staff in D.C., maybe another 4 or 5 back home, and most of those are likely young people, right out of college who campaigned for you, working their first job out of college.⁵ Quality of staff varies from some who would fail a high school civics exam to others who could cite you chapter and verse of Roberts Rules of Parliamentary Procedure along with the House and Senate Rules.

Interns are essentially volunteers looking to get their foot in the door. You get a Congressional Internship, congratulations, you’re living in one of the most expensive cities in the country and not making a dime. Most other staff make far from a liveable wage out there.⁶ Chiefs of Staff and Legislative Directors can do nicely, but those jobs go to people who have long tenured experience or know a substantial number of people who can help you get what you need done. Committee Staff can do well too, as well as Leadership staff, but those too the staffers are usually well connected and typically require considerable experience.

Offices also vary with seniority. Nonetheless, starting out at the bottom, you are looking at most likely some cramped quarters, old computers and equipment and horrible locations. The only variation between freshmen legislators is based on where they are in the lottery for offices during orientation. I remember our office had a fax machine (always running out of toner), a very dated printer, computers that were starting to be outdated and a broken coffee maker. I’m sure it’s better now but not likely by a lot. There is just no benefit to investing in Congressional offices, which gets perceived back home as more self-dealing than it is about doing the work for the district and country.

Conclusion— The Trade Off

Yes, there are perks to the job. Congresspeople currently make $174,000, which is pretty good. However, most members of Congress are actually very smart people and from what I saw they could be making a helluva lot more money in the private sector and be much happier than they would as a Member of Congress. Considering these are the people we entrust to help run our country, I know I’m definitely in the minority when I say this positon is critically underpaid.

Yes, Congressional pensions are nice too, but you’d be surprised at how small it is compared to some other pension systems.⁷

When you add it all up, and look at the benefits vrs the rewards, it’s hard to see why anyone who really understands the job would choose to be a Member of Congress. We should be doing more to attract the best and the brightest to take up civic service, and instead, we villify, ridicule, and disparage every aspect of the job.

If only the job lived up to its appeal.

PurpleAmerica Recommended Stories

Regarding how the lack of Congressional pay, limitations on staff, lack of technogical upgrades and decline in quality of Congress collectively, I highly recommend this book that documents many of this, many of the reasons why and offers solutions. “Congress Overwhelmed: The Decline of Congressional Capacity and Prospects for Reform.”

PurpleAmerica’s Cultural Corner

I’d love to say there was some book or movie or show that has ever gotten the Congressional experience right, but there isn’t. Showing what life is actually like for Congresspeople or their staff just doesn’t fit with what people’s expectations of the job really are. They’d rather think of it as a glamorous, fashionable, high paying position that they put on a pedestal. When we say “That person could run for President” it isn’t because we think they would be good at the actual job; most of us really don’t know what the job actually entails. It’s that we can visualize them doing the gestures and going through the motions of what we perceive the job is, and that perception is usually a glamorous one.

In that regard, the reality is as far off from that as it is from what’s portrayed in Idiocracy. And any excuse to play a clip of Idiocracy, I’m going to take.

PurpleAmerica’s Obscure Fact of the Day

The average tenure of a Capitol Hill staffer is only 2 years (one Congressional cycle).

The average tenure for a Member of Congress is 10 years (5 terms).

The average tenure for a Senator is 12 years (2 terms).

PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject

If you ever venture to Washington D.C., I always recommend you visit your Congressperson’s Office in the House Office Buildings. Not only are they usually happy to have people from the district visit, they often have tickets available for various special tours around town.

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Footnotes and Fun Stuff

1. I always find that laughable. Most people wouldn’t recognize their own Congressperson if they were standing next to them. The “famous” ones are usually famous for being Congressional leadership or otherwise for entirely the wrong reasons. Usually the more attention you get as a Congressperson, the more things are going wrong.

2. There is a Congressional cafeteria in the basement of one of the office buildings. One of the nicest members of Congress I ever met was Senator Herb Kohl (WI-D) who would prefer to sit in there than mingle with many of the other Senators. There were many times I saw him sitting by himself, having a coffee, reading the Washington Post, unbothered by everyone going about their day.

3. Although the only ones Congresspeople genuinely care about are in their own districts. When people call from outside the district, they are much more likely to get hung up on without so much as a response. Somewhat tangentially, if you genuinely want a response from a Congressional Office, my suggestion is to write a personal letter and send it in; emails and phone calls, particularly the ones that are scripted, tend to be ignored more often, replied to with a form letter and seldom even get viewed by the member. Personal letters often do, and occasionally get personal replies as well.

4. Capitol Hill security has gotten much tighter since I was out there, particularly after 9/11. Nonetheless, getting into an office building to meet with a Congressperson is relatively simple (metal detectors and screeeners) and after that many tend to linger and try to lobby other offices as well.

5. This was me. Looking back, I was wholly underqualified for what was coming my way, but it was a great learning experience.

6. The salaries of staffers can be downright galling at times. I knew of some Senate staff making practically minimum wage. The reason is very simple. There are high demand for the jobs and they know that most of the staff are easily replaceable. Thankfully, it has generally improved since 2000, but for the amount of work and for what they have to deal with regularly, it’s still considerably low.

7. This new plan was enacted as the Federal Employees' Retirement Act of 1986. This act created the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), under which new Members of Congress are currently covered. When the FERS program went into effect, all Members elected in 1984 or later were automatically enrolled in the new plan. More senior Members were free to remain under the CSRS or enroll in the new FERS plan. The FERS program takes into account the years served and the average pay for the top three years in terms of payment. For example, a member elected before 1984 and thus qualifying under the CSRS plan, who worked for 22 years and who had a top three-year average salary of $154,267 would be eligible for a pension payment of $84,847 per year. A member elected after 1984 (which is most all of Congress at this point) would have been enrolled under the FERS plan, and their pension payment under similar conditions ($154,267 top three-year average salary, would be $52,451, a third of what it was previously.