Groups Call on Congress: Fund Your Staff

The average Hill staffer stays for only about three years, with many moving to become lobbyists.

Groups Call on Congress: Fund Your Staff
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) walks through Statuary Hall as he arrives for a bipartisan meeting about police reform legislation on Capitol Hill May 18, 2021 in Washington, DC.

With lobbying at near-record highs in Washington D.C., good government groups are calling for Congress to restore its legislative capacity by better funding its own operations, slowing staff turnover and enhancing diversity.

This week, 30 organizations and 11 congressional experts sent a bipartisan letter to Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the new chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, and committee ranking member Rep. Kay Granger, a Republican from Texas, proposing a return to the higher funding levels that the House had in 2010.

Led by the progressive organization Demand Progress and the conservative group Lincoln Network, the letter draws attention to the decreased funding support for the House’s work: members’ office budgets are down 20% when adjusted for inflation, and committee funding is down by over 21%.

Full post at The Brick House Cooperative.