'We are in danger as a nation': House and Senate aides consider leaving 'broken' Congress

30 March 2024

The wave of retirement announcements and sudden resignations by members of the 118th Congress may soon be spreading to lawmakers' staff as well.

Senior-level aides on both sides of the aisle are becoming increasingly frustrated with the ossified, hyper-partisan climate in Washington, DC, according to a Washington Post analysis. The Post's Paul Kane attributed staffers' disgust with working on Congress to not just "pandemic fallout, ranging from partisan battles over mask mandates to the long closure of the buildings to the public," but also "the ongoing toxicity since the January 2021 attack on the Capitol."

"Congress is broken," the nonprofit Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) stated in its 2024 "State of the Congress" report. The report noted that nearly half of senior aides in both chambers of Congress are considering leaving their jobs because of "heated rhetoric from the other party."

"Only 12% of Democrats and 31% of Republicans agreed that 'Congress is currently functioning as a democratic legislature should,'" the group wrote. "There has been no change or improvement of this metric since 2022."

Despite measures in recent years to increase the budgets of the 535 congressional offices from roughly $500 million to more than $800 million per year — thus increasing the pay of the most senior-level staffers to roughly $200,000 per year (elected members themselves have been making the same $170,000 salary since 2009) — tensions remain high. Nonprofit congressional resource Legistorm, which tracks hiring in the House and Senate, reported that staff retention rates are still at near-record lows this century despite a slight 4% year-over-year increase.

An identical number of staffers for both Democratic and Republican members of Congress said that the mental and emotional toll from their jobs was also a significant source of stress. Kane wrote that four in 10 staffers frequently experienced "direct insulting or threatening messages" while on the job.

"The physical and psychological toll of this place cannot be understated," an unnamed senior aide to a House Democrat told CMF staff. "We are in danger as a nation."

Congress' lack of productivity could also be a contributing factor to staffers' weariness of their jobs. In January, ABC reported that the 118th Congress is on track to be the least productive meeting of the federal legislature in decades, with fewer than three dozen bills passed in its first year. 2023 marked the first time since the Great Depression that a meeting of Congress passed so few bills in its first year.

"This is the most ineffective congress that we have seen," Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois) said at the time.

According to Ballotpedia's count, a whopping 50 members of the 118th Congress have announced they will not be seeking another term in office. This includes eight US Senators (five Democrats, two Republicans, one independent) and 42 members of the House of Representatives (23 Democrats, 19 Republicans). The latest departures are Rep. Annie Kuster (D-New Hampshire), and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin). Gallagher not only announced he wouldn't be running for another term, but would leave the House entirely on April 19.

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