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This from @NewAmerica on Congressional staffing, brain drain & its effects on democracy is useful. I agree with most of it - we need to pay interns, need more diversity, etc - but wanted to point out a few areas where my take is a bit different. Thread! https://www.newamerica.org/political-reform/reports/congressional-brain-drain/congressional-staffers-job-satisfaction-career-trajectories-and-compensation
First, regarding this point - that members invest in communications now instead of policy because all they want to do is tweet for clout instead of write bills (being glib) - I have to say I mostly disagree.
Members do chase social media. But also, increasingly lawmaking is an exercise btwn Congressional leadership, negotiated in private before a package is dropped right before we fall off a cliff. Rank-and-file legislating is just less of a thing. Why not invest in communications?
Also, the piece points to the dangers of how low pay & grueling hours pushes people to K Street to become lobbyists. Yes and no, and also it's kind of even worse than that.
Pay for early career staff is *way* too low, but once you start to acquire the knowledge that's really valuable to K Street, the pay is pretty good. You can live comfortably in DC. The decision to move to lobbying is more of a temperament/values thing than an economic imperative.
I'm more concerned about short-staffing. Lobbyists ghostwrite hearing questions, briefing memos, letters to regulators, even legislation. When staff are strapped for time and stressed out, they rely more on people who can do their work for them.
In general, I'd like to just have more staff. Not only to broaden reach & expertise, but to give staff more time to be real humans. If you're in the Capitol complex 70 hours a week, you're not reading or doing much to engage with the world. I think that's bad for policy.
I would also invest in hiring non-traditional people to be on the Hill. Historians. Data scientists. Artists. All sorts of people have skills that would be beneficial to legislating and communicating ideas to the public. A bunch of West Wing fan-types encourages groupthink.
I'd also invest a ton in technology. Congress doesn't own a Bloomberg terminal. They can't get a lot of journal articles. Technical industry publications are unaffordable for office most budgets. They need more and better tools to do their jobs.
Finally, invest invest invest in caseworkers. The amount of money these unsung staffers return to constituents will shock you. They help people get their benefits and get redress from companies that take their money. We should have 10x the caseworkers in Congress IMHO. <end>
