The Grand Illusion
And you wonder why I have to curb my desire to lecture?” (July 31st, 2024) So, please don’t curb such desire. You describe a politician’s small office staffing in your “Grand Illusion” series. Please expand on your experiences in the US Congress; specifically the elements/expertise that usually makes up the staff of a U.S. Representative’s office staff and/or a U.S. Senator’s office staff. How/why are these people chosen by the politician?
After the rather poor reception of /The Green Progression, I doubt that I’ll write about contemporary or even near future U.S. politics. Since I know something about staffing a U.S. Representative’s staff, I can give you a general outline of the key personnel, at least at the time I was a staff director. Usually, the head of the office is the staff director, once called the A.A.(administrative assistant). Then most offices have a media/press aide, a legislative assistant, a chief caseworker, and the appointments/personal secretary to the Representative. These positions can overlap. When I was in charge of the office, I was effectively the head legislative assistant. My successor as staff director was the press/media aide. There is almost always an office in the district (sometimes two in large rural districts), with several staff members there. As I recall (it was 40 years ago), the total number of employees was 18 (including those in district offices), but there was also a total salary cap for staffers. Unpaid interns didn’t count against the cap; so there were usually a few of those, but not that many, because the D.C. employees had to fit into two staff rooms. There were usually other staffers with assorted duties. For new Congressmen or Congresswomen, usually a few campaign aides ended up as staff, depending on abilities. Others are picked for needed expertise. Salaries and duties are determined by the Representative, and the only real limits are the number of staff and the total staff pay ceiling.
Thank you.
A Member of Congress would not know which committees they would be assigned so the staffer with the necessary expertise would not be hired before the member arrived in DC.
As you state the member’s office would need a staff director, a media/press aide, a legislative assistant, a chief caseworker, and the appointments/personal secretary for the member right from the start.
I would guess that the fluctuation in staff would be at the legislative assistant and case worker positions. Legislative assistants would be the people familiar with the various control points in the path for bills formed in the office, reviewed by the member, or tabulated as to stage of progress in the committee, house or senate?
What are the case worker responsibilities?
Caseworkers mostly deal with problems individual constituents have with federal departments and agencies, generally where people feel the bureaucracy has made mistakes or where they can’t seem to find how to find answers or someone to address their problems… or to expedite agency responses when there’s real urgency. It’s s position that has occasional rewards and a lot of frustration.
I still cannot understand the comment about The Green Progression. Yes it did not sell well but I agree with this review:
Anchor Ranch Farmers
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most under-rated books ever
Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2007
Verified Purchase
This book is just as good as Modesitt’s more recent sci fi works. It has been one of the worst-selling books of all time because of the distressing tendency of sci-fi snobs to equate “science fiction” only with “space opera”. The Green Progression is a fictional story in which the science features as a major component of the story.
The authors display a distressing yet amusing insight into Beltway bureaucracy. The story contains all of the moral and ethical questions that make Modesitt’s writing so much more valuable than the standard good guys vs. bad guys tale.
Jonnie Black and Jack McDarvid are characters just as interesting and well-developed as Doktor Eschbach. It is a shame that the book didn’t sell better so that the authors could get a contract to write a sequel.