Who pays the salary or wages of a Congressman/woman's office staff?

[liberalnurse]

The office staff of a Congressman/woman would include clerical members and their advisers......Who pays their wages? Do they have benefits?

[larrysh]

1. I would think taxpayers pay their staffs......

[cali]

2. We do

and yes, they have excellent benefits.

[napi21]

3. YOU & I DO! Each Congressman and Senator is allowed to

have so many staffers, and I know the Leaders are permitted a few more than the others. IMO, they have too many! I checked once, a while ago, and I think it's 25 per congressman. Do YOU have any idea how many staffers that is bebopping aroung the house and the seante?????

[LiberalFighter]

5. There is a limit on staffers but budget plays a factor too

They are given a budget based on constituents and other criteria in their state/district. The elected official decides how the budget will be divied up for salaries and other expenses.

[Catchawave]

6. 25 per congressman

may include home offices too ?

[sallyseven]

7. 24 max. yes it does include home offices

20 regular full time split between the home state offices and 4 part time. They get a budget and they have to pay for these people out of that budget. The people get health benefits and insurance but they pay a portion of the health benefits. When the member leaves or gets fired by the people the employee loses the job. No transfer.

[napi21]

9. That still seems like a very big staff to me!

How many people can it possibly take to run their home office? 2 or 3 at the most? That leaves a lot to workin DC, doesn't it? I hadjobs inthe past where I was doing every bit as much as these guys or more, and I sure never had a staff of 20+!

I would bet anyone on Du would tell you the same!

[karynnj]

11. I've watched some of the Senate hearing and I can see

why they need staffs of that size. On any day the Senate is in session, a Senator may have several concurrent hearings. Each week the Senate is in session, one person in the Kerry group posts the lists of hearing for all the committees he is on. There have been days where he has three concurrent sessions. Even the Kerry group people do not think the Senator can be in three places at the same time. (side note - this is why when you hear Senator X missed n% of meetings for the X committee.)

What we have seen when we click in to watch (on line) is that staffers for Senators attend the meetings to get information. They also may pass relevent documents or other information to the Senators. We've seen Kerry enter a hearing half way through, explaining to the witnesses that he was at another hearing - but his staff had briefed him on what was covered so he could avoid repeating questions already asked.

This uses Kerry as an example. It is likely true of all Senators. My guess is that on any issue the Senator writes an amendment on requires a lot of research to look at alternatives. I would assume a good Senator has to be a good manager who can marshall the skills and intelect of his staff.

I have never had a job as complicated, difficult or demanding as that of being a good Senator. I have no idea what jobs you've had, but I think you underestimate the work.

[ISUGRADIA]

12. More than a few in a district office

Staffers arrange local events, attend local on behalf of the mamber, do casework and a myriad of other tasks so 2-3 would be an impossible number. And in DC try addressing several thousand pieces of correspandance a month, dealing with the press, issue research and committe work. Staffs are normally smaller than needed and staffers put in a hell of a lot of hours, most for crappy pay.

[liberalnurse]

10. I had to step away for a minute...I'm at work.

So, the salary is a Federal ...that's great! I was curious as I thought maybe the Congressman/woman had to come-up with the funds from their state....I was hoping they had a Government Budget for these things.


What is the pay scale? Is it a GS thing????? You know, like the VA Medical Center employees???? What level to they range from????

[salib]

4. We do? GOOD!

Better that than K-Street.

It is OUR Government. So, we should make sure that it represents us and we must have the responsibility to PAY FOR IT.

Otherwise, we just head down the road of the reactionary tax hater.

[fed-up]

8. I think they ALL needed a DUer on staff to research yellow cake/aluminum

tubes/Sadam's WMD capability etc

There was tons of info out their, but somehow they managed to never find or acknowledge it.

Just think, we would NOT be in IRAQ if a few more congresspeople had some of their staffers do some actual F*CKING research before they gave Georgie their consent to declare war against a country that NEVER attacked us.

Just what the hell were their staffers doing during that time????

Now we need them to research TORTURE and Repub spending practices, and the true state of the economy and get that info to the public before the elections


the staffers may "work" for a specific congressperson, but in reality they are paid with OUR TAXPAYER DOLLARS!



sorry, just needed to rant a little today...