STAFF NEWS: Conservative Groups Push for Hill Staff Pay Hikes
A coalition of conservative advocacy groups is pushing Republican leaders on the Senate Appropriations Committee to support measures to increase funding and staffing resources to revive congressional oversight and to improve compensation for Hill aides.
In a lengthy letter to Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN), the top GOPer on the appropriations panel’s subcommittee on legislative branch operations, the coalition pointed to increasing the budget for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) — the investigative arm of Congress — as a first step and called for better staff pay:
“GAO is particularly deserving of increased resources. As the primary Congressional watchdog, GAO has historically yielded an enormous return on investment. Spending just $656 million in 2020, the GAO estimated that their ‘work yielded about $77.6 billion in financial benefits — a return of about $114 for every dollar invested.’
Such A Deal:
“As a nonpartisan agency, GAO is also perfectly positioned to provide concrete results during a time of hyper-partisanship and gridlock. Given their track record for effective oversight and substantial savings, Congress should fully fund the GAO’s $744.3 million request for FY 2022.
“Another area requiring additional investment is congressional staffing. As numerous reports have shown, Congress is understaffed and overworked, leading to high turnover and brain drain. In fact, total staff levels for the House of Representatives have dropped 14 percent since 2009, and most staff positions in House member offices turn over every two years.
“Retaining experienced staff is essential to promoting effective legislating and oversight, and a lack of investment in staffing has enabled the transfer of many Article I authorities to the Executive Branch. If Congress is to stand up to the administrative state without being outmanned and outgunned, it must invest in the staff that bring the experience and authority required.”
Members of the Coalition:
Members of the coalition include Zach Graves, head of policy for the Lincoln Network, Jonathan Bydlak, director of the governance program for the R Street Institute, Berin Szoka, president of TechFreedom, Jon Schweppe, director of policy for the American Principles Project, Kevin R. Kosar, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Roslyn Layton, co-founder of China TechThreat, and Jason Pye, director of rule of law initiatives at the Due Process Institute.
The officials who signed the letter did so in their individual capacities and not as representatives of their employing organizations. As it happens, however, the organizations with which the signers are associated are generally supportive of bolstering staff pay and other measures to restore the efficiency and oversight effectiveness of Congress.
Historically, Democrats have been more open than Republicans to measures like increasing staffing and improving pay, but the coalition’s letter is the latest evidence that GOP support for muscling up Congress against the other two branches is steadily increasing. Staff numbers and compensation are likely to be beneficiaries if the trend continues.