The Modified Servant Model

By DON ROLLINS

Two point five years. That was it. That was the average length of tenure among federal congressional aides for 2022 — down six tenths of a point from 2021. Sixty percent were age 35 and under, and 88% identified as White non-Hispanic.

Taken together these statistics describe a culture of perpetual turnover and racial disparity no worthwhile business would touch, let alone proliferate across generations.

Yet history tells us these realities are nothing new, and have long existed within all three branches of government: George Washington famously appointed non- and Indigenous Americans to impressively titled government positions which were in fact entry level, poorly compensated and dead end.

Clearly, today’s more than 17,000 congressional aides labor within this same shameful tradition. As noted in a 2021 series of studies coordinated by Partner for Public Service/Alliance for Congress, addressing the situation largely falls to the US Congress itself. Which is another way of saying there’s not an ice cube’s chance in hell any substantial changes are in the works.

Defenders of the status quo (within and without Congress) are quick to pivot when confronted with the overall conditions. They routinely cite the more equitable salaries and benefits packages reserved for the longest serving aides, canceling any attempts to place those figures in the context of the full workforce.

Worse yet, some guardians of this unjust system invoke faux patriotism to justify their position: Serving one’s country is the highest of callings, and sacrifice is to be expected. Be glad you’re even here.

The Partner/Alliance studies showed little buy in from the surveyed Capitol Hill staff. Cherrypicked statistics and flag waving appeared nowhere when they were asked about their lived experience. What did:

• Congress is dysfunctional, complicating otherwise simple functions;

• Staff levels are down from previous eras;

• The COVID pandemic and Jan. 6 insurrection multiplied stress levels;

• Technology is outdated across many agencies, departments and offices;

• Compensation is far below the cost of living in the D.C. area;

• Staff diversity is higher than ever, yet well short of targeted numbers;

• Confidence in supervisors and colleagues is regularly lacking.

The studies conclude with some practical if optimistic remedies:

• Call for a healthier, less egotistical, less divided Congress;

• Invest in trained, experienced, open minded supervision;

• Develop and fund best-practice staff recruiting;

• Nurture collaboration with staff across the isle;

• Constantly update technologies, and how to operate them.

This and related research are clarion calls for rethinking the role and needs of congressional aides in the modern era. The modified indentured servant model is being called into question among the academic set, but odds are those with the power to begin a true cultural shift aren’t listening.

What you and I can do is work the congressional gears on behalf of the real life people behind the studies, polls and surveys. There’s rich irony in that we’ll be writing and talking to those we most want to support: aides.

Related postscript: We mark the passing of Hubert “Bertie” Bowman, who for more than 60 years served as an aide to the US Congress. He was the longest serving African American in that role, and set the standard for how to be a grownup when everybody else in the room is behaving like a spoiled brat on a sugar high.

Don Rollins is a retired Unitarian Universalist minister in Jackson, Ohio. Email donaldlrollins@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, December 15, 2023

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