Why Members of Congress Are Sending Their Staffers Home

[DonViejo]

Powerless in Washington, a rising number of freshmen are cutting policy jobs and instead hiring in their districts.

By Scott Bland - January 12, 2014

Freshman Rep. Eric Swalwell of California was 3,000 miles from Washington when he scored one of the greatest successes of his congressional career.

In his East Bay district, knocking on constituents' doors, Swalwell met a man who said he hadn't heard from his brother in the Philippines in days, since Typhoon Haiyan hit the islands. The Democratic congressman took down the man's phone number and called him back with information about the State Department's hotline for locating missing relatives.

At the same time, Swalwell realized that many more Filipinos in his district probably had similar problems. "Within hours," Swalwell says, "we put up on our Facebook and Twitter the phone numbers you can call through the State Department to find family members. Within 72 hours, we sent out 6,000 letters" targeted to Filipino constituents. Swalwell stuffed some of the envelopes himself.

Congress didn't have a great session. It passed fewer laws in 2013 than in any other year with a recorded total. And what little legislation did move was the product of the new norm in the congressional process—a deal brokered behind closed doors by leadership or its surrogates.

For first-term lawmakers, such congressional inaction can be toxic and potentially career-ending. With almost no chance to make a mark or score a single legislative achievement, freshmen have little opportunity to show voters that they are working on their district's behalf.

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http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/why-members-of-congress-are-sending-their-staffers-home-20140112