“I had no idea how to run a congressional office”

Rarely does one hear such an open expression of ignorance and/or honesty by a member of Congress. The reason for this book was expressed by a Republican Blake Farenthold on 15 December 2017 on page A 16 of the New York Times. “I have never served in public office before. I had no idea how to run a congressional office, and as a result I allowed a workplace culture to take root in my office that was too permissive and decidedly unprofessional.” Mr. Farenthold was resigning at this time from Congress amidst charges of sexual harassment.

This should be the lead line in a book. It is the most honest expression of the truth of the root of many of the problems faced by the Congress and by the American people today, as their government flies into dysfunction. The candidates and/or elected officials who read this will be able to see with clarity the depth and complexity of the problems they face in dealing with the problems of the people. Personal problems whether social or financial, get hopelessly entangled in the effort to solve the peoples’ problems through the process of legislation. Most people looking at the Congress don’t want to look at the human problems that affect the behavior of their elected officials. On the one hand the public tries to put public officials on a pedestal. Almost instantly after they have put the public official on the pedestal they begin to point out his or her feet of clay. The process of destroying the elected official begins almost the day after the election as people look for evidence that the government is corrupt or cannot be trusted to deal with problems which other people face.

The central themes of politics: money, sexual relations and the use and abuse of power are rarely discussed on human basis. They come to light and are generally used as bludgeons to destroy a politician in the next election or before. The understanding of these issues is hopelessly naïve and simplistic. But we will try to do in this blog is to lay out what it is that a congressman faces and how he or she can best deal with it.

Just for a moment consider for yourself the set of problems you would face as a new Member of Congress. The old joke in engineering school is, “yesterday I couldn’t spell ‘engineer” but now today I am one” really describes the circumstances around being elected to Congress. Suddenly, you, an ordinary citizen, have been entrusted with the hopes of 700,000 people in your district. They give you a budget of $1.4 million give or take a little and tell you to hire 18 people to help you to do your job, about which you know very little. You will have to lease, at least, one office in your district and staff it with some portion of the 18-person staff. They must deal with the myriad of problems bring to the Congressional office each day. Veterans issues, immigration issues, Social Security issues, Medicare issues, IRS problems, applications to the military academies White House visitor’s tickets and on and on.

The first mistake new Members make is to feel they must reward campaign workers with jobs. Many of the workers are highly qualified in some academic area and want to move into a policy job before you or they know what you need first and what you will need later. I started some of my best people in my office at reception on front desk. There you can get a chance to see how they handle the variety of phone and in-person contacts with the people who will re-elect you.  That first contact with your office make take years to overcome if they brush off or offend some voter from your district.

But THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB is who you hire to handle your money and be responsible for following the Ethics Committee rules of the House. Chiefs of Staff, Legislative Director and Communications Director get all the attention and are most sought after, because they affect the public policy positions of the office. They write the bills and plan strategies to move ideas through the Congress.

Your office manager is often an unknown person who sits at their desk and handles a multiplicity of duties.  There is no one way to handle this job but there must be some one in the office who says ”NO.” My first office manager was a woman who had worked for 20 years for one Congressman and when he retired, she stayed on with his successor whose style she didn’t like.  She was looking for a job and was recommended to me by my predecessor. 

I asked her why I should hire her, and she replied,” I ‘ve worked in the House for 22 years and my budget always ends in the black.”  That is important because if the budget is overspent the Congressperson must pay out of his or her own pocket for the excess expenditures. I often asked her to figure out a way to pay for something. Her first response was often, “I don’t think you want to do that.” If I persisted, her next level was “you can’t do it that way.”

If I pushed her harder, she used her ultimate weapon, “the Finance office will not approve and I’m not going to spend one day in the Federal Prison system in an 8X8 prison cell with you. I’ll quit first!”

I can give countless examples of Members who didn’t listen or didn’t have anyone to say “NO” to them.  One member decided to use some government money to create a Downton Abbey ambience in his office.  He later resigned.  Having some one who knows the ethics and finance office rules is the only protection a Member has against getting caught in an ethics complaint.  What may seem right to a newly elected member, because of their private sector experience, often turns into a career shortening experience.

Another way to cover yourself is to have a lawyer who watches what you do.  I had a chief of staff who would say, “I am going over to the Ethics Office and talk to our lawyer.”  That was her way of calling in the big guns on some idea I was sure was all right. Ethics is a shifting mine field and many older members get in trouble because no one says “NO” or because, “that’s the way we have always done it.”

It was sad to watch senior members get caught in some change in the rules. I have too many examples to pick one.  The biggest was the check protection plan of the House Bank.  The House Bank was created to deal with members banking problems in the 1850’s.  Essentially, everyone had their paycheck put in the House bank and they proceeded to pay their bills. No member ever had a bounced check because if their account was overdrawn at the moment the check was presented for reimbursement, other members’ money was used to cover the overdraft.  One wonderful woman in the Sergeant of Arms Office had the onerous task, at the start each month, to call member’s offices to tell the member or his COS that they overdrawn and should provide money.  Members knew that a new paycheck would cover the shortage if they had over spent. No money was ever lost, but some members took advantage of this failsafe system to run a rather sloppy personal accounting system. 

When Newt Gingrich began planning to take over the House, he saw this situation and it looked bad. By that time all banks had overdraft protection, but it was formal, with interest payments involved. Newt knew there were more Democrats than Republicans, and that if he called attention to this, it would hurt the Democrats back home because they could be accused of bouncing checks. This attack on the personal fiscal integrity of Democrats played a large role in the defeat of the Democrats in 1994.

Lesson to be learned: nothing you do in Congress is ever hidden from sight. For those who feel a little paranoid at this moment, rest assured.  Just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you. I once led the Pledge of Allegiance in the House.  The phrase under God was added in the Eisenhower administration to distinguish us from Godless Communism. I did not say “Under God.” Someone somewhere picked up that my lips had not uttered these words and set off a firestorm of phone calls from some religious organization in Texas.  My office phones were disabled for 3 days with vitriol about my lack of endorsement for the concept that we were a Christian Country.

Word to the wise: You are constantly under scrutiny, especially with the expenditure of Government money. Never think you are alone. They are watching.