What do Congressmen Actually Do? The Work Life of Congress
The following is information found from the report “Life In Congress: The Member Perspective” provided by the Congressional Management Foundation and the Society for Human Resource Management. Their research focused on the work-life of 25 members of the U.S. House of Representatives who were willing to be interviewed for the report.
What Congressmen work on
Congressmen reported long working weeks. They reported 70 hours of work on average while the House was in session and 59 hours per week when the House was out of session. When the House is out of session and not voting, most members return to their districts.
Members spent their time in Washington DC as follows:
35% on “Legislative/Policy Work”
17% on “Constituent Services Work”
17% on “Political/Campaign Work”
9% on “Press/Media Relations”
9% with “Family/Friends”
7% on “Administrative/Managerial Work”
6% on “Personal Time”
When members spend time in their congressional districts, they spent their time as follows:
32% on “Constituent Services Work”
18% on “Political/Campaign Work”
14% on “Press/Media Relations”
12% on “Legislative/Policy Work”
9% with “Family/Friends”
8% on “Personal Time”
7% on “Administrative/Managerial Work”
A Sample of a Day of a Representative
The report includes a sample schedule from an anonymous House Member:
9-9:30AM: Speak to attendees of National Women, Infants, and Children’s Association 2012 Leadership Conference.
10AM-12PM: Sit in at Appropriations Hearing for marketing regulatory programs.
10:30AM-12PM: Sit in on national security briefing on Iran.
12PM-1PM: Conference meeting with Democratic/Republican colleagues on jobs, the economy and gas prices.
12:45-1:15PM: Meeting with Edie Smith local country program manager.
1:15-1:45PM: Meeting with representatives from American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) (note: AIPAC is a pro-Israel lobbying organization for the Israeli government).
1:30PM-2PM: Meeting with local county supervisor about HR 3460, National Parks Lands Bill
2-230PM: Meeting with Bob Ellis, solutions for progress non-profit about Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
2:30-3PM: Meeting with US Army and local officials
3-4PM: Fundraising call with Party HQ
3-3:30PM: Meeting with Army Corps of Engineers on current projects
3:30-4PM: Meeting with Organic Farming Research Foundation (501c3 nonprofit and grant-maker that promotes organic foods. Total FY2023 revenue $1.1 million. Half of revenue from government, the other half from organic food providers such as Sunrise Foods International, General Mills, Whole Foods, CROPP Cooperative, California Certified Organic Farmers. Government grants from the USDA and NIH).
4:30-5PM: Meeting with Vanessa Garcia, local supervisor about health issues and county priorities
5-6PM: Meeting with local county representatives about flood control, gang intervention program, and National Monument designation.
6:30-9:30PM: American Council for Capital Formation Dinner Discussion (ACCF is a think tank which lobbied for the cut of capital gains taxes, ending the ban on crude oil exports, and is generally seen as a “free-market” or “pro-business” organization).
For some reason the schedule overlaps ontop one-another. I suppose this is scheduled with some flexibility.
Summary of the Day
I count about 4 hours devoted to special interests (ACCF, Organic Farming Research Foundation, AIPAC).
I count about 3.5 hours devoted to meeting with local government officials and bureaucrats.
I count about 3 hours devoted to legislation and policy (at least, attending some meetings about policy).
It is a sort of interesting day on what I don’t see. Where does the Congressman spend time to sit down to read briefings or draft any policy personally? I suppose the obvious answer is that no, Congressmen don’t do that. Reading policy and drafting policy is probably handled by Congressional aides. The Congressman instead spends their time at meetings and talking to other people. Talking to other Congressmen, talking to bureaucrats and local officials, and talking to donors, and talking to special interests.
What is also notably absent is any communication with “everyday regular people”.
Notes on Report Methodology
The survey selected 194 US House members to participate but only received 25 responses (13% response rate). Of survey respondents, 52% were Democrats and 48% were Republicans. The report shows that the survey samples was roughly proportionate to the party affiliation, average age, average tenure, and average gender of the House of Representative at the time of the survey in August 4 - October 31, 2011.
The largest flaw in the survey is the self-selection and self-reported numbers. I imagine that most Congressmen will tend to over-report their numbers than under-report. Moreover, I imagine that the hardest working Congressmen would be more likely to answer the survey whereas the laziest Congressmen couldn’t be bothered to do so. These reported numbers then should be taken with skepticism.
It remains interesting that that only 35% of time is devoted to policy work while in session. Assuming that constituent communication (including communication with the lobbyists) is arguably a part of the legislative process, at best then 52% of time is devoted to policy.
Comparing to a Hypothetical Sortition-Constructed Assembly
As discussed in many previous articles, this blog advocates in favor of the replacement or supplementation of elected officials with citizens selected by lottery, using sortition. Unlike an elected representative, a hypothetical Sortition-Selected Representative would:
Do little to no Constituent Services work. A sortition-assembly is better in tune with constituents because they already compose the regular every-day people and merely need to query themselves. A sortition-representative also would care little about what lobbyists say. Lobbyists have nothing (legal) to offer in exchange for a meeting. Lobbying would have to be done either through bribery or official channels of the legislative process.
Do little to no Press/Media relations. They have no elections to seek, they have no marketing, they have no need to sell a big idea on mass media.
Do no political campaign work. Without elections, campaigning is completely unnecessary.
The job of a Sortition-Selected Representative is therefore much simpler, with 43% to 64% of the workload freed away without the need of elections.
I also imagine because representatives believe themselves to be representative of the entire state, they feel the need to poke their fingers in every single issue. They need to be informed about defense, and foreign relations, and all the policies that need to be voted on.
The magic of sortition in contrast has a huge advantage. Selection by lot allows legislative work to be divided up into multiple working groups without loss of representation.
Sortition does not demand each representative to be an extraordinary hero with extraordinary work ethic. Sortition can simply draw more people by lottery, as needed, in order to perform the legislative work that needs to be done.
Who manages all of the professional staff needed to organize, moderate, and educate these random groupings of citizens? I feel like lobbyists would still perform their lobbying by turning into the "experts" and speaking to a committee on their niche area of interest.
What prevents the random people committees from simply hearing two polar opposite (and each biased) viewpoints on a topic and then being left to decide on their own which portions of what they heard was true?
Interesting article and sample schedule, thanks for sharing this.
However, when you write "A sortition-assembly is better in tune with constituents " and "A sortition-representative also would care little about what lobbyists say," I think you may misunderstand what lobbyists primarily offer. It's not funds, but a wealth of expertise to members, who, however they are put in place, presumably want to do a good job serving their constituents. "Better in tune with constituents" may or may not be true, but in any sort of diverse nation (unlike the electorate of the Framers' time, which was overwhelmingly White male farmers) any representative should be self-aware enough to recognize the gaps in their knowledge. Lobbyists fill in these gaps for the voting members. (I assume that in a sortition-assembly, all members vote on all legislative policies.)