Senate Staffing Short on Diversity
\
December 22, 2002
Washington - Even as Senate Republicans struggled last week to defend
the civil rights record of their leader and their party, a look
inside Senate offices show there are few African-Americans in key,
influential jobs.
Among the Senate staff members in executive positions, such as chief
of staff or communications director, 94.5 percent are white, 3.1
percent are black and 2 percent are Hispanic, according to a 2001
survey by the Congressional Management Foundation, a nonpartisan,
nonprofit organization based in Washington.
Of all the black staffers, 11.4 percent are in support positions, and
9.9 percent are in mid-level jobs such as deputy communications
director or state constituent services representative. Meanwhile,
minorities make up only 14.5 percent of the Senate staffers overall,
a figure that has barely changed over the past 10 years.
"There is no entity holding Congress accountable," said Richard
Shapiro, executive director of the management foundation, one of a
few, if not the only organization, to track the numbers. "It's really
left to the voters and to some degree reporters."
Glenn Ivey, 41, who was Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's chief
counsel before he left in 1998, said the paucity of black Senate
staffers is striking.
"It's a problem, especially since there aren't any African-American
senators either," said Ivey, who was recently elected county attorney
in suburban Maryland.
Ivey recalled many meetings in the Senate where he was the only
African-American in the room.
"It's clearly a problem. There's no two ways about it. It's a very
stark thing," he said. "You walk into a leadership meeting or a
committee hearing room and look at the staffers sitting behind the
members - especially when you get to the 'A' committees and there's
nobody [black] up there."
Roll Call, a twice-weekly newspaper on Capitol Hill, does an annual
survey of the 50 most powerful staff members. George Henry, general
counsel for the Democratic Caucus and a longtime aide to Rep. Charles
Rangel (D-Harlem), appeared to be the only African-American to make
this year's list, and he works in the House.
Henry says his position is not indicative of the situation for most
blacks. "I have had a great opportunity to serve, but things have not
been as good for other African-Americans as I would have hoped," he
said.
Unlike federal agencies and many companies, Congress doesn't have a
coordinated minority recruitment effort, Shapiro said. Another
hurdle, said Shapiro, who has held focus groups with African-American
college students, is the perception that "Congress is a kind of white
bastion and not a great place for minorities to work. I don't think
that's true."
Shapiro said the problem has less to do with the lawmakers' views and
more to do with the lack of resources and lack of knowledge about how
to recruit minorities. "They understand politically that it's good to
have a diverse office," he said.
Still, the number of minority staffers on Capitol Hill is lower than
the federal government, where blacks make up 17 percent of the work
force.
And while the income gap between black and white Senate staffers is
smaller than the national average, the foundation found that blacks
in the Senate were underrepresented in higher paying jobs and
overrepresented in lower-paying positions.
\
December 22, 2002
Washington - Even as Senate Republicans struggled last week to defend
the civil rights record of their leader and their party, a look
inside Senate offices show there are few African-Americans in key,
influential jobs.
Among the Senate staff members in executive positions, such as chief
of staff or communications director, 94.5 percent are white, 3.1
percent are black and 2 percent are Hispanic, according to a 2001
survey by the Congressional Management Foundation, a nonpartisan,
nonprofit organization based in Washington.
Of all the black staffers, 11.4 percent are in support positions, and
9.9 percent are in mid-level jobs such as deputy communications
director or state constituent services representative. Meanwhile,
minorities make up only 14.5 percent of the Senate staffers overall,
a figure that has barely changed over the past 10 years.
"There is no entity holding Congress accountable," said Richard
Shapiro, executive director of the management foundation, one of a
few, if not the only organization, to track the numbers. "It's really
left to the voters and to some degree reporters."
Glenn Ivey, 41, who was Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's chief
counsel before he left in 1998, said the paucity of black Senate
staffers is striking.
"It's a problem, especially since there aren't any African-American
senators either," said Ivey, who was recently elected county attorney
in suburban Maryland.
Ivey recalled many meetings in the Senate where he was the only
African-American in the room.
"It's clearly a problem. There's no two ways about it. It's a very
stark thing," he said. "You walk into a leadership meeting or a
committee hearing room and look at the staffers sitting behind the
members - especially when you get to the 'A' committees and there's
nobody [black] up there."
Roll Call, a twice-weekly newspaper on Capitol Hill, does an annual
survey of the 50 most powerful staff members. George Henry, general
counsel for the Democratic Caucus and a longtime aide to Rep. Charles
Rangel (D-Harlem), appeared to be the only African-American to make
this year's list, and he works in the House.
Henry says his position is not indicative of the situation for most
blacks. "I have had a great opportunity to serve, but things have not
been as good for other African-Americans as I would have hoped," he
said.
Unlike federal agencies and many companies, Congress doesn't have a
coordinated minority recruitment effort, Shapiro said. Another
hurdle, said Shapiro, who has held focus groups with African-American
college students, is the perception that "Congress is a kind of white
bastion and not a great place for minorities to work. I don't think
that's true."
Shapiro said the problem has less to do with the lawmakers' views and
more to do with the lack of resources and lack of knowledge about how
to recruit minorities. "They understand politically that it's good to
have a diverse office," he said.
Still, the number of minority staffers on Capitol Hill is lower than
the federal government, where blacks make up 17 percent of the work
force.
And while the income gap between black and white Senate staffers is
smaller than the national average, the foundation found that blacks
in the Senate were underrepresented in higher paying jobs and
overrepresented in lower-paying positions.