The United States House of Representatives Page Program is a program run by the United States House of Representatives in which appointed high school juniors act as non-partisan federal employees in the House of Representatives, providing supplemental administrative support to House operations in a variety of capacities in Washington, D.C. at the United States Capitol. Some page responsibilities in the House include transporting legislative documents between Congressional offices and delivering new bills and amendments to the House floor both partisan and non-partisan. Pages are nominated by representatives based upon a highly competitive application process. Congressional Pages have served within the U.S. House of Representatives for almost 180 years.
Selection
House pages serving during the school year attend the House Page School, located on the fourth floor of the Jefferson Building in the Library of Congress. The school is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. The length of class varies depending on the time in which the House begins its session. Every weekday, except public holidays, pages begin school at 6:45am. The only exception is for pages that worked past 10 p.m. the evening prior. Class length varies from 12 to 50 minutes, depending upon the daily schedule of the House of Representatives. Pages are usually dismissed from school an hour prior to when the House convenes. If the House does not convene, or not before noon, school ends at 11:30. Pages attend all classes for 50 minutes with five minutes passing time and a 15 minute break. If the House convenes at 10:00 am, Pages are dismissed at 9:00 from school. They still attend all five classes, but for only 25 minutes with no passing time. If the House convenes at 9:00 am, Pages are dismissed from school at 8:00. Such a school day is generally spent on a school-wide activity, though all five classes may be attended for roughly 12 minutes with no passing time.
Pages are also required to participate in Washington Seminars. This program, run by the House Page School, is usually every other Saturday and the Pages visit to sites in or around Washington. Trips are followed by an activity or reflective journal entry. Occasionally, quizzes may be administered or extra credit offered. An exam is given at the end of the semester for course credit.
Clubs and groups may be formed if a Page has the imagination to found one. Examples of previous clubs have included the "Pennsylvania Club" founded by all of the pages hailing from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the 2003-2004 school year Page Class, and the Literary-Magazine club which is formed some school years to produce a magazine of the class's literary works.
Pages traditionally form a "Model Congress" program. For example, the House Model Congress program met weekly in the Agriculture Committee within the Longworth House Office Building. This began in 1997 and lasted, with only one missing year, through 2005. The Model Congress typically is a format for the pages to voice their opinions on the matters before the House at the time and for pages to practice parliamentary skills, including public speaking.
Page Graduation is an elaborate ceremony which typically takes place in the Cannon House Office Building. Pages vote and request a graduation speaker. Graduation speakers have included Jim Traficant (5 times), Tip O'Neil (4 times), Newt Gingrich (4 times), Jesse Jackson, Jr. (twice), and Gene Taylor (twice).
Schooling
Environment
House Pages wear uniforms during school and while at work in the Capitol. Appointees are required to provide their own uniform, which consists of navy blazers, white dress shirts, gray slacks for males and gray skirts for females and black shoes. The Office of the Clerk provides a tie for both males and females.
Clothing
The Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms provides each page with a standard-issue U.S. Capitol identification card, which allows the pages access to secure areas of the Capitol complex, including the floor of the House chamber and H-401, the House Intelligence Committee.
Security
House Pages currently reside at the Page Residence Hall (PRH) at 501 First Street, SE, Washington DC, 20003. This hall was completed in 2001. Prior to residence in the PRH, the pages resided in a former dormitory for Catholic nuns working at nearby Providence Hospital, before that at the now-demolished O'Neill House Office Building at 301 C Street SE, Washington DC 20003. (also known as House Annex One) and, before that, at various locations around the District of Columbia. The residence hall resembles a university dormitory, with shared sleeping accommodations (separate floors for males and females) and common areas for social activities. Most rooms house 3 pages, but some rooms accomidate as little as 2 or as many as 4. An ID card is required to access each hall.
There are four proctors and an assistant director and a director. A part-time tutor is made available to assist pages with their studies in the evening. Study hall is open Monday through Friday, typically from 7 p.m. until 10 p.m. Grades for each subject are reassessed weekly and if a page is below an 80 percent in a course, he is required to attend study hall for one hour Monday through Thursday. If a page is deficient in two courses, they must stay two hours. Pages can attend for as long as 3 hours, but no more than 2 hours is required.
When not at school or at work, Pages are given great liberty with their free time. Pages are subject to a curfew (10:00 p.m. during the week and 12:00 midnight during the weekend), must travel with at least one fellow page, and are expected to maintain high moral bearings. Regarding transit, while Pages are not permitted to bring personal vehicles with them to the District of Columbia, Pages have access to the Washington Area Metropolitan Transit Authority's modes of public transportation, including the Washington Metro system. Additionally, pages are permitted to hire taxicabs (at their own cost) for transportation.
Housing
Almost every other Saturday and all Sundays, Pages are free from school or work obligations, unless emergency situations arise. Most spend their time working on school assignments, touring the many attractions in the DC area or simply relaxing from a long week's work. For holidays, Pages return home for Thanksgiving, Christmas/New Year and spring breaks; the dormitory is closed during these periods.
A student representative body takes form in the Page Activity Committee (PAC). PAC is responsible for organizing various social functions and fundraising events. However, the Committee has no governing authority (in terms of regulatory or disciplinary matters), and despite attempts from numerous Page classes to quasi-unionize, it does not serve as a petitioning body for the Page group to redress grievances with the Office of the Clerk or its subordinate groups.
Extra Activities
The page's work life revolves around the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Officially a division of the Office of the Clerk, the US House Page Program exists primarily to provide supplement support to various House offices. Two full-time, adult employees of the Office of the Clerk serve as "Chief Pages;" although some holders of this position self-titled themselves as "Page Supervisors" to avoid misidentification. Partisan employees, there is one Republican and one Democrat, to direct the day-to-day operations of the page groups and provide front-line adult supervision. Additionally, the Office of the Clerk employs a Page Coordinator to coordinate all aspects of page life, school, work, and dormitory and handle administrative responsibilities.
For work purposes, pages are divided into two groups, Republican and Democratic, based upon the party affiliation of their sponsoring Member (rarely, as mentioned above, some majority appointees may volunteer to the minority side). On both sides of the aisle, the vast majority of pages are based on the Floor of the House and serve as "Runners." These runners are dispatched to various House offices to transport various documents by "Overseer" or "Desk" Pages. The Overseer Pages are responsible for ensuring that all inbound call requests are met as quickly as possible and that the workload is distributed as even as possible among the runners. A fair number of dispatches involve the runners going to Congressional offices to bring proposed legislation (termed a "bill") to the "Hopper" (a repository box on the rostrum on the Floor) for official submission to the Clerk of the House. Often, much to the humor of the ofttimes more knowledgeable pages, college-educated, yet naive Congressional aides will address the envelope containing the bill to "Mr. William Hopper." Other correspondence may go to the respective Cloakrooms or other offices in the Capitol Complex. In addition, United States of America flags that are to be flown over the Capitol are often delivered by Pages to the Architect of the Capitol's Flag Office.
In the 110th Congress, Republican Overseers are assigned for the semester, while Democratic Pages rotate each day as Overseer or "Desk." This is up to the personal preference of the Page Supervisor.
Flags of the United States of America that have been flown over the Capitol are sorted by party and House Office Building and put in closets by employees of the Architect of the Capitol. Each day three Pages sort their party's flags from building into sequential order by room and floor. After all the flags have been returned to the member's office from whence it came, pages may leave work. Currently, Democratic Pages may leave after all of the "flag pages" are done with their deliveries. Republicans may leave only after 1:00 p.m. Popularly known as flag days, each runner is rotated to this duty regularly. These half days allow runners to go back to the PRH and sleep, do their laundry, do homework, hangout, and leave the dorm without a buddy--provided that they stay within about a mile radius and return by 4:30 p.m. Currently, Democratic Pages work as a flag page once a week and Republican pages once every two weeks.
The runners also rotate as "Floor Pages." There are three Floor pages each day and currently, they receive a flags on the following day. Floor Pages deliver copies of the Congressional Record around the Capitol and deliver other correspondence within the Capitol. They also deliver correspondence from the Clerk's Office staff seated at the Rostrum to their counterparts in the basement Office of Legislative Operations. They also respond to page requests by members on the Floor who use the Page Call buttons that every two chairs share.
On a voluntary basis, Majority Page runners may serve as Voting Pages for a day. They go down to the Tally Clerk's section of the Office of the Legislative Operations in the basement. They print the final results of any vote or quorum call that uses the electronic recording devices and delivers copies of the results to several offices in the Capitol. There are two voting pages to allow for one to make copies while the other prints the results for the next vote.
On a voluntary basis, Majority Page runners may serve as Statement Pages for a day. Two pages do the job: one serves as Majority Statement Page, one serves as Minority Statement Page. Each Page sits on their respective side of the Floor about six rows back from the well. After a member speaks from the Leadership Tables or the Well on his/her side of the Chamber, a statement page will pursue the member and recover any prepared remarks the member had written before he spoke. The Page then delivers it to the Congressional Record Clerks. While Congressional Record stenographers take down all proceedings, copies of prepared remarks aid the Congressional Record staff in increasing their accuracy.
On a voluntary basis, Majority Page runners rotate as an Annex II Page for one day in the Ford House Office Building (Annex II). While there are enough pages that every Page would only have to go once a month, many go more often than that. Assigned in same-sex pairs, females and males switch off each day. They serve in the House Document Room, where many copies of each bill filed by a member that session is kept on file. Annex II Pages typically go together for a lunch at a local food restaurant (McDonald's is quite popular) and spend the day stuffing envelopes with three copies of a bill. Each member that sponsors or co-sponsors a bill receive three copies. After stuffing is done, many Annex II Pages sleep or find other ways to amuse themselves. Annex II Pages typically leave at 4:15 p.m. and arrive on the Floor to go home by 4:30 p.m.
Typically, runner pages are released from duty at 4:30 p.m. each week day that the House is not in session. However, should the House remain in session into the night for continued debate and/or votes, each Page Service typically retains three to four runner pages until the House finishes legislative business. Statement Pages stay as long as deliberations continue and voting pages serve until legislative business has concluded. Runners that will not be working late are dismissed at 5:30 p.m. on late nights if they are Republican; Democrats are released at 5:15.
Work
Additionally, there exist several long-term posts to which certain pages may be assigned.
Long-term Page jobsSpeaker's Pages are two majority party pages which serve solely the Office of the Speaker. Based at the Speaker's Office on the second floor of the Capitol, Speaker's Pages act to supplement the Speaker's staff. From preparing beverages and snacks for the Speaker and his or her official guests to helping to compose internal memoranda, Speaker's Pages have direct access to the highest echelons of the House leadership. These pages fall under the de facto supervision of the Administrative Office of the Office of the Speaker. In the 110th Congress' Speaker's Office (under Nancy Pelosi), one Speaker's Page serves on the second floor, answering the more private telephone line that typically is dialed for the Speaker and her senior staff. That page also stocks the refrigerators in the offices on the second floor, keeps the community kitchen clean, and otherwise does miscellaneous tasks for the senior staff. His/her counterpart works on the fourth or Attic floor in the Administrative Office. He/she helps answer the more public line and deal with member staff inquiries. The Page also sends faxes and sorts any that the office receives. He/she delivers the mail and newspapers (traditional newspapers and internet news services) to the entire office. This Page usually works in concert with an intern. He/she also stocks the Attic and third floor fridges and cares for the attic kitchen. The pages are responsible for the storage room and making sure there is an adequate supply of soft drinks, coffee, tea, assorted coffee accessories, and office supplies. There is typically one male and female Speaker's page and they switch their duties each week. Speaker Pages stay as long as the staff requires them to do so. Typically, the page working in the attic leaves between 5 and 6 p.m. The page working downstairs typically leaves between 6 and 7 p.m.
Documentarian Pages
Each Page service has Cloakroom Pages (or "cloakies") that provide direct assistance to Congressmen when on the floor and assist the cloakroom staff. The most important requirement for serving in one of the cloakrooms is the memorization of all members of that political party. Cloakroom Pages go on the Floor to notify members of phone calls awaiting them in cloakroom phonebooths and to convey messages between Congressmen. Additionally, Cloakroom Pages help maintain official cloakroom records of daily proceedings, including bills before the House for debate and votes. Another requirement is that Pages be able to deal with the excessive smoke, as members often take cigarette breaks in the cloakroom. Miscellaneous tasks include shutting and standing in front of the cloakroom doors during the convocation at the beginning of every day the House is in session; cleaning the phone booths provided in the cloakroom for congressmen; assisting the cloakroom managers in answering phone calls; and during votes, waking up congressmen (who may be sleeping on couches during long or late votes) several minutes before the vote closes to make sure every member remembers to vote; These pages fall under the de facto supervision of the managers of the respective cloakrooms. Currently, the majority Republican Cloakroom has six cloakroom pages and the minority Democrats have four or five. The Republican Cloakies generally serve for an entire semester, though it has been known to switch out half its complement about halfway through the semester. The Democratic Cloakies generally serve shorter stints in the cloakroom: usually two or three serve as the long-term backbone and the others serve shorter terms. Cloakroom pages are dismissed when legislative business concludes, although two minority Cloakies typically stay to man the phones for the first hour or so of Special Orders. These are the Pages who get to see the "wheeling and dealing" of congress members firsthand.
Cloakroom Pages
For their average of 40 hours of work per week, Pages are compensated $18,817 per annum, from which are deducted federal and local (based upon the individual page's permanent residence) taxes and $400/month in room and board fees.
The dress requirements for males is a navy blazer, long sleeved white shirt, dark gray slacks, dark socks, dark shoes, and a standard issue tie. For females, the dress requirement is a navy blazer, a long sleeved white blouse, dark gray skirt or dark gray pants, dark shoes, appropriate hose, and a standard issue tie that is provided during orientation. Shoes should be solid black non-canvas low cut athletic shoes or comfortable black dress shoes. Pages are expected to maintain a neat appearance and conservative hairstyle at all time and adhere to the above dress code while working on the Capitol complex during business hours.
Until the early 1960s, pages (then all-male) were required to wear suits with knickers as pants, long after the style had become obsolete for other boys.
Compensation and dress
Anderson, Donnald - Clerk of the House 1987-1995 Notable pages
As early as 1827, males were hired to serve as messengers in Congress. In the Congressional Record (formerly known as the Congressional Globe), the term Page was first used in 1839 and referred to as a youth employed as a personal attendant to a person of high rank.
However, some sources claim that Pages have served as messengers since the very first Congress 1789.
Over the years, the Page Program has seen many changes. In 1965, the late Senator Jacob K. Javits (R-NY) appointed the first black male page to actually serve and in the summer of 1973,the first female pages were appointed.
The House of Representatives Page Board was established in 1982 and the first Members of the House Page Board were appointed in November of the same year the Page Board was established. The Board consists of two Members from the majority party selected by the Speaker, one Member from the minority party selected by the Minority Leader, the Clerk of the House and the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House.
1983 was a year of change and after much scandal, the Page Residence Hall was established and Congress required that all pages be at least sixteen years old and juniors in high school. Previous to that, the age range of Pages was 14 to 18 and no type of housing was provided.
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Program History
When Harry Friedman was a page in 1978, things were a lot different than they are today. Harry had this to say about what Paging was like in the 70s:
I'd be a little embarrassed to think that some of the things we did 20+ years ago would have any relevance to today's pages. It was a different world then.
In his time: - No chaperones of any kind. Pages were infamous around The Hill for getting into bars and getting into trouble.
- Female pages couldn't work past 6:00 pm. No one wanted them walking home in the dark.
- Summer pages had to find and pay for their own housing. Friedman lived on 2nd St., NE, others stayed at Trinity College and most of the female pages were at the YMCA.
- Pages can literally go anyplace within the Capitol complex.
"Fountain Hopping" was the favorite pastime. As a group (10-15 pages at a time) we would walk around at night and began to loiter around one of the hundreds of fountains in DC, and then at the right moment, we would jump in and swim. We would then, dripping wet, walk to another fountain and start over. The only place off limits was the Potomac basin (no one wanted to get shot). The favorite was at the Rayburn Building and the hardest was at the Supreme Court Building (I was one of the few to "jump" there and not get caught).
- Pages used to be able to sign their names on the rotunda of the capitol.
Dennis D. Embry, a House page in 1966, nominated by Robert Dole, notes some historical tidbits. "The first African American House page was Bruce Miller, who was appointed by Gerald Ford in 1966, then House Minority Leader." Embry served as cloak room page, and was asked by Representative Dole to interview another young person who was seeking an appointment as a page signing only initials for first and middle name. The potential candidate turned out to be a young woman from Western Kansas, like Embry. She was possibly the first young woman to apply. It would take several years more for a young woman to be appointed. In the 1960s, Embry and other pages lived in rooming houses, behind the Supreme Court and nearby locations.
Embry adds another item about being a page that is not widely known. "We are among the only people free to use the restrooms for Members of Congress. My first day of work, the Speaker, John McCormick, introduced himself to me standing next to at a urinal. I was completely flustered."
Trivia
On March 1, 1954, Puerto Rican Nationalists opened gunfire on the House Chamber during debate from the viewing gallery and injured five members of Congress. In this U.S. Capitol shooting incident (1954) Congressman Alvin Bentley was seriously wounded by a bullet fired by Lolita Lebron. Six pages carried Congressman Bentley (R-Michigan) off the house floor. The photograph of pages carrying Congressman Bentley can be found in the Page Residence Hall as well as the Republican cloak room and Page school. A bullet hole from this attack can still be found directly above the Democratic Page desk.
Pages involved in Rescue
Scandals
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