The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-02-08

EIdsom be studied so that
 CongreSsmen will know which bills to vote for and which to vote against is staggering in itself, and this brings up one of the major reforms which has been suggested for modernizing Con- gress increasing and improving It's staff. Congressmen claim they need more and better and better paid help to do their jobs.
 In the closing days of the last ses- sion, Congressman voted themselves an extra clerk to help them take care of the business of their districts and States. This will give each Rep resentative $9,500 year to hire not more than four clerks. Each Sen- ator may hire up to six clerks or seven if the Senator comes from a state of more than three million ir- habitantS. Pay of these clerks is from $l 500 to $4,500 and averages less than $2,500.
 CONGRESS HAS STAFF OF 300
 In addition to these personnal as- SiStants, the Congressional staff con- sists principally of clerks and coun- sels assigned to the 8l standing Con- gressional committees. They number about 300 in all - 200 for the Sen- ate, 100 for the House and with few exceptions they are limited to tops of $500 in the Senate, $3, 300 in the House. Many Congressional clerks are relatives, resulting in nepotism, which is considered bad.
 To help Congressmen draft laws, there Is an office of Legislative Counsel consisting of four lawyers, one assistant, and two clerks for each chamber. Total cost for this service are $83,000 year.
 The Joint Committee on Internal Revenue has full time professional staff of 15 headed by an $8000-a- year tax expert, but aside from this the only research staff available to Congressman is in the 66-employee Legislative Reference Service of the Library of Congress. In all, Congress has less than 2,500 employees in- cluding pages, messengers and jani- tors whose combined pay is less than six million dollars year.
 Compare these figures with the staffing in the executive depart ments. AS Congressman Mike Mon- roney, leader of the Congressional reformers, has pointed out the so- licitor's office in the Department of Agriculture alone has 600 employees. Treasury and Federal Reserve Board alone have 30 or 40 banking specialists at $500 a year. The en- tire cost of the legislation arm of the government, including Congress mems $10,000 year salaries, is only IS million - less than half of what 1t costs to run the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
 DEPARTMENT STAFF
 PROPOSED
 In short, Congressmen interested in modernizing their honorable as- sembly feel that If it has been a bit backward and dumbish at times, it may be because it was not properly staffed to do good job. In a way, this may be Congress- own fault. It appropriates the money for the ex- ecutive branch, and for itself
 It has also been proposed that Congress build up permanent staff removed from any temptation of patronage appointments to keep constant check on the execr tive de- partments of the government and see that they live up to and within the mandates of Congress.
 Against both of these reforms it has been argued that they would merely duplicate work already done by the executive branch of the gov ernment and so would merely add a Congressional bureaucracy to that of the administrative agencies.
 Before streamlining the staff of Congress 1t is argued that the entire Committee structure of Congress must be reorganized. This will be considered in the succeeding article.