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Congressional staff leave for triple pay
A member of Congress has a small staff of a few dozen, often quite young. They are usually tech-savvy, but they are not well paid, and they do not last long in the job.
As a result, Congress lacks the in-house experience and capacity to analyze technical problems. The staffers who want a career there are often sacrificing a lot more money than they could make in the private sector, and the institution has not developed the expertise to address these questions.
The companies on the other side keep a significant presence in Washington. Advertising alone is probably a trillion-dollar global industry, and artificial intelligence companies increasingly need data to train their models.
Why did Congress close its technology office?
The Office of Technology Assessment, created in 1972, gave Congress its own expert reports on science and technology. Congress defunded it in 1995 during cuts to legislative branch spending. It had a staff of about 140 people at the end. In 2019 the Government Accountability Office set up a Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics team that does related work.
How does the revolving door work in Congress?
Federal law bars senior congressional staff from lobbying their former employer for one year after leaving. House members face a one-year ban and senators a two-year ban. Staffers below the senior pay threshold face no such restriction.
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