Word: staff
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...although they are nameless and faceless figures to the public, the more than 13,000 people who staff the committees and offices of members of Congress are neither malign nor inconspicuous. Many of them can be seen standing behind the rail at the rear of the House, and slipping in formation to Senators on the floor of the other chamber...
...Most staff members are under 40, well educated, well paid (many are at the $40,000 level), and reflect the political leanings of their employers. Their power has grown out of the desire of Congress to compete with the previously overwhelming expertise of the vast bureaucracy of the Executive Branch. Also, legislative issues have grown more complex, and Congress has taken its watchdog function over the Administration more seriously. No Congressman can hope to absorb by himself most of the increasingly technical information demanded by both the expanded work of Congress and a more insistent and sophisticated public...
...Other staff members are more reticent because their bosses properly insist on the public applause. Yet it was largely because of the prodding of Richard Perle, 36, an aide for eight years to Senator Henry (Scoop) Jackson, that the Senate has adopted a key "qualification" to the 1972 U.S.-So-viet SALT agreement, demanding that there be strategic arms parity in any future pact. Jackson has staked out defense matters as a main interest, and Perle's hawkish skepticism about arms control and his mastery of intricate weaponry arguments have given him as much influence as many Administration officials...
Some legislators and scholars are alarmed. Complains South Carolina Senator Fritz Rollings: "There are many Senators who feel that all they are doing is running around and responding to the staff. My staff fighting your staff, your staff competing with mine. Everybody is working for the staff, staff, staff, driving you nutty." Contends Norman Ornstein, political scientist at Catholic University: "The staffs have vastly increased the work load. The more staff, the more meetings, the more hearings." Admits Indiana Congressman Dan Quayle: "It's very uncomfortable to be so dependent on staff, but I have to be. Seventy-five...
...political pro has any trouble keeping his staff advisers in line with his own wishes. The most common relationship is symbiotic: the staffer knows the inclinations and needs of his boss and gets ahead by following those tendencies and filling the information gaps. One strong Senator, New York Republican Jacob Javits, now has a personal staff of 50. In addition, he has increased his own considerable influence by relying on such able committee aides as Don Zimmerman, minority counsel to the Senate Human Resources Committee. Javits, the ranking minority member on the committee, has used Zimmerman to develop far more...