United States House of Representatives Page
Encyclopedia
United States House of Representatives Page Program was a program run by the United States House of Representatives
, under the office of the Clerk of the House, in which appointed high school
juniors acted 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
. Pages reported to "Chief Pages", commonly referred to as work bosses (or "House Page Work Supervisors") on the Democratic and Republican sides of the House of Representatives Floor. As was the practice in Middle Ages
, pages
were used as a messaging service for the four main House Office Buildings (Rayburn, Longworth, Cannon, and Ford) as well as inside of the Capitol. Other page responsibilities included: taking statements from members of congress after speeches (for the Congressional Record), printing and delivering vote reports to various offices, tending members' personal needs while on the floor of the House, managing phones in the cloakrooms, and ringing the bells for votes. Pages were nominated by representatives based upon a highly competitive application process. Congressional Pages had served within the U.S. House of Representatives for almost 180 years.
On August 8, 2011, Speaker of the House
John Boehner
and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
announced that the House page program would end due to costs and the technological advancements that have rendered the program no longer essential. The Senate Page
program will continue.
s as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico
, Guam
, U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa
.) Pages for the majority party tend to spend the entire academic year involved in the program; others from the minority party may apply and continue through the school year as well.
A page may be nominated by any representative, regardless of party affiliation or district, and there are minimum GPA requirements for appointment (3.0 GPA +). Candidates must be at least 16 years of age at the time of service, and must serve during either their junior year or during the summer immediately before or after the junior year. Candidates are required to submit high school transcripts as well as information about extracurricular activities and other criteria, as well as an essay and three letters of recommendation. (Individual representatives may require a candidate to provide more information or to do an interview by phone or in person). All final selections for the majority pages are made by the Speaker of the House
, and for minority pages the decision is made by the minority leader.
It is a general rule that only one nominee is permitted per representative, except for party leadership (although during the 104th Congress
, Duke Cunningham
successfully lobbied for the joint appointment of twin sisters from Encinitas, California
and Gene Taylor successfully lobbied for the appointment of three pages from the Gulf Coast during the 109th Congress
after Hurricane Katrina
). During the 110th Congress, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D) was allowed to appoint two twins as Democratic Pages during the second summer session. Also during the 110th Congress, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) was allowed to appoint two pages due to his seniority in Congress and during the 109th Congress, Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) also appointed twin sisters from Atlanta, GA.
Usually, each group of pages, typically referred to as a "class", consists of between 45 and 75 students. Fall and spring classes tend to have between 60 and 72 pages, while summer session classes are larger, being between 70 and 75 pages. Thus, not every representative can nominate a page. During the fall term of the 110th Congress, only 52 pages were appointed by representatives, making it the smallest page class in many years.
Distribution of pages slots are 2:1 in the favor of the majority party in the House. However, each party rarely fills all their slots for the school year terms, leaving the minority page service more shorthanded. During the school year, in most cases, the parties have allowed "cross-aisle" assignments, whereby a small number of majority appointees are allowed to drift across to the minority side for several week stints to better balance the distribution of pages. Majority pages will often seek to help out their friends on the other side of the aisle with large work-loads.
. Pages are given Library of Congress badges that allow them to access the restricted floor. 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. Common school days end at 8:00 am, 9:00 am, 11:00 am, and 11:30 am.
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 sites in or around Washington. Trips are followed by an activity or reflective journal entry. Journals are graded by the school's counselor and grades count towards the page's "Washington Seminar" class, as shown on his or her transcript.
Clubs and groups may be formed if a Page has the desire 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 are discouraged from participating in clubs or activities that will take time away from studying and/or work.
Pages traditionally form a Model Congress program in the Fall, and a Model United Nations in the Spring. 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. Prior to this, Pages frequently did this on the floor of the House, after the closing gavel.
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'Neill
(4 times), Newt Gingrich
(4 times), Jesse Jackson, Jr.
(twice), Gene Taylor (twice), Jim Kolbe
(once) and John Boehner
(once). The first Departure Ceremony of the 110th Congress, in June 2007, was keynoted by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and also featured Chairman of the House Page Board
Rep. Dale Kildee, Rep. John Conyers
, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy
, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones
, and Del. Madeleine Bordallo
.
During the 110th Congress, in the Fall, pages were given the chance to obtain Library of Congress Reader Cards for the first time in the Page Program's history, giving them access to the large reading rooms available in the Library of Congress. Pages sometimes use their reader cards to gain access to rooms in the library for studying purposes.
s, white dress shirt
s, gray slacks for males and gray skirts or slacks for females and black shoes. The Office of the Clerk provides a tie for both males and females. The Office of the Clerk also provides pages with lapel pins and name-tags, which pages must wear at all times. Lost ties, pins, or name-tags cost $10 to replace. Such services used to be provided by the Doorkeeper of House.
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.
at 301 C Street SE, Washington, D.C. 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 accommodate as little as 2 or as many as 4. Boys and girls are split into a Long Wing and a Short Wing. Boys are downstairs and girls are upstairs.
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 pm in-room curfew with 11:00 pm lights-out), a later curfew on weekends, 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. However, pages are not permitted to hire taxicabs or use the bus system for transportation.
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.
For work purposes, pages are divided into two groups, Republican and Democratic, based upon the party affiliation of their sponsoring Member. 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 to the cloakrooms. At the cloakrooms, a Cloakroom Page, or a Cloakroom Manager will sign that he has received the legislation. It is then brought to the Bill Hopper, or simply, 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. A small, wooden box, cloakroom pages, and Members of Congress are the sole people allowed to put anything into the Hopper.
Other correspondence from offices 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 two or 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, socialise, and leave the dormitory unaccompanied—provided that they stay within about a mile radius and return by 4:30 p.m. Currently, Democratic Pages work as flag pages once every two weeks, and Republican pages once a week.
The runners also rotate as Floor Pages. Floor Pages deliver correspondence from the Clerk's Office staff seated at the Rostrum to their counterparts in the basement Office of Legislative Operations, to the Enrolling Clerks. They also respond to page requests by members on the Floor who use the Page Call buttons that every two chairs share.
On a rotating basis, Majority Page runners 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 rotating basis, Majority Page runners 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 rotating basis, Majority Page runners rotate as an Annex runner page. Annex runners make deliveries to the Ford House Office Building (House Annex II), the Page School, the Page Residence Hall, and occasionally the Library of Congress buildings.
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. Cloakroom pages stay as long as Congress is in session, or until special orders begin. 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.
Automatic deductions are made for federal and local taxes (based upon the individual page's permanent residence), social security, and the Residence Hall fee. The Residence Hall fee
is $400/month in room and board fees. Pages are given an allowance of $20 Monday through Thursday, and $10 on Friday for food in the House side of the Capitol. In addition, the Residence Hall provides food for the pages on Sundays for dinner, and breakfast is provided for them in the dormitory every weekday morning.
Pages are paid on the last working day of the month.
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.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061002/ap_on_go_co/congress_page_history_2;_ylt=AtTSvuu3_J6odUo7tSb9eruMwfIE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2ZGZwam4yBHNlYwNmYw--
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 Lebrón
. Six pages carried Congressman Bentley (R-Michigan) off the house floor. The famous photograph of pages carrying Congressman Bentley can be found in the Page Residence Hall as well as the Republican Cloakroom and Page school; two of the pages in the picture later became members of Congress: Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) and Bill Emerson (R-MO)
, for whom the main assembly hall in the Page School is named. A bullet hole from the attack can still be found directly above the Democratic Page desk.
(R-Ill.) and Gerry Studds
(D-Mass) had engaged in sexual relationships with 17-year-old congressional pages. In Crane's case, it was a 1980 relationship with a female page and in Studds's case, it was a 1973 relationship with a male page. Because Washington, D.C.'s age of consent
is 16, no crimes were committed. The House Ethics Committee reprimanded both on July 14, 1983. However, Representative Newt Gingrich
demanded the expulsion of both Congressmen. On July 20, the House voted for censure, the first time that censure had been imposed for sexual misconduct. Crane, who tearfully apologized for his transgression, lost his bid for reelection in 1984. Studds, however, refused to apologize, and he continued to be reelected until his retirement in 1997.
The House Ethics Committee probe found that James Howarth, who had supervised the House pages until December 1982, when he was given other duties, had had sex in 1980 with one of his 17-year-old female wards. The report also accused Howarth of buying cocaine in the House's Democratic cloakroom, possibly from another House staffer. He resigned prior to formal House action (Nov. 15, 1983). Also implicated were Majority Assistant Cloakroom Manager Robert Yesh, who was accused of selling and using cocaine; using marijuana and cocaine with House pages; resigned (April 15, 1983); and pleaded guilty to two federal misdemeanors (March 9, 1983) and James Beattie (Doorkeeper's Office), who was accused of selling and using cocaine; resigned (May 16, 1983); and pleaded guilty to two federal misdemeanors (July 28, 1983).
, who sent emails and instant messages of a sexual nature to several former congressional pages. Page Board Chairman John Shimkus
said "that in late 2005 he learned — through information passed along by Rodney Alexander
's office — about an e-mail exchange in which Foley asked about the youngster's well-being after Hurricane Katrina
, and requested a photograph."
After this revelation, other Congressional pages came forward with similar stories about Congressman Foley. Graphic conversations between Foley and several pages using AOL Instant Messenger
were released by ABC News
on September 29, 2006; Foley resigned the same day. United States Secretary of Transportation
Ray LaHood
(R-IL) has since suggested suspending the program.
Rep. Sue Kelly, who was Chairwoman of the Page Board from 1998 to 2001, was caught up in the scandal when three pages said they were aware of Foley's inappropriate attention toward pages during her tenure.
will continue.
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, under the office of the Clerk of the House, in which appointed high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
juniors acted 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.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
at the United States Capitol
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
. Pages reported to "Chief Pages", commonly referred to as work bosses (or "House Page Work Supervisors") on the Democratic and Republican sides of the House of Representatives Floor. As was the practice in Middle Ages
Medieval Times
Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament is a family dinner theater featuring staged medieval-style games, sword-fighting, and jousting performed by a cast of 75 actors and 20 horses. Each location is housed in a replica 11th-century castle, with the exception of the Toronto location, which is housed...
, pages
Page (servant)
A page or page boy is a traditionally young male servant, a messenger at the service of a nobleman or royal.-The medieval page:In medieval times, a page was an attendant to a knight; an apprentice squire...
were used as a messaging service for the four main House Office Buildings (Rayburn, Longworth, Cannon, and Ford) as well as inside of the Capitol. Other page responsibilities included: taking statements from members of congress after speeches (for the Congressional Record), printing and delivering vote reports to various offices, tending members' personal needs while on the floor of the House, managing phones in the cloakrooms, and ringing the bells for votes. Pages were nominated by representatives based upon a highly competitive application process. Congressional Pages had served within the U.S. House of Representatives for almost 180 years.
On August 8, 2011, Speaker of the House
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...
John Boehner
John Boehner
John Andrew Boehner is the 61st and current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. A member of the Republican Party, he is the U.S. Representative from , serving since 1991...
and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...
announced that the House page program would end due to costs and the technological advancements that have rendered the program no longer essential. The Senate Page
United States Senate Page
A United States Senate Page is a non-partisan federal employee serving the United States Senate in Washington, DC. Despite the non-partisan affiliation, Pages are typically divided to serve the party that appointed them.-Selection:In order to become a US Senate Page, one must first be nominated...
program will continue.
Selection
Pages serve in one of four terms: a five-month fall semester (September–January), a four and a half-month spring semester (February–June), or one of two three-to-four week summer sessions. Those selected to serve during the summer period may serve either the summer directly before or directly after their junior year of high school. After completing one session, pages may be eligible for the subsequent session, based upon merit and space. Prospective House pages are nominated by a representative or congressional delegate (pages have come from all 50 U.S. stateU.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
s as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
, U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa
American Samoa
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...
.) Pages for the majority party tend to spend the entire academic year involved in the program; others from the minority party may apply and continue through the school year as well.
A page may be nominated by any representative, regardless of party affiliation or district, and there are minimum GPA requirements for appointment (3.0 GPA +). Candidates must be at least 16 years of age at the time of service, and must serve during either their junior year or during the summer immediately before or after the junior year. Candidates are required to submit high school transcripts as well as information about extracurricular activities and other criteria, as well as an essay and three letters of recommendation. (Individual representatives may require a candidate to provide more information or to do an interview by phone or in person). All final selections for the majority pages are made by the Speaker of the House
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...
, and for minority pages the decision is made by the minority leader.
It is a general rule that only one nominee is permitted per representative, except for party leadership (although during the 104th Congress
104th United States Congress
The One Hundred Fourth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1995 to January 3, 1997, during the third and...
, Duke Cunningham
Duke Cunningham
Randall Harold Cunningham , usually known as Randy or Duke, is United States Navy veteran, convicted felon, and former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from California's 50th Congressional District from 1991 to 2005.Cunningham resigned from the House on November 28,...
successfully lobbied for the joint appointment of twin sisters from Encinitas, California
Encinitas, California
Encinitas is a coastal beach city in San Diego County, California. Located within Southern California, it is approximately north of San Diego in North County and about south of Los Angeles. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 59,518, up from 58,014 at the 2000 census. Encinitas is...
and Gene Taylor successfully lobbied for the appointment of three pages from the Gulf Coast during the 109th Congress
109th United States Congress
The One Hundred Ninth United States Congress was the legislative branch of the United States, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, from January 3, 2005 to January 3, 2007, during the fifth and sixth years of George W. Bush's presidency. House members...
after Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
). During the 110th Congress, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D) was allowed to appoint two twins as Democratic Pages during the second summer session. Also during the 110th Congress, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) was allowed to appoint two pages due to his seniority in Congress and during the 109th Congress, Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) also appointed twin sisters from Atlanta, GA.
Usually, each group of pages, typically referred to as a "class", consists of between 45 and 75 students. Fall and spring classes tend to have between 60 and 72 pages, while summer session classes are larger, being between 70 and 75 pages. Thus, not every representative can nominate a page. During the fall term of the 110th Congress, only 52 pages were appointed by representatives, making it the smallest page class in many years.
Distribution of pages slots are 2:1 in the favor of the majority party in the House. However, each party rarely fills all their slots for the school year terms, leaving the minority page service more shorthanded. During the school year, in most cases, the parties have allowed "cross-aisle" assignments, whereby a small number of majority appointees are allowed to drift across to the minority side for several week stints to better balance the distribution of pages. Majority pages will often seek to help out their friends on the other side of the aisle with large work-loads.
Schooling
House pages serving during the school year attend the House Page School, located on the attic floor of the Jefferson, or main building of the Library of CongressLibrary of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
. Pages are given Library of Congress badges that allow them to access the restricted floor. 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. Common school days end at 8:00 am, 9:00 am, 11:00 am, and 11:30 am.
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 sites in or around Washington. Trips are followed by an activity or reflective journal entry. Journals are graded by the school's counselor and grades count towards the page's "Washington Seminar" class, as shown on his or her transcript.
Clubs and groups may be formed if a Page has the desire 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 are discouraged from participating in clubs or activities that will take time away from studying and/or work.
Pages traditionally form a Model Congress program in the Fall, and a Model United Nations in the Spring. 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. Prior to this, Pages frequently did this on the floor of the House, after the closing gavel.
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'Neill
Tip O'Neill
Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill, Jr. was an American politician. O'Neill was an outspoken liberal Democrat and influential member of the U.S. Congress, serving in the House of Representatives for 34 years and representing two congressional districts in Massachusetts...
(4 times), Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....
(4 times), Jesse Jackson, Jr.
Jesse Jackson, Jr.
Jesse Louis Jackson, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since the special election in 1995. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
(twice), Gene Taylor (twice), Jim Kolbe
Jim Kolbe
James Thomas "Jim" Kolbe is a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives for Arizona's 8th congressional district, serving 11 terms from 1985 to 2007.-Early life:...
(once) and John Boehner
John Boehner
John Andrew Boehner is the 61st and current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. A member of the Republican Party, he is the U.S. Representative from , serving since 1991...
(once). The first Departure Ceremony of the 110th Congress, in June 2007, was keynoted by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and also featured Chairman of the House Page Board
House Page Board
The House Page Board is a group of elected and appointed officials who oversee the United States House of Representatives Page Program.The board was created in 1983, after a congressional page sex scandal, to protect the pages who come from all over the country to serve Congress and originally...
Rep. Dale Kildee, Rep. John Conyers
John Conyers
John Conyers, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1965 . He is a member of the Democratic Party...
, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy
Patrick J. Kennedy
Patrick Joseph Kennedy II is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1995 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes all of Bristol County and Newport County, and parts of Providence County. Kennedy did not seek re-election in 2010.A member of the Kennedy...
, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones
Stephanie Tubbs Jones
Stephanie "Tubbs" Jones was a Democratic politician and member of the United States House of Representatives. She represented the 11th District of Ohio, which encompasses most of downtown and eastern Cleveland and many of the eastern suburbs in Cuyahoga County, including Euclid, Cleveland Heights,...
, and Del. Madeleine Bordallo
Madeleine Bordallo
Madeleine Mary Zeien Bordallo is the Delegate from Guam to the United States House of Representatives.She was the first woman ever to serve as Guam's Delegate, Guam's first female Lieutenant Governor , Guam's first female candidate for Governor , and the first Democratic woman elected to the...
.
During the 110th Congress, in the Fall, pages were given the chance to obtain Library of Congress Reader Cards for the first time in the Page Program's history, giving them access to the large reading rooms available in the Library of Congress. Pages sometimes use their reader cards to gain access to rooms in the library for studying purposes.
Clothing
House Pages wear uniforms during school and while at work in the Capitol. Appointees are required to purchase their own uniform, which consists of navy blazerBlazer
A blazer is a type of jacket. The term blazer occasionally is synonymous with boating jacket and sports jacket, two different garments. A blazer resembles a suit coat cut more casually — sometimes with flap-less patch pockets and metal buttons. A blazer's cloth is usually durable , because it is an...
s, white dress shirt
Dress shirt
A shirt, or dress shirt in American English, is a garment with a collar, a full-length opening at the front from the collar to the hem, and sleeves with cuffs. Shirts are predominantly used by men, since women usually wear blouses...
s, gray slacks for males and gray skirts or slacks for females and black shoes. The Office of the Clerk provides a tie for both males and females. The Office of the Clerk also provides pages with lapel pins and name-tags, which pages must wear at all times. Lost ties, pins, or name-tags cost $10 to replace. Such services used to be provided by the Doorkeeper of House.
Until the early 1960s, pages (then all-male) were required to wear suits with knickers
Knickerbockers (clothing)
Knickerbockers are men's or boys' breeches or baggy-kneed trousers particularly popular in the early twentieth century USA. Golfers' plus twos and plus fours were breeches of this type...
as pants, long after the style had become obsolete for other boys.
Housing
House Pages currently reside at the Page Residence Hall (PRH) at 501 First Street, SE, Washington, D.C., 20002. 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 BuildingO'Neill House Office Building
The O'Neill House Office Building was a congressional office building located near the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Initially known as "House Annex-1", it was named in the late 1980s after former Speaker of the House Thomas "Tip" O'Neill....
at 301 C Street SE, Washington, D.C. 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 accommodate as little as 2 or as many as 4. Boys and girls are split into a Long Wing and a Short Wing. Boys are downstairs and girls are upstairs.
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 pm in-room curfew with 11:00 pm lights-out), a later curfew on weekends, 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
Washington Metro
The Washington Metro, commonly called Metro, and unofficially Metrorail, is the rapid transit system in Washington, D.C., United States, and its surrounding suburbs. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority , which also operates Metrobus service under the Metro name...
system. However, pages are not permitted to hire taxicabs or use the bus system for transportation.
Extra activities
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.
Work
The page's work life revolves around the US Capitol in Washington, D.C.. 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. These employees are not partisan, although there is one Republican Supervisor, and one Democratic Supervisor, 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. 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 to the cloakrooms. At the cloakrooms, a Cloakroom Page, or a Cloakroom Manager will sign that he has received the legislation. It is then brought to the Bill Hopper, or simply, 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. A small, wooden box, cloakroom pages, and Members of Congress are the sole people allowed to put anything into the Hopper.
Other correspondence from offices 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
Architect of the Capitol
The Architect of the Capitol is the federal agency responsible for the maintenance, operation, development, and preservation of the United States Capitol Complex, and also the head of that agency. The Architect of the Capitol is in the legislative branch and is responsible to the United States...
'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 two or 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, socialise, and leave the dormitory unaccompanied—provided that they stay within about a mile radius and return by 4:30 p.m. Currently, Democratic Pages work as flag pages once every two weeks, and Republican pages once a week.
The runners also rotate as Floor Pages. Floor Pages deliver correspondence from the Clerk's Office staff seated at the Rostrum to their counterparts in the basement Office of Legislative Operations, to the Enrolling Clerks. They also respond to page requests by members on the Floor who use the Page Call buttons that every two chairs share.
On a rotating basis, Majority Page runners 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 rotating basis, Majority Page runners 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 rotating basis, Majority Page runners rotate as an Annex runner page. Annex runners make deliveries to the Ford House Office Building (House Annex II), the Page School, the Page Residence Hall, and occasionally the Library of Congress buildings.
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. Cloakroom pages stay as long as Congress is in session, or until special orders begin. 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.
Long-term Page jobs
Additionally, there exist several long-term posts to which certain pages may be assigned.Documentarian Pages
Documentarians, who are only selected from the group of pages in the majority party, (or Documentarian Pages, "Docs") are perhaps the two most visible pages. Seated to the stage-left of the rostrum, these Pages have several important responsibilities. When the House gavels into session, the Documentarians are responsible for raising the US flag on the roof of the south wing of the Capitol, officially notifying the public that the House is in session. At the close of the day, when the House adjourns, they return to the roof and lower the flag. Additionally, they are responsible for activating the bell system which rings throughout the House-side of the Capitol complex, notifying Representatives that the House is in session or that there is a vote. Also, they provide assistance to the various clerks and congressional parliamentarians seated at the rostrum, as well as the Speaker Pro Tempore. Although highly independent, these Pages fall under the de facto supervision of the Timekeeper (Clerk to the Parliamentarian). There are typically six "Docs" that work in pairs. Docs work the longest hours of any pages. They work until the House adjourns, which may be as late as midnight. They must be present during Special Orders, a time when a member may speak for one hour on any subject. Special Orders are conducted after the day's legislative business has ended and typically last until midnight. During Special Orders, provide water to the rostrum and help set up posters for members giving Special Orders.Cloakroom Pages
Each Party Cloakroom has Cloakroom Pages (or "cloakies") that provide direct assistance to Members of Congress when on the floor and assist the cloakroom staff. Cloakroom Pages answer the cloakrooms phones, and transfer the calls to the booths in the cloakroom. When a congressional staffer wants to talk with a Member, Cloakroom pages must go on the Floor and notify that member. These pages also have to convey messages between Congressmen. For this reason, Cloakroom pages must memorize all of the Representatives of that political party, by name, face, and state. Additionally, Cloakroom Pages help maintain official cloakroom records of daily proceedings, including bills before the House for debate and votes. Miscellaneous tasks include 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; and to make sure that every member present remembers to vote. These pages fall under the de facto supervision of the managers of the respective cloakrooms. Currently, the majority Democratic Cloakroom has four cloakroom pages and the minority Republicans have four as well. 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.Compensation and fees
For their average of 40 hours of work per week, Pages earn $21,134.00 annually, with a monthly gross salary of $1,761.91 ($11.01 hourly).Automatic deductions are made for federal and local taxes (based upon the individual page's permanent residence), social security, and the Residence Hall fee. The Residence Hall fee
is $400/month in room and board fees. Pages are given an allowance of $20 Monday through Thursday, and $10 on Friday for food in the House side of the Capitol. In addition, the Residence Hall provides food for the pages on Sundays for dinner, and breakfast is provided for them in the dormitory every weekday morning.
Pages are paid on the last working day of the month.
Notable pages
- William B. CushingWilliam B. CushingWilliam Barker Cushing was an officer in the United States Navy, best known for sinking the Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle during a daring nighttime raid on October 27, 1864, a feat for which he received the Thanks of Congress.-Early life and career:Cushing was born in Delafield, Wisconsin,...
, (naval hero of the American Civil WarAmerican Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
) - John DingellJohn DingellJohn David Dingell, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1955 . He is a member of the Democratic Party...
- 1938-1941 (U.S. Congressman) - Paul E. KanjorskiPaul E. KanjorskiPaul E. Kanjorski is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1985 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party.The district includes the cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and Hazleton, as well as most of the Poconos....
- 1953-1955 (U.S. Congressman) - Robert BaumanRobert BaumanRobert Edmund Bauman is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 1st congressional district. Bauman was a prominent conservative advocate in the House, but lost re-election in 1980 following a political scandal involving male prostitution.-Early life and career:Bauman...
- 1953-1955 (U.S. Congressman) - Bill EmersonBill EmersonNorvell William "Bill" Emerson was an American politician from Missouri. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 until his death in 1996. He was succeeded in the House by his widow, Jo Ann Emerson...
- 1953-1955 (U.S. Congressman) - Jed Johnson, Jr.Jed Johnson, Jr.Jed Joseph Johnson, Jr. was a U.S. Representative from Oklahoma, son of Jed Joseph Johnson.Born in Washington, D.C., Johnson attended public schools in Chickasha, Oklahoma, and Friends Seminary in New York City. He served as a congressional page and graduated from the Capitol Page School in...
- ?-1957 (U.S. Congressman) - Jim Johnson - 1959 (1st African-American to be selected as a page, but was not allowed to serve)
- Ander CrenshawAnder CrenshawAnder Crenshaw is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life, education and career:...
- June 1961 (U.S. Congressman) - Douglas H. BoscoDouglas H. BoscoDouglas Harry Bosco is a former U.S. Representative from California.Born in Brooklyn, New York, Bosco attended Homestead High School, Sunnyvale, California. He graduated from the Capitol Page School in Washington, D.C., 1963. He received a B.A. from Willamette University in 1968 and a J.D. from...
- ?-1963 (U.S. Congressman) - Rush D. Holt Jr.Rush D. Holt Jr.Rush Dew Holt, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for . He is a member of the Democratic Party. He is currently the only Quaker in Congress.-Early life and education :Rush D. Holt was born to Rush D...
- Summers 1963 & 1964 (U.S. Congressman) - Bill Owens - (Governor of Colorado)
- Andrew NapolitanoAndrew NapolitanoAndrew Paolo Napolitano is a former New Jersey Superior Court Judge and now a political and legal analyst for Fox News Channel. Napolitano started on the channel in 1998, and currently serves as the network's senior judicial analyst, commenting on legal news and trials...
- 1966 (New Jersey Superior Court Judge & current contributor to Fox News) - Thomas M. DavisThomas M. DavisThomas Milburn "Tom" Davis III was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Virginia's 11th congressional district in Northern Virginia. Davis was considering a run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by five-term incumbent and fellow Republican John...
, 1963-1967 - (U.S. Congressman) - Roger WickerRoger WickerRoger Frederick Wicker is the junior U.S. Senator from Mississippi and a member of the Republican Party. In December 2007 he was appointed by Governor Haley Barbour to fill the seat vacated by Trent Lott. He subsequently won the 2008 special election for the remainder of the term. Wicker served...
- 1967 (U.S. Congressman and Senator) - Bill GatesBill GatesWilliam Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
- 1972 (Founder/CEO of Microsoft) - David BeasleyDavid BeasleyDavid Muldrow Beasley is a Republican who served one term as the 113th Governor of South Carolina from 1995 until 1999....
- (Governor of South Carolina) - Maura ConnellyMaura ConnellyAmbassador Maura Connelly is an American diplomat.President Obama nominated Ambassador Connelly, a 25-year veteran of the Foreign Service, as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Lebanon in June 2010. Ambassador Connelly was confirmed by the Senate in August 2010 and sworn in by Secretary of...
- 1975-1977 (Ambassador/U.S. diplomat) - R. Donahue PeeblesR. Donahue PeeblesRoy Donahue “Don” Peebles is a real estate entrepreneur, author and political activist. Peebles is the chairman and chief executive officer of the Peebles Corp., the largest African American real estate development and ownership company in the US, with a multi-billion dollar development portfolio...
- 1976-1978 (entrepreneur) - Dave HuntDave Hunt (Oregon politician)Dave Hunt is an American politician in the state of Oregon. A Democrat, he is the State Representative for District 40 of the Oregon House of Representatives. He was elected House Majority Leader for the 2006–2008 session, succeeding Minority Leader Jeff Merkley, who was chosen as Speaker...
- 1985 (Oregon House Speaker) - Dan BorenDan BorenDaniel David "Dan" Boren is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. The district includes most of the eastern part of the state outside of Tulsa...
- Summer 1989 (U.S. Congressman) - Emilie Klein
- Jonathan TurleyJonathan TurleyJonathan Turley is an American lawyer, legal scholar, writer, commentator, and legal analyst in broadcast and print journalism...
- 1977-78 (Law Professor, Legal Commentator, Litigator)
Program history
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
Jacob K. Javits
Jacob Koppel "Jack" Javits was a politician who served as United States Senator from New York from 1957 to 1981. A liberal Republican, he was originally allied with Governor Nelson Rockefeller, fellow U.S...
(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.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061002/ap_on_go_co/congress_page_history_2;_ylt=AtTSvuu3_J6odUo7tSb9eruMwfIE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2ZGZwam4yBHNlYwNmYw--
Pages involved in rescue
On March 1, 1954, members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist PartyPuerto Rican Nationalist Party
The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party was founded on September 17, 1922. Its main objective is to work for Puerto Rican Independence.In 1919, José Coll y Cuchí, a member of the Union Party of Puerto Rico, felt that the Union Party was not doing enough for the cause of Puerto Rican independence and he...
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)
U.S. Capitol shooting incident (1954)
The United States Capitol shooting incident of 1954 was an attack on March 1, 1954 by four Puerto Rican nationalists who shot 30 rounds from semi-automatic pistols from the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Representatives chamber in the United States Capitol.The attackers, Lolita Lebrón, Rafael...
Congressman Alvin Bentley was seriously wounded by a bullet fired by Lolita Lebrón
Lolita Lebrón
Dolores "Lolita" Lebrón Sotomayor was a Puerto Rican nationalist who wasconvicted of attempted murder and other crimes after leading an assault on the United States House of Representatives in 1954,...
. Six pages carried Congressman Bentley (R-Michigan) off the house floor. The famous photograph of pages carrying Congressman Bentley can be found in the Page Residence Hall as well as the Republican Cloakroom and Page school; two of the pages in the picture later became members of Congress: Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) and Bill Emerson (R-MO)
Bill Emerson
Norvell William "Bill" Emerson was an American politician from Missouri. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 until his death in 1996. He was succeeded in the House by his widow, Jo Ann Emerson...
, for whom the main assembly hall in the Page School is named. A bullet hole from the attack can still be found directly above the Democratic Page desk.
1983 sex and drug scandal
In 1983, it came to light that Representatives Dan CraneDan Crane
Daniel Bever Crane is a dentist and a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He served as a Republican congressman from 1979 to 1985. In 1983, he was censured by the House....
(R-Ill.) and Gerry Studds
Gerry Studds
Gerry Eastman Studds was an American Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts who served from 1973 until 1997. He was the first openly gay member of Congress in the U.S. In 1983 he was censured by the House of Representatives after he admitted to having had an affair with a 17-year-old page in...
(D-Mass) had engaged in sexual relationships with 17-year-old congressional pages. In Crane's case, it was a 1980 relationship with a female page and in Studds's case, it was a 1973 relationship with a male page. Because Washington, D.C.'s age of consent
Age of consent
While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes, when used in relation to sexual activity, the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. The European Union calls it the legal age for sexual...
is 16, no crimes were committed. The House Ethics Committee reprimanded both on July 14, 1983. However, Representative Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....
demanded the expulsion of both Congressmen. On July 20, the House voted for censure, the first time that censure had been imposed for sexual misconduct. Crane, who tearfully apologized for his transgression, lost his bid for reelection in 1984. Studds, however, refused to apologize, and he continued to be reelected until his retirement in 1997.
The House Ethics Committee probe found that James Howarth, who had supervised the House pages until December 1982, when he was given other duties, had had sex in 1980 with one of his 17-year-old female wards. The report also accused Howarth of buying cocaine in the House's Democratic cloakroom, possibly from another House staffer. He resigned prior to formal House action (Nov. 15, 1983). Also implicated were Majority Assistant Cloakroom Manager Robert Yesh, who was accused of selling and using cocaine; using marijuana and cocaine with House pages; resigned (April 15, 1983); and pleaded guilty to two federal misdemeanors (March 9, 1983) and James Beattie (Doorkeeper's Office), who was accused of selling and using cocaine; resigned (May 16, 1983); and pleaded guilty to two federal misdemeanors (July 28, 1983).
2002 marijuana scandal
In 2002, eleven pages were dismissed for using marijuana. The incident occurred after a female page who had family in the Washington, D.C., invited fellow pages to her home, where marijuana was used while the teenagers were unsupervised. That page later brought drugs to the dormitory and was turned in to authorities by someone else.2006 email and internet message scandal
The Mark Foley scandal involved the now former Republican congressman Mark FoleyMark Foley
Mark Adam Foley is a former member of the United States House of Representatives. He served from 1995 until 2006, representing the 16th District of Florida as a member of the Republican Party....
, who sent emails and instant messages of a sexual nature to several former congressional pages. Page Board Chairman John Shimkus
John Shimkus
John Mondy Shimkus is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He is a member of the Republican Party....
said "that in late 2005 he learned — through information passed along by Rodney Alexander
Rodney Alexander
Rodney McKinnie Alexander is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district covers twenty-two parishes in roughly the northeast quadrant of the state...
's office — about an e-mail exchange in which Foley asked about the youngster's well-being after Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
, and requested a photograph."
After this revelation, other Congressional pages came forward with similar stories about Congressman Foley. Graphic conversations between Foley and several pages using AOL Instant Messenger
AOL Instant Messenger
AOL Instant Messenger is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997...
were released by ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
on September 29, 2006; Foley resigned the same day. United States Secretary of Transportation
United States Secretary of Transportation
The United States Secretary of Transportation is the head of the United States Department of Transportation, a member of the President's Cabinet, and fourteenth in the Presidential line of succession. The post was created with the formation of the Department of Transportation on October 15, 1966,...
Ray LaHood
Ray LaHood
Raymond H. "Ray" LaHood is a Republican politician from Illinois who is currently the United States Secretary of Transportation, having served since 2009. Previously, he represented the Illinois's 18th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives for seven terms .-Early life and...
(R-IL) has since suggested suspending the program.
Rep. Sue Kelly, who was Chairwoman of the Page Board from 1998 to 2001, was caught up in the scandal when three pages said they were aware of Foley's inappropriate attention toward pages during her tenure.
End of the program
On August 8, 2011, Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced in a joint statement that the House would end the page program, saying technological advancements made page services unnecessary in light of the cost of the program, which is more than $5 million ($69,000-$80,000 per page). "Pages, once stretched to the limit delivering large numbers of documents and other packages between the U.S. Capitol and House office buildings, are today rarely called upon for such services, since most documents are now transmitted electronically," they said. We have great appreciation for the unique role that Pages have played in the history and traditions of the House of Representatives. This decision was not easy, but it is necessary due to the prohibitive cost of the program and advances in technology that have rendered most Page-provided services no longer essential to the smooth functioning of the House. The Senate page programUnited States Senate Page
A United States Senate Page is a non-partisan federal employee serving the United States Senate in Washington, DC. Despite the non-partisan affiliation, Pages are typically divided to serve the party that appointed them.-Selection:In order to become a US Senate Page, one must first be nominated...
will continue.
See also
- United States Senate PageUnited States Senate PageA United States Senate Page is a non-partisan federal employee serving the United States Senate in Washington, DC. Despite the non-partisan affiliation, Pages are typically divided to serve the party that appointed them.-Selection:In order to become a US Senate Page, one must first be nominated...
- Canadian Senate Page ProgramCanadian Senate Page ProgramEach year, 15 individuals are chosen from hundreds of youth through a national competition to work as a Page for the Senate of Canada. Pages are primarily responsible for assisting Senators and table officers throughout sittings of the Senate by fulfilling various requests as well as those of...
- Canadian House of Commons Page ProgramCanadian House of Commons Page ProgramA House of Commons Page is a non-partisan employee of the Canadian House of Commons. They perform both ceremonial and administrative duties including:* Participation in the Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons' Parade and Royal Assent...
- Boys/Girls StateBoys/Girls StateBoys State and Girls State are summer leadership and citizenship programs sponsored by the American Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary for high school students between their junior and senior years. Boys and Girls State programs both began in 1937 and are held in each of the U.S. states ,...
- House Page BoardHouse Page BoardThe House Page Board is a group of elected and appointed officials who oversee the United States House of Representatives Page Program.The board was created in 1983, after a congressional page sex scandal, to protect the pages who come from all over the country to serve Congress and originally...
External links
- House Page Program Official Web site
- Oral History of the U.S. House of Representatives: Frank Mitchell The first African-American Page gives a first-hand account of his service, 1965-1966.
- Oral History of the U.S. House of Representatives: Bill Goodwin Information about the daily routine and education of House Pages (1953–1955), as well as an eyewitness account of the March 1, 1954 shooting in the House Chamber.
- Oral History of the U.S. House of Representatives: Glenn Rupp A first-hand account of life as a House Page in the 1930s.
- United States House Page Association of America
- U.S. House Page Alumni Association
- Congressional Page Association
- Congressional Page Class of 1984
- Congressional Page Class 1986
- Congressional Page Class 1988 - 1989
- Congressional Page Class 2001
- What's the deal with ... Congressional Pages? From TheCapitol.Net
- U.S. Capitol Page Alumni Association