The House has centralized a House Intern Resource Office (HIRO), providing structured professional development and mentorship opportunities for interns.
Why This Matters
Interns play an essential role in the House ecosystem by supporting core constituent services and operational functions, as well as being the institution’s main talent pipeline. For decades, Congress had no dedicated office tasked with overseeing the quantity of paid internship opportunities, their fair distribution, or ensuring that pay is adequate, particularly for the numerous students employed and residing in Washington, DC (which has become one of the most expensive US cities). Congress as an institution had no way to compile information and statistics regarding Congressional internships, as this responsibility largely fell to external organizations rather than Congress.
This absence of centralized monitoring and record-keeping hinders the ability to gauge where Congress needs to enhance its efforts in outreach, representation, and adopting best practices. Such gaps negatively affect the accessibility for non-traditional candidates and weaken the breadth of the pipeline. Furthermore, it places the responsibility on individual Congressional offices to manage outreach, initiation, and training for their interns.
How It Happened
ModCom saw the importance of examining these issues and others around the intern and intern management experience and hosted a series of discussions and hearings, including “Professionalizing and Enriching the Congressional Internship and Fellowship Experience” in April 2021 and “Pathways to Congressional Service” in June of 2022. This led to a number of recommendations around strengthening the internship, fellowships, and public service pipeline, including recommendation #110 to establish an Intern and Fellowship Program Office or Coordinator in the House.
Building off of this momentum, report language was included in the FY22 Legislative Branch Appropriations bill directing the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, working in coordination with the CAO, to conduct a study on the feasibility of creating a centralized House internship and fellowship office to provide support services to Congressional interns as well as act as a resource hub for standing committees, leadership offices, and House Member offices. Outside advocates also submitted public witness testimony and raised public awareness on the importance of creating such an office within the House.
Appropriators heard the call from Members and advocates and included $350,000 for the creation of a House Intern Resource Office (HIRO) in the FY23 Legislative Branch Appropriations bill. In 2023, the CAO officially launched the HIRO web portal, which received more than 1,700 web clicks within its first months of going live, demonstrating the immense need and value of such a service. The HIRO office has officially been stood up in the House as of summer 2024.
Additional scoping of HIRO’s potential role in supporting interns had taken place over years prior though intern-focused programming hosted by a collaboration of civil society organizations and nonprofits known as the First Branch Intern Project. Starting in fall 2021, the First Branch Intern Project hosted eight "Internapalooza" welcome and orientation events for Congressional interns, attracting thousands of attendees. The events were initially held in collaboration with ModCom and later with CHA. The success of Internapalooza contributed to the establishment of the HIRO, which will institutionalize many of the project’s initiatives, such as data collection, orientation events, and support for intern coordinators.
The Impact
The HIRO assists offices in establishing best practices for offices and intern coordinators to adopt, and supports interns’ professional development and job placement in a nonpartisan way. Additionally, engagement with the HIRO sets interns up with a better understanding of the institutional resources available to them if they decide to pursue a career in the House.
Next Steps
The creation and establishment of the HIRO has proven to be a significant step forward in supporting the integral role that interns play within the House of Representatives. While $350,000 is a strong start for such a support office, the House should ensure HIRO has the adequate funds it needs to accomplish its mission; it must continuously ascertain if the office needs additional FTEs or office space within the House.
Recognizing the value and contributions of interns, there is still a need for a similar entity to support and empower interns and intern coordinators in the Senate. That would require Senators to encourage the Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Office of the Senate Secretary to establish a Senate Intern Resource Office to be the companion of the HIRO.
Glossary
ADA = Americans with Disabilities Act
AOC = Architect of the Capitol
CHA = Committee on House Administration
CAO = House Chief Administrative Officer
CDTF = Congressional Data Task Force
COLA = Cost-of-Living Adjustment
CPF = Community Project Funding
CR = Continuing Resolution
GAO = Government Accountability Office
GAO STAA = The Government Accountability Office’s Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics team
GenAI = Generative Artificial Intelligence
HIRO = House Intern Resource Office
HDS = House Digital Service
LIS = Legislative Information Service
LLM = Large Language Model
MIA = Modernization Initiatives Account
ModCom = The House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress
ModSub = Subcommittee on Modernization (ModSub) within the Committee on House Administration
MOU = Memorandum of Understanding
NMO = New Member Orientation
OCWR = Office of Congressional Workplace Rights
