Members-elect now have access to better training before they are sworn into office.
Why This Matters
Many newly elected Representatives arrive on their first day of work in need of training — teachers, doctors, stay-at-home parents, radio hosts, and business owners suddenly find themselves as voting members of the House of Representatives. However, with only eight weeks between Election Day and the start of a new Congress (and that period falling over the Thanksgiving to New Years season) new Members are not set up for success nearly as much as constituents would assume.
Each Member-elect has a long list of decisions they must make between the time they win their race to the start of each Congress when they are officially sworn in to represent their district. This includes
interviewing and hiring a full staff (in both DC and their home district),
choosing and leasing the buildings where their district offices will be,
learning about and vying for committee placements,
selecting their technology packages and programs that will help them communicate with their constituents,
learning how the nitty-gritty of the legislative process works, and more.
All of these tasks must be completed, but often Members-elect are in the dark about the right decisions to make. Afterall, none of them have been in the position before, so how are they to know the skill sets to look for when they are hiring their legislative team or what type of building is the best to lease for a district office?
The repercussions of not sufficiently onboarding Members goes beyond being a frustrating experience for the newly elected individual: it threatens constituents’ ability to be adequately represented in Congress. If a new Member is struggling to accomplish even the basic tasks of getting the mountain of personnel paperwork filed just to have a team in place by January how can they be successful in performing all of their duties and represent their constituents out of the gate in a new Congress? Simply put: they can’t. Playing catch up before the game even begins sets Members up for failure. Freshmen Members on ModCom knew that improvements could be made to this onboarding experience and actively engaged in making recommendations to support their future peers.
How It Happened
Rather than resigning themselves to such an inauspicious start to their Congressional careers, in July 2019, freshman Members on ModCom — who had just been onboarded as newly elected representatives — took the reins on leading a discussion on New Member Orientation (NMO) resulting in a number of recommendations.
For example, recommendation #147 led to the creation of the Transition Aide Program at the start of the 117th Congress by CAO and CHA. This program provides each Member-elect with one paid Transition Aide in addition to a volunteer (known as the Designated Aide) to assist the Member in getting their Congressional office hired, trained, organized, and open for service to constituents by the start of the new Congress.
Beyond the direct Member assistance provided by the new Transition Aides, freshman Members also identified the confusion for both them and new staff in navigating the House’s internal support network. The House is a sprawling complex that includes six buildings and nearly twenty operational offices that serve the 441 Members and Delegates and their staff. Learning this system — of which little to none is physically mapped out on paper — had been a persistent cause of frustration for both new and senior Members. Recognizing the need for the House to better support Members and staff in understanding and using the resources available to them, ModCom made recommendation #22, calling on the House to create one institutional point of contact for each Member office to aid with technology questions as well as broader institutional navigational support. In addressing Members’ desires for ‘a person to call when I don’t know where to turn,’ the CAO implemented this recommendation through creation of the Customer Advocate Program. Every Member and their staff (starting at New Member Orientation) is now assigned a specific Customer Advocate who is their point of contact for navigating all non-legislative functions of the House, from payroll and benefits to IT.
But increasing Member support to ensure they are best equipped to serve their constituents hasn’t stopped there. Since Members come from all walks of life with a variety of skill sets, professional development training — from how to manage a team spread between two locations; to how to navigate a high-pace, public environment; to public speaking — is vitally needed but lacking. This leads many Member-elects to simply dive into the deep end and do the best they can. Prior to the 117th Congress, no House-sponsored professional development programs or infrastructure existed for Members beyond ad-hoc mentorship pairings organized through party leadership. The recognition of an institutionally hosted solution led to ModCom recommendation #15.
The recommendation was implemented in 2022 when CAO launched the Member Leadership Development Program after piloting the concept and receiving positive feedback from participating Members. Now, Members have the ability to enroll and be paired with an independent, nonpartisan executive coaching team that can assist with their professional development as they navigate their representational, leadership, and management demands.
The Impact
The success of the Customer Advocate Program, the Member Leadership Development Program, and the addition of Transition Aides at NMO are Member-focused, implemented improvements brainstormed and crafted by Members from all levels of seniority. They lay the groundwork and provide a model for additional institutionally hosted resources in need of refinement and advancement, including but not limited to boosting Member historical policy education, understanding of the Executive branch, data-utilization training, IT tool upskilling (including emerging technology and cybersecurity training), and physical threat assessment and risk mitigation.
With improved onboarding and continual training and support, newly elected Memberscan be better equipped to succeed, leveling the playing field for freshmen to be effective beginning in year one of the term in office throughout the length of their tenure. From Members’ effectiveness, all else flows; the better they can be set up for success, the faster their constituents are adequately represented in Congress.
Next Steps
Increasing support for Members-elect during New Member Orientation (NMO) through the continual development of resources like the Customer Advocate Program, Member Leadership Development Program, and Transition Aide Program has had a positive impact on the new Member experience. However, additional improvements to the onboarding of newly elected Members can be made.
For some ideas in need of implementation champions, we recommend checking out the recommendations made in our report, New Member Orientation: Successful Onboarding for a Modern Legislature. We also encourage all Members and staff to get involved. All Members have gone through NMO and by reflecting on that experience, how it can be improved, or what they wish would have been emphasized, every Member can provide their feedback to the CHA, which hosts NMO every two years. Another easy way to help a new Member or staffer on the Hill is through mentorship or volunteering at the onboarding events.
If you or your Member wishes to explore what being involved in NMO could entail, we recommend you reach out to the CHA.
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
