U.S. Senate Page

prankityclankity
Sat, 04 Aug 2007 20:04:56 +0000

Ok, I have been getting several PM’s about applying to the page program, so I thought it’d be more useful if I paste a message I sent to someone here so more people can see it, including the OP…

First of all, I’m only familiar with the House’s application process, but I’d imagine the Senate application process is similiar so it shouldn’t make much a difference.

When I first became a page, there was very little information on the program and now the only site with information are network news sites about the Foley scandal, which is VERY inaccurate. A good website (which I’m also a member of) is pagealumni.us. It covers a lot of information such as applying, page life, etc…

First what you need to do is find out your member of Congress. Once you do that, go to his or her website and go to “constituent services” and then go to “page nominations”. Do what they direct you to do when you click the link. Some members don’t have this feature on thier website which is common. If you’re lucky your member might even have the application on his website. I called the Washington DC office for my member and I spoke to the intern who had no idea what I was talking about so she put me through to the intern coordinator, who wasn’t in the office at the time, so I left a voicemail. She never got back to me. Don’t let this discourage you because it will happen often. You will have to really pound the pavement. I went on my member’s website and filled out a contact form and expressed interest in becoming a page. I also got the e-mail address to the chief-of-staff and I emailed him for more information. I contacted them in mid-Febuary of '06 mind you. Summer applications are useally released in January and semester applications are released in March. I recieved my application in late April, after bugging my member’s office like crazy.

Page applications include the application, high school transcript, essay, resume, parent consent form, and 3 letters of recommendation. When it comes time to mail in your application, mail to the district office or fax it to the Washington office but do NOT mail it to the Washington office because FBI scans EVERYTHING, so it’ll take weeks before they recieve it. Only do so if you are explicitly told.

Depending on the district you live in will determine the competitivness. Some districts have no applicants, others have 70. Members have different processes of selecting applications to nominate. Some members sponor the only person that applied, some require interviews and supplamental material, and other will nominate thier biggest donor’s son or even a kid of thier own. Keep in mind due to the Foley scandal the program is more well known about so applications have increased. Once your member decides to nominate you, you go to a second pool of applicants. These applicants consist of everyone who has secured a nomination. It is to your advantage if you have a Democratic sponsor because Democrats get 2/3rds of the pages while Republicans only get 1/3, so the odds would be in your favor. It’d be even more helpful if your sponsor was a ranking member.

If you are having trouble getting an application, you can always try contacting the speakers office/seargent at arms/office of the clerk (they oversee the program) too because they release the applications. Some kids applied to not only thier home district member, but to several across the state (regulations prohibit sponsoring a page from outside the state, but leadership can). Most members only sponsor pages from thier home district, but one kid i know applied to eleven congressman, and several kids were sponsored by members of congress who werent thier constituents. Also after you apply and you don’t hear anything from the office, dont let that get you down. I didnt hear anything from my member’s office until I got a call to get an interview from the page board. I called the members office in late July to find out if I was selected to be a page.

Also there are some exceptions to when applications come out. I was in DC during the election and when I found out the Republicans lost the house, I was upset because I could be going home (I was a Republican page, and I did go home. I look back now on it as a blessing though) The Republican advisors figured out a way so that all pages could stay second semester and still accept new pages, but speaker Pelosi didnt want conservatives or people with Republican sympathies on her side, so we got sent hom. She re-released applications and appointed her donor’s sons and daughters. Atleast Speaker Hastert was open-minded enough to allow liberals as Republican pages (we had quite a few). But hey – it’s politics. Pelosi is a mean woman, stay out of her way. She even prohibited Pages from the Speakers Balcony, can you believe that? Psh.

Regarding Foley, I know some parents are hesitant to allow thier kids to go to DC. But be assured that the program is very strict on safety and what happened wasn’t because those safety precautions failed. I was in DC when the scandal broke, and it was fun at first getting all this attention from the media, but got obnoxious after a while. I saw myself on CNN and MSNBC but they were interfering with our work. We were followed by cameras on the job. Not fun.

I know It’s a loooong post, but hopefully useful. There is little infomration about the program, so PM me if you have any questions.