![handle is hein.journals/hjl60 and id is 1 raw text is:
A HOUSE DECAYING: RE-EMPOWERING THE
LEGISLATURE AND MAKING CONGRESS
GREAT AGAIN
REPRESENTATIVE BILL PASCRELL, JR.* AND
MARK GREENBAUMt
I. INTRODUCTION
On an evening in mid-January 2022, an Instagram handle popular with
Capitol Hill staffers1 asked its followers to share horror stories about work-
ing for congressmembers in Washington, D.C.2 Even though it was a Friday
night, a tidal wave of responses flooded into the account.3 The accompany-
ing anecdotes, which poured in for months, would fill over 100 separate
Instagram stories and balloon the niche account's following to over 90,000
users by the summer.4
Before long, these colorful, sometimes salacious stories gripped the at-
tention of the small ecosystem that makes up Capitol Hill staff and media.
Chatter among low- and mid-level staff about congressional worker unioni-
zation efforts bubbled up so loudly that Speaker Nancy Pelosi eventually
placed a resolution on the House floor that would sanction unionization by
non-management House staff.' The measure passed on May 10, 2022,6 a
stunning turnaround for a cause that had lain dormant for decades, spurred
forward by improbable social media advocacy.7
* Member, U.S. House of Representatives (NJ-09). Congressman Pascrell has represented
New Jersey in Congress since 1997. He served as Chairman of the House Ways and Means
Subcommittee on Oversight in the 117th Congress. Pascrell was a member of the New Jersey
State Assembly from 1988-1997 and Mayor of Paterson, New Jersey from 1990-1997. Prior
to serving in office, Pascrell was a longtime public school teacher and is a veteran of the U.S.
Army and U.S. Army Reserves. Congressman Pascrell is a lifelong resident of Paterson. B.A.
and M.A., Fordham University.
tChief Counsel and Communications Director, Office of Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr.;
J.D., Rutgers Law School; B.A., Cornell University.
' See Dear White Staffers (@dear-white-staffers), INSTAGRAM, https://www.instagram.
com/dear-white-staffers/?hl=EN (last visited Aug. 25, 2022).
2 Ruby Cramer, The Man Behind the Account that Blew Up Capitol Hill, POLITICO (Apr.
29, 2022), https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/04/29/the-person-behind-the-
account-that-blew-up-capitol-hill-00028270 [https://perma.cc/DKG6-GNDR].
3 Id.
' See Dear White Staffers, supra note 1.
s See Cramer, supra note 2.
6 Deepa Shivaram, House Votes to Allow Congressional Staffers to Unionize, NPR (May
11, 2022), https://www.npr.org/2022/05/06/1097103804/house-vote-congressional-staffers-
unionize [https://perma.cc/VR8T-4MP3].
7 Discussion of congressional unionization goes back decades. See James J. Brudney,
Congressional Accountability and Denial: Speech or Debate Clause and Conflict of Interest
Challenges to Unionization of Congressional Employees, 36 HARV. J. ON LEGIS. 1, 5-6 (1999).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/hjl60&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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