Page of the United States Senate

A United States Senate Page (Senate Page or simply Page) is a non-partisan federal employee serving the United States Senate in Washington, D.C., under the Senate Page Program. The program is one of the most selective and prestigious in the United States. Despite the non-partisan affiliation, pages are assigned to serve senators of the sponsoring senator's party.

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Places
A group of Senate pages with Vice President Thomas R. Marshall on the steps of the Capitol, c. 1913-1921

History

The Senate Page Program dates back to 1829 when the first page was appointed by Daniel Webster. In addition to the delivery of legislative correspondence, early pages were responsible for refilling ink wells, constructing fires, cleaning spittoons, and fetching chewing tobacco.[1] Until 1995, the education of Senate Pages was provided by the District of Columbia public schools at a school located in the Library of Congress.[2]

Selection

In order to become a U.S. Senate Page, one must first be nominated by a Senator, generally from his or her State. A candidate must be a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old high school sophomore (10th grade) or rising junior (11th grade), with at least a 3.0 GPA. [3] Processes for selection vary by state and senator. Typically, a senator's office will require the applicant to submit a transcript, résumé, and various essays. The process is similar to that of selecting an office employee, and may include interview of final applicants by a board of review. The application process for the program is considered to be extremely competitive, with a high level of interest for a handful of openings.[4]

Students can apply for appointment to one of four terms: a Fall semester (September – January), a Spring semester (January – June), a three- or four-week June session, and a three- or four-week July session. If a vacancy opens during the course of the term, the position can not be filled until the beginning of the next session.

For each session, there are 30 Pages. The majority appoints 16, while the minority appoints 14. [5].

Uniform and appearance

Because U.S. Senate Pages are required to wear uniforms while on the job, they are some of the most recognizable employees of the United States Congress. The uniform consists of a navy blue suit, a white, long sleeve, traditional dress shirt, a name badge, Page insignia lapel pin, and a plain, navy tie (males only). Pages are not allowed to add any decoration to their uniform, and at all times must maintain a conservative appearance.

As expected of most Senate employees, Pages are required to maintain a neat, professional appearance. Boys must be clean-shaven with hair kept short and neat, falling above their ears. Girls must also have their hair neat and kept out of their face. No extraneous jewelry is to be worn. Pages may not wear unnatural nail polish colors or excessive makeup. Pages with unsatisfactory appearances are sent back to Webster Hall.

Residence and free time
Plaque outside the Senate Page Residence

U.S. Senate Pages reside at the Daniel Webster Senate Page Residence. This facility is a former funeral home and was reconfigured in order to provide Pages with a home away from home during their time in Washington. Administration and staff include the Page Program Director, Administrative Assistant, four resident Proctors, and one non-resident Proctor.

Pages are held to extremely high academic and moral standards. They are subject to strict curfews, are prohibited from having personal cell phones or internet access at Webster Hall (with the exception of Senate computers used for school work), and maintain demanding schedules. Pages may be issued demerits, be required to have an earlier curfew, or be restricted to their dorm at certain hours for rule violations. Although Pages are allowed to have personal electronic devices (excluding mobile phones), they may not take photographs or videos, given the confidential nature of their jobs. They are also strictly forbidden from speaking to members of the news media without the permission of the program director.

The living quarters at Webster Hall cover two floors, one for male Pages, the other for female Pages. Each floor has a day room for social activity. All Pages share furnished rooms with other Pages and each room is designed for four or six occupants. Each page room is assigned a daily chore, which must be completed nightly. Each room has closet space, a bathroom, and a single telephone. The Senate Page School, laundry facilities and a kitchen are located on the basement level.

The program provides the pages with two meals per day, seven days per week. Breakfast is provided at the residence from food in the fridge. A bread machine is available upon request. Lunch is provided on weekdays through a meal card at the Senate Cafeterias. On Saturdays, lunch or dinner is usually provided through a voucher for a meal at Union Station or a local eatery, or if the Pages are on a field trip, lunch or dinner will be provided on the trip. On Sundays, the program provides dinner at the residence, or goes out to a restaurant.

Senate Pages having a snowball fight in front of the Capitol, ca. 1925

When not at school or at work, Pages are given some liberty with their free time. Pages are subject to a strict curfew—9:00 p.m. on school nights and 10:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights—and are expected to maintain high standards of behavior. Pages are not permitted to bring personal vehicles with them to the District of Columbia, and they are encouraged to use the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).

On weekends without school or work commitments, Pages spend their time working on school assignments, touring the many attractions in the D.C. area, or simply relaxing from a long week's work. For holidays, Pages return home for Thanksgiving, winter and spring breaks; the residence is closed during these periods.

The Senate Sergeant at Arms is responsible for Webster Hall. Pages are required to keep their living spaces in orderly condition, and are subject to strict room inspections five days a week. Beds must be made, personal items must be stored away, and chores must have been completed. The Architect of the Capitol is charged with cleaning the hall, and the United States Capitol Police maintains a 24-hour post at Webster Hall as well as outside foot and car patrols. Their responsibility is to provide security for the facility and its occupants and to monitor access to the building. Webster Hall is monitored by a security alarm system. The security of Senate Pages is especially important because of their daily proximity to United States Senators and the Vice President of the United States.

School

U.S. Senate Pages (who serve during either of the semester programs) attend school located in the lower level of Webster Hall. The U.S. Senate Page School is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. The Page School requires each student to enroll in four classes, in the various subjects of mathematics, science, English, and social studies. Foreign language tutoring is available. Usually the students receive 5 to 6 hours of homework each night. If they do not maintain at least a C in each class, they are subject to dismissal.

Classes begin weekdays at 6:15 a.m., with class length depending on the Senate schedule. Generally, school ends one hour and 15 minutes before the Senate convenes. If the Senate does not convene, or convenes at 11:00 a.m. or later, school ends at 9:45 a.m. It is possible to have classes as short as 20 minutes, or no classes at all. This is affected by what time the Senate convenes as well as what time it adjourned the previous day. If the Senate is in recess, classes may run as late as noon.

Pages must be in uniform for classes, and may not enter the Page School otherwise (except on weekends to access the library).

The Page School supervises Student Government and the preparation of a yearbook. It also administers Page class rings, which have the Senate emblem and session of the Congress in place of a typical high school's mascot.

Pages are also required to participate in school field trips. Run by the Senate Page School, they are conducted approximately one Saturday a month to sites in or around Washington. These field trips are usually at historically oriented landmarks in the mid-Atlantic area (i.e. Liberty Bell, Philadelphia; DuPont Mills, Delaware; etc.)

Julie E. Adams, the Secretary of the Senate, is responsible for the United States Senate Page School.

Prior to the page residence being moved to Webster Hall, the U.S. Senate Page School was housed in the attic of the Library of Congress. [6]

Summer Pages

During the summer sessions only, pages may live at home or in the homes of their relatives in the Washington, D.C., area. Commuter summer pages fulfill the same duties as the residential summer pages, except that they arrive at 9:00 a.m. and depart at 6:00 p.m. regardless of the action of the Senate that day (residential pages are required to stay until after the Senate adjourns for the day). Commuter pages are allowed to participate in field trips with the other pages. Summer Pages do not attend the Senate Page School.

Work

The Page's work life revolves around the Capitol. A Page serves the party of his/her appointing Senator. Pages are employed by the Sergeant at Arms. The supervision of the Pages at work has been delegated to the Senate cloakrooms.

Senate Pages play an important role in the daily operation of the Senate. Page duties consist primarily of delivery of correspondence and legislative material within the Capitol Complex. Other duties include preparing the Senate Chamber for sessions, taking messages for Senators or calling them to the phone, carrying bills and amendments from the presiding officer's desk. Pages also retrieve lecterns, easels, and water for Senators and clerks. Between tasks when the Senate is in session, pages sit along the steps of either side of the president pro tempore's desk, maintaining availability to assist members on the floor.

Pages play an especially important role when the Senate is conducting a roll call vote. A page from the majority and minority are assigned to the subterranean train system in the basement of the Capitol to ensure Senators arrive to vote. If a Senator is missing during a vote, a page might be dispatched to find the Senator and remind him or her to cast their vote. Pages keep a record of roll call votes and are responsible for informing various offices in the Capitol of the vote's result.

Pages are generally required to report to work one hour before the Senate convenes for the day. Pages are divided into an "early" and "late" shift and alternate hours on and off the rostrum. The early shift leaves at 6:00pm (or when the Senate adjourns, whichever is earlier), while the late shift remains at the Capitol until the Senate adjourns. When the Senate is in session for important business, filibusters, and emergency situations, pages may still be on duty and work into the early hours of the morning. If the Senate adjourns during the late evening or early morning, pages are escorted back to Webster Hall by the United States Capitol Police.

Pages are compensated $25,605 per annum, from which are deducted federal and local (based upon the individual page's permanent residence) taxes and a $780 per month residence fee (unless they are a commuter page).

Benefits

The job of page comes with many perks: working in the Senate Chamber and witnessing political action and legislative debates; access to most areas of the Capitol (such as the Senate Chamber, Marble Room, cloakrooms, and Senate lobby), a perk that most other Senate employees do not have; boarding on Capitol Hill with teenagers from all around the country; a chance to watch joint sessions of Congress, as well as the State of the Union Address; the opportunity to make use of the Library of Congress, United States Senate Library, and other facilities in the Capitol; a chance to tour and see much of what Washington, D.C. as well as surrounding areas and states have to offer; opportunities to meet visiting Heads of State and celebrities visiting the Capitol; daily interaction with senators and staff in a professional environment; the opportunity to meet Cabinet members and other elected officials.

Program Scrutiny

The U.S. Senate Page Program has undergone massive scrutiny throughout the years. The House Page Program was shut down in 2011,[7] following multiple sex scandals involving Pages and members of Congress. While the Senate Page Program remained intact (although it underwent major adjustments), it is sometimes criticized as being overly patronage-based, too demanding on minors, and too isolating for its participants. Pages are not allowed to have personal cell phones during their tenure and are forbidden from accessing the internet at Webster Hall, except for educational purposes. Pages often get less than six hours of sleep a night and must maintain above an 80 percent average in rigorous courses, in addition to working sometimes over 60 hours a week at the Senate. Pages do, however, have free access to healthcare and counseling during their stay in D.C.

Notable former Senate Pages
gollark: I have some hacky CSS patches to revert the new UI to a vaguely usable state.
gollark: I resent all browsers, but Firefox least.
gollark: https://gs.statcounter.com/ puts Chrome at 65%, yes.
gollark: /possibly correct
gollark: Chromium-based, but coral says that's wrong and my information isn't very up to date.

See also

References
  1. https://www.senate.gov/reference/reference_index_subjects/Pages_vrd.htm
  2. https://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/pageschool.pdf
  3. "U.S. Senate: Pages". Archived from the original on 1 June 2017. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  4. https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/page-program-frequently-asked-questions
  5. https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/page-program
  6. "HISTORY OF THE SENATE PAGE SCHOOL" (PDF). United States Senate. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-05-08.
  7. Newhauser, Daniel; Newhauser, Daniel (8 August 2011). "House Ends Page Program". Archived from the original on 18 April 2018 – via www.rollcall.com.
  8. Amy Goldstein and Elizabeth Williamson (21 October 2006). "In Interviews, Pages Say Foley Befriended Wide Circle". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 25 October 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-03.
  9. "Boren statement on Mark Foley investigation". Archived from the original on 2006-10-30. Retrieved 2006-11-03.
  10. "St. Petersburg Times – Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
  11. 2007 Congressional Record, Vol. 153, Page H768
  12. Palmer, Joanne (February 14, 2014). "'And then the phone rang…'; Wyckoff man's adventures in politics and public service"". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on February 4, 2016. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
  13. Jonathan Weisman and James V. Grimaldi, "Kolbe Matter Is Referred to House Ethics Panel: Allegations Involve Contact With Male Former Pages" Archived 2006-10-19 at the Wayback Machine, The Washington Post, October 18, 2006
  14. Heintz, Paul. "Take Back Virginia? Old Dominion Dems Are Counting on Vermont-Born Robby Mook". 7dvt.com. Archived from the original on 2013-09-27.
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-12-25. Retrieved 2017-02-21.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link): Allen K. Lunde: "He was a Senate page as a teenager because his grandfather, who was a senator, was blind and needed him to be his eyes."
  16. United States Congress. "GORMAN, Arthur Pue (id: G000326)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
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