New report finds House offices lack diversity

A new report has found a staggering lack of racial diversity among top staff members in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Despite people of color making up 40 percent of the country’s population, only 18 percent of all top House staff are people of color, according to a report by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. 

That 18 percent is actually an increase from the 13.7 percent the Joint Center found when it first conducted the study in 2018, said LaShonda Brenson, senior researcher at the Joint Center and lead researcher for the report. But since then, things like the COVID-19 pandemic, a presidential election and a midterms cycle pushed the Joint Center to revisit the data. 

“While it’s encouraging to see that 4 percentage point increase, there are still ways to go in thinking about how staff can be more reflective of the U.S. population,” Brenson said.

The report found that 23 of the 308 personal offices of white representatives are led by chiefs of staff of color. Thirteen of those chiefs of staff work for Democratic members.

At the same time, 80 percent of Black staff directors hired to full committees are employed by members of the Congressional Black Caucus. 

And no top leadership offices in either party have Asian American/Pacific Islander, biracial, Middle Eastern/North African or Native American staffers in any of the top 20 office positions. 

Collecting this data is important to ensure the policies Congress considers are reflective of different perspectives, Brenson said.

“Members of Congress can only be at one place at one time,” she said. “They rely heavily on their senior staff to advise them on various issues, and if that member wants to be able to speak to various constituencies that he or she represents, they need a diverse council to rely on to provide information and provide the current perspective.”

Representatives who belong to left-leaning caucuses, who tend to have more members of color, have more top staff of color than those of conservative caucuses.

People of color make up 40 percent of the top staffers who work for members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus but only about 9 percent of top staffers for members of the House Freedom Caucus. 

“CAPASA will continue to work hard to ensure that members of the AANHPI community and communities of color have opportunities to serve as senior staff in all offices across Congress—including in the leadership offices of both parties,” the Congressional Asian Pacific American Staff Association said in a statement to The Hill, using an abbreviation for Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.

“Diversity should always be a priority and should never be overlooked in any Congressional office, and that includes leadership offices in both the House and the Senate. Although the findings of this report are disappointing, this report is another reminder that a lot of work still needs to be done. We’re always ready as a staff association to do all that we can to elevate backgrounds and experiences from all communities into the senior and management levels on Capitol Hill.”

As a whole, about 5 percent of top staff of color work in the offices of white Republicans.

The latest report follows two others from the Joint Center highlighting racial disparities in the federal government. 

The first, from July, found persistent racial pay disparities among Senate staffers. The second, from September, identified that only 11 percent of President Biden’s high-ranking White House officers are Black, despite Black Americans making up over 20 percent of the president’s voters. 

Brenson said there may be a link between pay disparities and the lack of diversity. 

In May, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced a higher pay scale for House staff, something Benson said was an important move.

“I think it’s really important to consider that pay for all congressional staff increased, but it definitely has a huge impact on the consideration that people of color can make in terms of getting to one of these [top] positions,” said Brenson. “It takes a lot of work, sacrifice, years and tons of relationship building, proving yourself to be in these top positions that we talk about — chief of staff, communications director. It’s very hard to work up to that point while you’re getting a low salary.”

Brenson said the Joint Center has identified ways for Congress to diversify staff. That includes being strategic and specific in the interview and recruitment processes, making sure that politicians are going to various places for recruitment and not relying solely on recommendations from staffers already in the office.

Brenson also said the work of the House Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI), which was established in 2019, is vital to diversification. 

In an email to The Hill, the ODI said it “understands the importance of not only advancing diversity, but also equity, inclusion, and accessibility as levers in driving a sense of belonging on Capitol Hill. “

Like the Joint Center, the ODI conducts its own diversity reports. In 2019, it launched the Compensation and Diversity Survey, a biannual data analysis on compensation, benefits and the demographic diversity of the congressional workforce at the House.

ODI Director Sesha Joi Moon told The Hill in an email that between 2019 and 2021 the House has seen an increase in Black or African American employees as well as Latino or Hispanic employees.

Still, Moon acknowledged that while these are “notable gains, especially during the most diverse Congress in history,” white staffers still comprise more than 69 percent of the congressional workforce — including more than 75 percent of senior-level positions. 

So, she said, the ODI has adopted a “bidirectional approach” to recruitment, specifically to target those positions at the mid- and senior level.

“Our office is making a concerted effort to find diverse talent by meeting the American people where they are,” Moon said. 

The ODI recently returned from a recruitment trip in Puerto Rico as part of the League of United Latin American Citizens 2022 National Convention and Exhibition. The office is now preparing for an upcoming trip to the Society for Human Resource Management’s INCLUSION 2022 conference to help expand the office’s geographic reach to connect with diverse talent in the San Diego area. 

“ODI was established during the pandemic and during this time, all organizations were faced with both adopting and adapting to new ways of working — and Congress was no exception,” Moon said. “This was coupled with a social justice movement that also challenged organizational commitment to the concept of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. In response, our office met this moment as an opportunity to champion more diverse, as well as innovative, hiring practices to help connect candidates to careers at all organizational levels with Congress.”