Earlier today I tweeted a request for evidence that members of the House Appropriations Committee used to be granted staff designees — staffers paid by the committee that are chosen by and serve the individual members of the committee — but that the designees are being phased out. The following is evidence of that practice.
Section 3, clause 1 of the House Appropriations Committee Rules for the 111th Congress provide for all members of the Appropriations Committee to choose staff designees in a section entitled “Assistants to Members.” It states:
Each of the top twenty-one senior majority and minority Members of the full Committee may select and designate one staff member who shall serve at the pleasure of that Member. Effective as of such date as the Chairman may determine, all other Members of the Committee may also each select and designate one such staff member.
Compare that to Section 3, clause b of the House Appropriations Committee Rules for the 114th Congress, which also concerns “Assistants to Members.” It states:
(1) Each Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of a Subcommittee or the Full Committee, including a Chairman Emeritus, may select and designate one staff member who shall serve at the pleasure of that Member.
(2) Notwithstanding (b)(1), the Chairman may prescribe such terms and conditions necessary to achieve a reduction in the number of Assistants to Members previously designated by a Member of the Committee prior to the adoption of the Rules of the House establishing the Committee for the 112th Congress.
In other words, chairs and ranking members of the subcommittee still get staff designees. Rank-and-file members who joined the Appropriations Committee prior to the 112th Congress are permitted to keep their staff designees subject to certain conditions. But members who joined the Committee starting at the 112th Congress no longer are provided staff designees.
I wonder whether this is true for other committees?
Update (12/14, 2016): It is true for the House Foreign Affairs Committee. See the Committee’s Rule 20(b):
(b) Designated Persons. Each Committee Member is permitted to designate one member of his or her staff as having the right of access to information classified Confidential. Such designated persons must have the proper security clearance, have executed the oath required by clause 13 of rule XXIII of the House of Representatives, and have a need to know as determined by his or her 16 principal. Upon request of a Committee Member in specific instances, a designated person also shall be permitted access to information classified Secret which has been furnished to the Committee pursuant to section 36 of the Arms Export Control Act, as amended. Upon the written request of a Committee Member and with the approval of the Chairman in specific instances, a designated person may be permitted access to other classified materials. Designation of a staff person shall be by letter from the Committee Member to the Chairman
— Written by Daniel Schuman
