A Democratic takeover of the House means more than just setting a new agenda and vigorous investigations into the Trump administration — it also means hundreds of jobs for Democrats in Washington, D.C.
Nancy Pelosi’s party hasn’t controlled the House since 2010, which means they only get the rights to hire about one-third of the staff in the 21 primary House committees. The other two-thirds are hired by Republicans.
That 2-1 ratio has been in place for about a decade, and that arrangement isn’t expected to change.
“House committees have operated at a 2:1 majority/minority staff ratio for roughly the past decade,” one House staffer told the Washington Examiner. “We would expect that to continue in the next Congress as well.”
If it does, and if Democrats win back the House as expected, that ratio will flip to the Democrats’ favor.
That means hundreds of new jobs for Democrats, and hundreds of lost jobs for Republicans.
Committee jobs can run from the entry level to senior, lucrative positions. Several current committee staffers earn $12,000 or more per month in senior roles such as staff director or general counsel.
In the current Congress, Republicans control a little more than 850 staffers across the 21 major committees, according to Committee on House Administration documents. Democrats control roughly half of that, a bit more than 425.
If Democrats win the House, the GOP would shed about 425 jobs, and Democrats would go on a hiring spree to make up the difference.
The staffing difference at the committee level can be significant on some committees. Committees such as Appropriations, Ways & Means, Oversight and Government Reform, and Homeland Security boast the largest staffs, and in each case, the majority staff outnumbers the minority staff by a few dozen people.
The net number of new jobs created for Democrats would appear to mostly occur in the committees. Lawmakers already get funding for their own personal staff, and Republicans and Democrats already have roughly the same number of staff in place to serve their leadership teams.
