The once-popular House Page Program has been shut down since 2011, but it isn’t dead thanks to a few members and page alumni who hope to revive it to give some lucky high schoolers an inside look at America’s democracy in action.
“I, for one, lament that we do not have a House Page Program any longer,” said Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. “Generations of young people were inspired by their participation in that program to engage in public service, and I remain convinced that we could go back and try to reform that program.”
It was nixed in 2011 when Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and former House Speaker John Boehner said it had become too expensive at $5 million a year. They also cited new technology that made the job of pages delivering notes obsolete. The program also had been dinged with scandal when a former Florida lawmaker engaged in explicit texting with a male page.
With the end of the program, the former page dorm has been idled and the new speaker, Paul Ryan, wants it turned into a staff daycare center.
That would essentially end any hope to restore the program, and Wasserman Schultz is moving to make sure that the dorm remains available for a new page program.
“I believe we should create another working group and take a look at the page program,” she said. “I’m just trying to be protective and at least preserving of the possibility of it being able to be restored at some point. And if you do too much construction [to the dorm] that changes it from it being able to go back to being a dorm, then we’ll never be able to go back to the page program.”
For more than 100 years, thousands of high schoolers filed through the page system. Several went on to become House members.
Former pages have created an alumni group to push for restoration and are planning to present their ideas to Ryan and House officials in May.
Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic Party chief, said it shouldn’t be hard to revive the page program into a model like the Senate Page Program or other Washington internships.
“There are other residential intern programs that don’t have the problems that the page program had. It’s just a travesty to me that we don’t have the opportunity for young people to learn about public service and be immersed in workings of the greatest democracy that the world has ever seen — unless you go and do it for a senator,” she said.
“I want to make sure that we don’t forever more prevent that page program from coming back.”
Baked Hillary: Cookbook just for Clinton haters
If the presidential election is the Super Bowl of politics, then shouldn’t there be a whole menu dedicated to the event just like the chow tailgaters have?
Cookbook author Jenine Zimmers thinks so and has even taken into account this year’s rabid partisanship by creating one just for the Right titled, The ‘I Greatly Dislike Hillary Clinton’ Cookbook. Recipes that (dis)honor America’s most annoying politician.
Zimmers has developed 21 yummy recipes that she ties to Clinton quotes, policy positions and scandals. For example, “Liar, Liar Mouth on Fire Spicy Chili,” recalls Clinton’s promise as senator to not run for president. Two others, “Meatless Meatballs” and “Pastaless Lasagna,” draw attention to her 2004 comment, “We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.”
She is selling the book, illustrated with pictures of Clinton that have been scribbled on, via Amazon for $14.99.
“Dedicated Republicans appreciate jokes at Hillary’s expense,” she told the Washington Examiner. “I thought this cookbook would give people a laugh during what has been an intense and emotionally charged campaign season. All the recipes, like ‘Liar, Liar Mouth on Fire Spicy Chili,’ are inspired by her blunders over the years. It makes a fun gift if Hillary is the politician you love to hate.”
Capitol Dome to be ready for Inauguration
The top congressional official in charge of the $59.55 million restoration of the enormous and iconic U.S. Capitol Dome has declared that it will be ready for unveiling in time for the January inauguration of the 45th president of the United States.
“We are in the home stretch,” said Stephen T. Ayers, the architect of the Capitol.
In fact, he had even better news about the project to restore the outer and inner dome. “There is a very distinct possibility that there will be money left,” Ayers said.
The project has been on the fast track to wrap up before the inauguration, which is held on the Capitol’s West Front. Ayers said the outer layer restoration is 87 percent complete and that the scaffolding that now encases the dome and much of the building will start to come down this month.
Some 13 layers of paint were removed, holes filled and the result reveals details that haven’t been seen in decades and “a renewed sense of beauty,” Ayers said.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
