As previously reported on JBHE, the 119th Congress is the most racially diverse in U.S. history. However, diversity among congressional members’ top staff hires severely lags behind, according to a new report from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
At the time the report was generated, Congress had filled 1,466 out of the 1,599 top positions in the personal offices of U.S. House members and Senators. These staff positions include chiefs of staff, legislative directors, and communications directors.
According to the Joint Center’s findings, only 5.5 percent of top staff hires in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate are Black. This is far below Black Americans’ share of the overall U.S. population. Just over one-fifth of top staff positions in Congress are filled by nonwhite hires.
Among staff positions for new members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 20.4 percent are held by people of color. About 36 percent of staff members for new House Democrats were people of color, compared to just 3 percent of new House Republicans’ staff.
The top staff members for new senators are even less diverse. Overall, 17.2 percent of top staff members for new senators are people of color. One-third of new Democrat senators’ staff members are people of color. There are no top staff of color for all newly-elected Republication senators.
For returning U.S. House members, 20.9 percent of top staff positions are held by people of color. People of color representative 34.9 percent of top staff positions for returning House Democrats and 7.6 percent for returning House Republicans.
Among returning U.S. senators, people of color represent 17.3 percent of their top staff members. People of color represent 28.9 percent of the top staff for returning Democrat senators, and 6.7 percent of top staff members for returning Republican senators.
