Longer hours, lower pay, more threats and less power
Illustration: Olivier Heiligiers
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“I just felt ground down,” sighs Don Bacon, a Republican congressman from Nebraska. “I’m tired of doing elections every two years. I’m tired of raising six to seven million every two years…It’s a 12- to 14-hour daily grind.” Mr Bacon is one of 60 members of Congress who say they will step down after the midterms, a record number so early in an election year.
Some are old; some genuinely want to spend more time with their families. Many, however, have grown frustrated with a job that involves longer hours, lower pay, more danger and less power than in the past.
Chart: The Economist
A typical week for a lawmaker starts with a red-eye flight to Washington, just in time for a vote on a bill you have not had time to read. Party leaders whip you to back or oppose it. Between 15 and 25 hours a week are spent with a minder in a dingy building phoning donors to fund your re-election campaign. Then you must attend several committee hearings, all scheduled at the same time; so you appear before each just long enough to craft a video clip. On Thursday after your final vote you dash to make your flight home for your weekend duties: a series of ribbon-cuttings and listening to constituents whinge.
This grind might be easier to tolerate if it yielded results. But in its most recent full term, from 2023 to 2025, Congress passed just 274 laws, fewer than in any other Congress since the civil war (see chart 1). Many were trivial, from renaming post offices to mandating that American flags be American-made. More substantial bills are gridlocked. Small wonder that, according to Gallup, just 17% of Americans approve of how Congress is doing its job.
Chart: The Economist
Despite their dwindling relevance, lawmakers are not safe. Last year the Capitol police investigated 14,938 threats directed at members of Congress, their families and staff—a 58% rise from 2024 (see chart 2). In 2022 the then speaker’s husband was bludgeoned with a hammer. On January 6th 2021 a mob ransacked the Capitol while lawmakers cowered under desks. The rioters were later pardoned by the president.
Lawmakers are better-paid than nurses, but the gap is shrinking. The salary of $174,000 has not changed in 17 years. After inflation, it has slid by a third (see chart 3). Dozens camp in their offices to save rent.
How did it become such a crummy job? One reason is that partisanship has stripped lawmakers of much of their agency. Another is that they have divested themselves of the resources needed to do the job properly.
Chart: The Economist
Begin with partisanship. The parties in Congress are more ideologically distant than at any point in the past 80 years. Data from DW-NOMINATE, a computer program that analyses voting records, shows that today there is no overlap between Republican and Democratic lawmakers (see chart 4). Anyone who bucks the party line risks ejection by their own party in a primary. “I think it’s the worst it’s probably ever been,” says Julia Brownley, a congresswoman from California who is stepping down this year.
No way to earn a living
In the past, lawmakers might get onto an interesting committee, where members on both sides haggled over new laws. But since the mid-1990s power has been hoarded in the offices of the speaker of the House and the Senate leader. To get around partisan gridlock, congressional leaders try to cram all their priorities into a single “omnibus” budget bill, which is negotiated in secret and passed, largely unread, by their rank and file. “[Committee] power has been pulled away,” complains a recently retired Democratic congressman. “And you say to yourself, what am I doing here if I can’t make my own decisions?”
Chart: The Economist
Hearings have become marbled sets for brand-building. For the ambitious, “it’s all about getting that viral moment,” says the ex-congressman. “Members want to land their attack, and then package it up into a 30-second viral [clip] for social media.”
As the scope of government has expanded, the machinery of Congress has failed to keep up. The House has fewer committee staff than in the 1980s (see chart 5). A typical lawmaker’s office on Capitol Hill employs just three or four haggard 20-somethings to work on policy. If they are good, they often quit to earn more in the private sector. Congressional staffers left in near-record numbers last year, according to LegiStorm, a congressional database. Many congressmen, too pressed to think for themselves, end up relying on lobbyists. “Congress no longer has [the] expertise to do its job,” warns Michael Thorning of the Bipartisan Policy Centre, a think-tank.
Andrew Hall of Stanford University warns that the toxic environment deters moderates from running for office. In their place, partisans who enjoy politics as a blood sport have filled the ranks.
Chart: The Economist
Things could improve. Historically, when enough lawmakers found Congress to be a miserable place to work, they supported reforms that made serving more meaningful. That was the case in the 1970s after Watergate. There are plenty of ways Congress could be made less crummy. Committees could be more empowered; campaign-finance reform might cut the hours spent dialling for dollars; members and staff could be paid a bit more. Yet all this would require the two sides to agree to act. For now, that seems unlikely. ■
논증 분석
유형: diagnosis
핵심 주장
미국 하원의원직은 긴 노동시간, 낮은 실질 임금, 증가하는 위협, 그리고 줄어드는 권한으로 인해 점점 더 최악의 직업이 되어가고 있다.
논리구조
- 전제: 역대 최다인 60명의 의원이 중간선거 후 사퇴를 선언했으며, 이는 단순한 개인 사정이 아니라 구조적 문제를 반영한다.
- 진단: 전형적인 의원의 한 주는 읽지도 못한 법안 표결, 주당 15~25시간의 모금 전화, 동시간대 중복 위원회 청문회 출석, 주말 지역구 행사로 채워지는 소모적인 일상이다.
- 진단: Congress는 2023~2025년 임기에 274개의 법률만 통과시켜 남북전쟁 이후 최저 입법 생산성을 기록했으며, Gallup 조사에서 의회 지지율은 17%에 불과하다.
- 진단: United States Capitol Police가 조사한 의원·가족·직원에 대한 위협 건수는 2025년 14,938건으로 전년 대비 58% 급증했으며, 2021년 1월 6일 국회의사당 폭도들은 대통령에 의해 사면되었다.
- 진단: 의원 연봉 174,000달러는 17년째 동결되어 인플레이션을 감안하면 실질 가치가 3분의 1 하락했고, 수십 명의 의원이 임대료를 아끼려 의원실에서 숙식한다.
- 진단: DW-NOMINATE 데이터에 따르면 공화당과 민주당 의원들의 이념적 거리는 80년 만에 최대 수준으로 벌어져 중복 지점이 전혀 없으며, 당론을 어기면 경선에서 퇴출당할 위험이 있다.
- 진단: 1990년대 중반 이후 하원 의장과 상원 원내대표실로 권한이 집중되면서 위원회의 입법 기능이 약화되었고, 주요 법안은 비밀 협상을 거친 ‘옴니버스’ 예산안에 통합되어 내용을 모른 채 통과된다.
- 진단: 청문회는 정책 입안의 장이 아닌 소셜미디어용 30초 바이럴 클립을 만들기 위한 무대로 전락했다.
- 진단: 하원 위원회 직원 수는 1980년대보다 감소했고, 의원실 정책 담당 직원은 3~4명에 불과하며 유능한 직원은 민간으로 떠나 LegiStorm 기준 이직률이 역대 최고 수준에 근접했다. 결과적으로 의원들은 로비스트에 의존하게 된다.
- 진단: Stanford University의 Andrew Hall에 따르면 이 독성적 환경이 온건파의 출마를 억제하고, 정치를 혈전으로 즐기는 강경 당파주의자들이 그 자리를 채우는 악순환이 발생한다.
- 처방: 위원회 권한 강화, 선거자금 개혁을 통한 모금 부담 경감, 의원 및 직원 보수 인상 등 개선책이 존재하며, 역사적으로 1970년대 Watergate 이후처럼 의원들이 스스로 개혁을 추진한 선례가 있다.
- 반론: 그러나 이 모든 개혁은 양당의 합의를 전제로 하며, 현재의 극단적 당파 대립 구도에서는 실현 가능성이 희박하다.
결론
의원직의 악화는 당파주의와 권한 집중, 자원 부족이 복합적으로 작용한 구조적 문제이며, 이를 해결할 개혁안은 존재하지만 현실적으로 양당 합의가 불가능해 당분간 개선을 기대하기 어렵다.
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