Congressional Page Program

Pages have been serving the House of Representatives for nearly two hundred years. Working as a team, Pages assist Members with their legislative duties, deliver correspondence and small packages within the congressional complex, answer phones in the Member cloakrooms, and prepare the House Floor for sessions.

High school juniors with a GPA of 3.0 or higher in core academic subjects may apply to work as Pages in the U.S. House of Representatives for a fall or spring appointment. There is no GPA requirement for Pages who work during the summer semester. While serving the House, Pages live in Washington D.C., at the Page Residence Hall, a few blocks away from the Capitol. During the academic year, Pages attend classes at the House Page School. Pages must be sponsored by a Member of Congress and be at least sixteen years old on the date they begin their term. All communication regarding the Page program must be made through the applicant’s sponsoring Member.

Who Is Eligible? - Eligibility for the Page Program during the academic year is limited to high school juniors with a 3.0 GPA or higher in the core academic subjects. Applicants for the summer program may include rising juniors or rising seniors. All applicants must be at least sixteen years old by the date they begin their Page term. A student who is related to a sitting Member of Congress may not serve as a Page.

How Are Pages Chosen? - The Page Program is administered through the Office of the Clerk, but Pages are selected through the majority and minority leadership. Because of the limited number of Page positions, not all Members can sponsor Pages at the same time. Therefore, if the Member chosen is ineligible to sponsor the Pages, another Member within the state can offer sponsorship. All communication regarding the Page program must be made through the sponsoring Member.

What Is the Page Board? - In 1982 the Speaker’s Commission on Pages recommended that “responsibility for the administration of the Page Program be centralized in a Page Board, established by statute. . .” The statute reads, “until otherwise provided by law, there is hereby established a board to be known as the House of Representatives Page Board to ensure that the Page program is conducted in a manner that is consistent with the efficient functioning of the House and welfare for the Pages.” The statute was adopted by the 97th Congress. The first members of the House Page Board were appointed in November 1982. The Board consists of two members of the majority party selected by the Speaker, two members from the minority party selected by the Minority Leader, the Clerk of the House, the House Sergeant at Arms, one parent of a former Page, and one former Page.

What Is the First Step to Becoming a Page? - Since all Pages must be sponsored by a Member of Congress, the first step is to ask a Member of Congress for sponsorship. That Member will then contact the proper hiring authority to start the application process. The application process may differ according to individual Member requirements and Member party procedures. The sponsoring Member’s party should be identified and contacted to learn about that specific party’s application procedures. All communication regarding the Page Program must be made through the sponsoring Member.

What Should Applicants Provide to Their Sponsoring Member? - Application procedures may vary according to Member and to party, but the following are always requested:

• Social Security Number
• Parental Consent Form
• Official Transcript of High School Grades (academic year applicants only)
• Written Essay
• Resume of Extracurricular Activities
• Letters of Recommendation

Whom Should Applicants Contact About Becoming a Page? Questions regarding the Page Program should be addressed to the applicant’s sponsoring Member.

House Pages live, work, and study in Washington, D.C. During the academic year, Pages are required to attend the Page School in addition to their responsibilities as support staff to the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Pages live in the Page Residence Hall and receive a monthly salary. The following guidelines apply to all Pages:

• Pages are required to maintain a neat appearance, a conservative hairstyle and must wear ID badges and uniforms at work and at school. Page uniforms include navy blue blazer, dark grey skirts or slacks, black (tie-up or loafer style) shoes, and a uniform tie.
• House Pages follow the House Calendar, which is subject to change. Pages are permitted to return home only on weekends, except in cases of family illness. Pages will be unable to leave the Page Program to attend family, home school, or community activities or functions if they occur during the school or workweek.
• Pages earn $20,181.00 annually, with a monthly gross salary of $1,681.75. Automatic deductions are made for federal and state taxes, social security, and the Residence Hall fee. Pages are paid on the last working day of the month.

Page School

The Page School is located in the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. The academic year consists of the fall semester, which begins in September after Labor Day and ends in late January, and the spring semester, which begins at the end of January and continues through the first week in June. The Page School is fully accredited through the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and is based on a year-long curriculum, in which one-half credit is awarded for each semester of work in a course. Classes begin at 6:45 a.m. and include math, English, social studies, science, French/Spanish, and computer technology. The Page School also sponsors Washington Seminars, featuring field trips and speakers. Seminars are usually held on Saturdays, and attendance is mandatory.

Page Work Experience

As House staff, Pages are supervised by adult full-time House employees and work as a team on the House Floor, not for individual Members. Their primary duties are delivering correspondence, legislative materials, and small packages within the congressional complex; answering phones in the Members’ Cloakrooms; taking messages for Members; and calling Members in the Chamber to the phone. Pages sometimes prepare the House Floor for sessions. To perform their duties, Pages must be able to do the following:

• Walk considerable distances in a day
• Carry and deliver packages of up to 25 pounds
• Answer phones and speak fluent English

House Page Residence Hall

While working for the House, Pages live in the House Page Residence Hall, a few blocks from the Capitol and the Library of Congress. The Page Residence Hall is staffed by a director and five assistants, all of whom are adults and reside in the Page Residence Hall. Each room is furnished, has a private bath, and accommodates three to four occupants. The Residence Hall is coeducational, with one floor for young men and one for young women. Rooms are inspected weekly, and curfew is at 10:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and Sunday, and 12:00 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Security for the Residence Hall includes foot patrols and a lobby desk staffed around the clock by U.S. Capitol Police. Pages are required to sign in at the desk after 6:00 p.m. Before taking up residence, Pages must sign the Residence Hall Agreement, delineating payment requirements, responsibility for damage, and accepted uses of the Residence Hall.

House Page History

Courtesy of the Office of History and Preservation, Office of the Clerk

From the earliest Congresses, Pages have been employed by the House of Representatives to assist Members in their duties. Over time, their principal tasks—carrying documents, messages, and letters between various congressional offices—passed from older messengers to teenage boys and (much later) girls.

The earliest known instance of boys being employed as messengers and errand-runners was during the 20th Congress (1827–1829). House records indicate that three “Pages” and eight older “messengers” worked in the Capitol.  Members sponsored boys—many of whom were destitute or orphaned—and took a paternal interest in them.  In 1842, the House tried to cap the number at eight; each was paid the princely sum of $2 per day. Their ranks expanded as new states entered the Union and new Members were added.  In the years after the Civil War, several dozen Pages typically served in each Congress.  Pages still are appointed and sponsored by individual Members, though at a ratio that favors the majority party.  In modern Congresses, there have been approximately 70 House Pages.  

For their first century of service, Congressional Pages were not required to attend school.  That changed with the passage of the 1925 Compulsory School Attendance Act, which required boys less than 14 years of age to attend school.  The Capitol Page School grew from a one-room private school operating in the Capitol basement for House Pages to include Pages from the Senate and Supreme Court.  By the mid-1930s, five rooms were required to accommodate the Pages and the curriculum was accredited by the District of Columbia School Board.  The Page School graduated its first class in 1932.  The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 created a tuition-free program for House and Senate Pages funded by Congress. It is known today as the Capitol Page School and has been located in the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress since 1949. 

Social change also shaped the face of the House Page Program.  On January 3, 1939, Gene Cox, the fourteen-year-old daughter of Representative Eugene Cox of Georgia, broke long-standing practice when she served in her father’s office for the opening day of the 76th Congress (1939–1941).  Girls permanently joined the House Page ranks in May 1973, when Speaker Carl Albert of Oklahoma appointed Felda Looper of Heavener, Oklahoma.  African-American boys also were admitted, though haltingly.  In January 1959, five House Members sponsored James A. Johnson, Jr., of Illinois, as a special messenger for their offices, thus qualifying him for attendance in the Capitol Page School.  In April 1965, Frank Mitchell of Springfield, Illinois, became the first African American to receive full admittance to the House Page program. 

Before the 1980s, Pages were responsible for arranging their own room and board and often lived unsupervised in local boarding houses and apartments.  Reforms in 1982–1983 changed this: a Page Board was established with oversight of the program; an official Page Residence Hall opened with a professional staff and cafeteria facilities; the school curriculum was improved; and a comprehensive health care plan was added.  Until 2001 the House Pages lived in the O’Neill Building (formerly the Old Congressional Hotel). Since then, they have roomed in a new Residence Hall facility several blocks from the Capitol.  Beginning in the 1983–1984 academic year, the House and Senate also initiated separate Page School programs housed on the third floor of the Jefferson Building at the Library of Congress.  Both chambers also issued new age requirements, mandating that Pages be admitted to the program in their junior year of high school instead of their senior year.