'This is a disgrace': Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slams her future colleagues in Congress...

[EffieBlack]

81. No, they're not scams

As I wrote in another post, Members of Congress have a limited budget from which to pay staff. Their paid staffs range from the Chief of Staff and District Director to legislative assistants to legislative correspondents to entry-level staff assistants. They rarely can pay for all the staff they need out of the budgets, so they hire interns, many of whom are unpaid but many of whom are paid by their schools, special fellowships and other sponsorships. Many interns end up getting hired as staff assistants once the positions open up. And while some interns do come from families with the wherewithal to support them, many interns are low-income and working class young people who are clever enough to know that working for free or cheap for a short time in a Member office is a brilliant investment and gives them the experience and contacts they need to move up on the Hill or get great jobs in other areas. Member offices often don't have enough slots to accommodate all of the interns who are interested in and willing to work for them for free

What is your suggestion for eliminating unpaid internships? Reduce the number of staff overall - thereby curtailing the Members' ability to serve their constituents? Cut the paid staff's already below-the-private-sector salaries in order to cobble together enough money to pay interns? Have Congress vote itself more money to pay higher salaries to staff and interns?

It's easy to be critical of these things in the abstract. But in reality, it's much more complicated than it may appear.