U.S. House of Representatives Page Program - Selection

Selection

Pages serve in one of four terms: a five-month fall semester (September–January), a four and a half-month spring semester (February–June), or one of two three-to-four week summer sessions. Those selected to serve during the summer period may serve either the summer directly before or directly after their junior year of high school. After completing one session, Pages may be eligible for the subsequent session, based upon merit and space. Prospective House Pages are nominated by a representative or congressional delegate (Pages have come from all 50 U.S. states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa). Pages for the majority party tend to spend the entire academic year involved in the program; others from the minority party may apply and continue throughout the school year as well.

A Page may be nominated by any representative, regardless of party affiliation or district, and there are minimum GPA requirements for appointment (3.0 GPA +). Candidates must be at least 16 years of age at the time of service, and must serve during either their junior year or during the summer immediately before or after the junior year. Candidates are required to submit high school transcripts as well as information about extracurricular activities and other criteria, as well as an essay and three letters of recommendation. (Individual representatives may require a candidate to provide more information or to do an interview by phone or in person). All final selections for the majority Pages are made by the Speaker of the House, and for minority Pages the decision is made by the minority leader.

It is a general rule that only one nominee is permitted per representative, except for party leadership (although during the 104th Congress, Duke Cunningham successfully lobbied for the joint appointment of twin sisters from Encinitas, California and Gene Taylor successfully lobbied for the appointment of three Pages from the Gulf Coast during the 109th Congress after Hurricane Katrina). During the 110th Congress, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D) was allowed to appoint a set of twins as Democratic Pages during the second summer session. Also during the 110th Congress, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) was allowed to appoint two Pages due to his seniority in Congress and during the 109th Congress, Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) also appointed twin sisters from Atlanta, GA.

Usually, each group of Pages, typically referred to as a "class", consists of between 45 and 75 students. Fall and spring classes tend to have between 60 and 72 Pages, while summer session classes are larger, being between 70 and 75 Pages. Thus, not every representative can nominate a Page. During the fall term of the 110th Congress, only 52 Pages were appointed by representatives, making it the smallest Page class in many years.

Distribution of Pages slots are 2:1 in the favor of the majority party in the House. However, each party rarely fills all their slots for the school year terms, leaving the minority Page service more shorthanded. During the school year, in most cases, the parties have allowed "cross-aisle" assignments, whereby a small number of majority appointees are allowed to drift across to the minority side for several week stints to better balance the distribution of Pages. Majority Pages will often seek to help out their friends on the other side of the aisle with large work-loads.