Congressional Staff and Support Agencies

Active learning works for this topic because students need to internalize the complex, behind-the-scenes roles of staff and agencies that shape legislation. By stepping into these roles, students transform abstract concepts into concrete understanding, recognizing how policy actually moves through Congress.

• 9th Grade
• Civics & Government
• 3 activities
• 20 min–50 min

Learning Objectives

1. Analyze the specific tasks performed by congressional personal and committee staff in drafting legislation and managing constituent services.
2. Explain the non-partisan role of the CBO, GAO, and CRS in providing objective information to Congress.
3. Evaluate how the specialized expertise of congressional staff and support agencies impacts the quality and feasibility of proposed laws.
4. Compare the information-gathering functions of the GAO and CRS in supporting congressional oversight of the executive branch.

Expert Panel

⏱ 50 min·Small Groups

Role-Play: Staff the Committee

Groups of five play a congressional committee working on a technology regulation bill. Students are assigned staff roles: legislative director (drafts language), policy analyst (reviews CBO score), constituent liaison (fields interest group calls), communications director (prepares the member's statement), and chief of staff (coordinates the team). Groups simulate one day of pre-markup preparation.

Prepare & details

Analyze the importance of congressional staff in the legislative process.

Facilitation Tip: During Role-Play: Staff the Committee, circulate to listen for evidence that students are using materials like committee jurisdiction descriptions to justify their roles.

Setup: Panel table at front, audience seating for class

Materials: Expert research packets, Name placards for panelists, Question preparation worksheet for audience

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Self-Management
• Relationship Skills

Gallery Walk

⏱ 30 min·Small Groups

Gallery Walk: What Support Agencies Produce

Four stations feature real examples of a CBO cost estimate, a GAO report summary, a CRS research brief, and a Government Publishing Office document. Students annotate each example: What question was this agency answering? For whom? What decision did it inform? Debrief discusses why nonpartisan analysis matters and what would happen without it.

Prepare & details

Explain how support agencies like the CBO provide non-partisan analysis.

Facilitation Tip: During Gallery Walk: What Support Agencies Produce, direct students to compare agency outputs side-by-side before writing their reflections so they notice overlaps and differences.

Setup: Wall space or tables arranged around room perimeter

Materials: Large paper/poster boards, Markers, Sticky notes for feedback

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

Think-Pair-Share

⏱ 20 min·Pairs

Think-Pair-Share: Is Non-Partisan Analysis Possible?

After reading brief descriptions of CBO methodology, students discuss with a partner whether any policy analysis can truly be nonpartisan, and whether legislators actually trust CBO findings when the numbers are inconvenient. Debrief surfaces the distinction between political neutrality in process and analytical objectivity in methods.

Prepare & details

Evaluate the impact of staff expertise on the quality of legislation.

Facilitation Tip: During Think-Pair-Share: Is Non-Partisan Analysis Possible?, pause the pair discussion after two minutes to call on one pair to share their strongest argument before moving to whole-group sharing.

Setup: Standard classroom seating; students turn to a neighbor

Materials: Discussion prompt (projected or printed), Optional: recording sheet for pairs

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Awareness
• Relationship Skills

Teaching This Topic

Experienced teachers approach this topic by starting with the human scale of congressional offices to make the bureaucracy feel tangible. Avoid getting bogged down in procedural minutiae; instead, focus on the relationships between staff, members, and agencies. Research on policy process learning suggests students grasp these dynamics best when they simulate real workflows, not just memorize agency names.

What to Expect

Successful learning looks like students confidently distinguishing between personal staff, committee staff, and support agencies, and explaining their distinct functions without mixing them up. They should also articulate why nonpartisan analysis matters in the legislative process and how staff expertise influences outcomes.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

During Role-Play: Staff the Committee, some students may assume that committee staff draft the actual language of bills.

What to Teach Instead

During the debrief, point to the committee staff roles you’ve provided and ask students to identify which ones actually draft versus analyze or coordinate. Emphasize that bill drafting is primarily handled by personal staff or the Office of Legislative Counsel, not committee staff.

Common Misconception

During Gallery Walk: What Support Agencies Produce, students might think the CBO works for the majority party because it issues reports during active debates.

What to Teach Instead

Use the gallery walk materials to show the CBO’s joint appointment process and career staff structure. Ask students to find the section of each agency’s display that explains its nonpartisan design and compare it to the others.

Common Misconception

During Think-Pair-Share: Is Non-Partisan Analysis Possible?, students may assume all congressional staff are political appointees.

What to Teach Instead

After the pair discussion, share a short profile of a senior committee staffer with a long tenure and ask students to identify which parts of the profile contradict the idea that all staff are political. Highlight the continuity these staff provide across party changes.

Assessment Ideas

Quick Check

After Role-Play: Staff the Committee, give students a short hypothetical bill and ask them to identify which support agency (CBO, GAO, CRS) would analyze the bill’s cost estimate, legal implications, and historical context, then justify their choices in one sentence each.

Discussion Prompt

During Gallery Walk: What Support Agencies Produce, have students discuss how the absence of nonpartisan support agencies might shift power to the Executive Branch, using the specific functions they observed during the gallery walk to support their arguments.

Exit Ticket

After Think-Pair-Share: Is Non-Partisan Analysis Possible?, ask students to write down two distinct roles played by congressional staff (e.g., drafting legislation, managing constituent services) and one specific way a support agency contributes to the legislative process, citing at least one agency by name.

Extensions & Scaffolding

• Challenge students to research a real bill that became law and trace which support agencies contributed to its analysis, citing specific documents.
• For students who struggle, provide a simplified role sheet with key questions to guide their thinking during the committee role-play.
• Deeper exploration: Invite a guest speaker who has worked in congressional support agencies or as staff to discuss how their daily work influences policy outcomes.

Key Vocabulary

Congressional Staff	Individuals hired to assist members of Congress and committees with legislative duties, constituent services, and office management.
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)	An independent, non-partisan federal agency that provides objective, impartial analysis of budgetary and economic issues to support the congressional budget process.
Government Accountability Office (GAO)	An independent, non-partisan agency that works for Congress, auditing federal agencies and programs to ensure accountability and efficiency in government spending.
Congressional Research Service (CRS)	A research arm of the Library of Congress that provides policy and legal analysis to members of Congress and their staff on a wide range of topics.
Legislative Aide	A type of congressional staff member responsible for researching policy issues, drafting legislation, and advising a member of Congress on specific subject matters.