Page of the United States Senate
In addition to the delivery of legislative correspondence, early pages were responsible for refilling ink wells, constructing fires, cleaning spittoons, and fetching chewing tobacco.
The process is similar to that of selecting an office employee and may include an interview of final applicants by a board of review.
The application process for the program is considered to be extremely competitive, with a high level of interest for a handful of openings.
[7] Because U.S. Senate pages are required to wear uniforms while on the job, they are some of the most recognizable employees of the United States Congress.
Until the 1960s, boys were still required to wear old fashioned boys clothing styles from before the 1940s, of knickerbockers (shortened pants) with knit stockings as part of their page uniform while on duty, as depicted in the 1941 Hollywood feature film about the role of Senate pages, Adventure in Washington.
They are subject to strict curfews, are prohibited from having personal cell phones or internet access at Webster Hall (with the exception of Senate computers used for school work), and maintain demanding schedules.
Although pages are allowed to have personal electronic devices (excluding mobile phones), they may not take photographs or videos, given the confidential nature of their jobs.
U.S. Senate pages (who serve during either of the semester programs) attend school located in the lower level of Webster Hall.
The Page School requires each student to enroll in four classes, in the various subjects of mathematics, science, English, and social studies.
Run by the Senate Page School, they are conducted approximately one Saturday a month to sites in or around Washington.
These field trips are usually at historically oriented landmarks in the Middle Atlantic states area (i.e. the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in Philadelphia; DuPont Mills, in Delaware; Fort McHenry or the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House in Baltimore, George Washington's Mount Vernon estate and Fort Washington on the Potomac River, and American Civil War battlefields in Virginia and Maryland or at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, or Thomas Jefferson's hilltop estate Monticello near Charlottesville, Virginia, etc.)
in 1995, the U.S. Senate Page School was housed in the cupola / attic / top floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building, built 1890-1897, the oldest part of the Library of Congress multi-buildings complex, across First Street to the east from the Capitol.
[10] While the Senate Page Program remained intact after previous controversies / scandals in recent decades affecting it and the former parallel House of Representatives page system in the lower chamber of the Congress (although the Senate system continued, but underwent major adjustments and changes at several points in its recent history), it is sometimes criticized as being overly patronage-based, too demanding on minors, and too isolating for its participants.
Pages are not allowed to have personal cell / smart phones during their tenure and are forbidden from accessing the internet at Daniel Webster Hall, except for educational purposes.
Pages do, however, have free access to physical / medical healthcare and psychological / social counseling during their stay in the Nation's Capital.
