This photo taken on Jan. 19, 2023 shows the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)
The Congressional Research Service staff members are quitting due to despair and frustration.
NEW YORK, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Congressional Research Service (CRS), an agency that educates U.S. congressional staff and legislators for almost 110 years, has had troubles for more than a decade, like flagging staff morale and employee frustration with its leadership, reported The Hill on Tuesday.
A survey of CRS staff last year revealed sky-high displeasure with CRS's front office, such as a bungled 20-million-U.S.-dollar technology project that has left CRS staff writing reports and memoranda with a buggy version of Microsoft Word 2016, said the report.
Meanwhile, staff service to Congress was suffering due to patchy Wi-Fi in their offices, Zoom accounts that shut down after 40 minutes of use and difficulty in getting technical support, it said.
Staff members "are quitting due to despair and frustration," noted the report. "This should not be happening, and it is a serious problem for an agency expected to respond promptly to requests from staff and legislators and to do so with deep expertise and knowledge."
Congress calls upon CRS frequently, according to the report. In 2021, for example, the think tank provided 265 in-person briefings, 2,729 confidential memoranda, 24,044 telephone responses and 34,844 email responses. The agency also wrote 1,073 reports for Congress and 13,348 bill summaries, which the Hill and the public read on Congress.gov. ■
