Bennie Thompson on Black Committee Staffers

The Congressional Black Caucus conducted a suvey on the number of black staffers on U.S. House Committees.

Their conclusion: black staffers are most prevalent when African American chairmen do the hiring.

The 31-person Democratic staff of the House Agriculture Committee and the 24-person Democratic staff of the House Rules Committee, for example, each have a single black aide. Conversely, the Homeland Security and Oversight and Government Reform Committees — both run by African American chairmen — have Democratic staffs that are 45.5 percent and 44.4 percent black, respectively.

Bennie Thompson says:

“I think people tend to apply where they think the greatest opportunities lie,” Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said in an interview on Thursday. “We are, in many instances, where we live, where we go to church and what our experiences have been.” Those experiences, he said, influence hiring decisions.

Mr. Thompson, who is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and a Democrat from Mississippi, added that he believed there is a similar survey in the works looking at the administration’s cabinet secretaries.