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About Congressional Staff Privacy


LegiStorm Pro provides more detailed and in-depth information about members of Congress and their staffers than any other service. From educational history, to social media links and salary data we give our subscribers the most complete view we can on the people who wield the levers of power in our government.


We do what we do to make our democracy work better. We believe that by gathering, consolidating and then republishing publicly available data in one place we allow our subscribers to both work more effectively with Congress and hold them accountable to the people they represent.


As public servants, congressional staffers have a unique role in our government. Many argue correctly that most are overworked and underpaid people who sacrifice a larger paycheck and a more comfortable life for the chance to make a difference in our nation and our world. Regardless of their political affiliation, they all share a strong commitment to service.


With that commitment they are entrusted with power. Every staffer on Capitol Hill, from staff assistants answering phones to chiefs of staff negotiating legislation has power that everyday citizens don’t. With that power comes accountability.

staffers are required by law to surrender some privacy that others take for granted. Staffer salaries are all publicly disclosed, and for many who earn above a threshold amount, more details about their financial lives are considered public.

However, the world becomes less and less private as more people willingly, if sometimes unknowingly, release details about themselves to the general public. Congressional staffers are no different in this regard, but their unique position does subject them to a higher standard of scrutiny. That's why LegiStorm also collects as much publicly available biographical information about congressional staff as we can find.


LegiStorm publishes no type of biographical information that hasn’t been a standard part of biographical profiles on congressional staff that have been published by others for decades. Obviously with the increased volume and availability of self-disclosed information, LegiStorm’s ability to gather biographical information has grown dramatically.


LegiStorm has taken the further step of aggregating public tweets of members of Congress and staff. We believe that what people in Congress are talking about publicly informs how they might be thinking about the issues coming up for debate. Due to the nature of the medium, that may include tweets that have nothing to do with Congress.

 

In addition to current staff, LegiStorm also collects publicly available information on former staffers, registered lobbyists and others who would be considered influential in the Washington, DC sphere. You can refer to our Privacy Policy for more details.

 

We encourage everyone, not just congressional staffers, to be mindful of what they disclose to the public via social media and the media in general. The social networks we use every day provide tools that allow users to restrict the information available to the public. Obviously this comes with trade offs that everyone has to consider on her or his own.


LegiStorm will never circumvent privacy protections from third parties or expose information that is genuinely private. We don’t disclose our own registered user list or use private registration information as a source of information for publication. We don't sell, rent, loan, or otherwise share our registered user list with anyone.