[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 135 (Friday, December 8, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2230]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PAGE PROGRAM

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN M. SPRATT, JR.

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, December 8, 2006

  Mr. SPRATT. Mr. Speaker, I would like to include in the Record the 
following commentary by Jason Ackerman, of Fort Mill, South Carolina, 
which is in my congressional district. Jason was a House page in 2003-
2004 and is now a student at New York University.

                   The Importance of the Page Program

                          (By Jason Ackerman)

       New York Times columnist John Tierney argues that the 
     congressional page program should be eliminated because it 
     serves no purpose for pages or for the country (``A page, 
     M'Lord, at your service,'' Oct. 4).
       Well John Tierney was obviously never a page.
       I served as a page from August 2003 to January 2004. These 
     months were some of the most special moments of my life--
     months in which I not only learned how Congress operates, but 
     also months in which I made some of the greatest friends of 
     my life.
       A day in the life of a page is not easy. It starts at 6:45 
     in the morning when we all walk from our dorm a couple of 
     blocks from the Capitol to the Library of Congress's 
     Jefferson Building where school is held. Full-time teachers 
     teach the same subjects that we would otherwise have been 
     taking back at our home schools.
       The school is not a piece of cake either. The courses are 
     very challenging, so challenging in fact that when I came 
     back to my high school I was way ahead in most subjects.
       After school, which lasted until the House of 
     Representatives commenced, we would head over to the Floor of 
     the House of Representatives where we would start our daily 
     tasks. There are many different page jobs, most of which are 
     rotated around so everyone gets an opportunity to experience 
     different areas of the House.
       Some pages are runners, which involved taking documents 
     from one place in the Capitol to another. Others are 
     cloakroom pages, where we worked in the cloakroom answering 
     phones about floor proceedings. Still others are in charge of 
     the bell system and of raising and lowering the flag every 
     day on the top of the House of Representatives to declare 
     that the House is in session.
       The day ends when the House goes out of session. This can 
     be anywhere from 5:00 in the afternoon to 7:00 in the 
     morning. Then we head home, do homework, socialize, clean our 
     rooms (which are checked three times a week), and then go to 
     bed at mandatory curfew hour, which was 10:00 on weekdays and 
     12:00 on weekends.
       Some of my most memorable and enjoyable moments as a page 
     were getting to interact with members of the House. Some 
     would come by and tell us jokes, and others would take the 
     time to help us identify someone we were trying to find or to 
     explain to us what was going on at that moment in the 
     complicated proceedings of the House.
       Yes there were some unfriendly ones, but by and large most 
     members are very kind and generous. There was not a single 
     time in which I felt insecure or unsafe while on the Floor or 
     at any other time while I was a page.
       The lifelong friendships that I made because of the page 
     program are some of the most amazing friendships of my life. 
     Former pages are some of my closest friends, and I keep in 
     touch with a lot of them on a daily or weekly basis. I now 
     have friends in California and Wyoming that I would never 
     have had the chance to make without this experience.
       The page experience is something that I would not trade for 
     anything, and it was one of the greatest times of my life. I 
     witnessed history first hand, and made a ton of friends in 
     the process. The experience also sparked my interest in 
     public service, government, and the political process. I 
     would not hesitate one moment to send my child to be a page.
       These views are also shared with every one of my classmates 
     that I have spoken to since the Foley scandal has erupted. My 
     roommate, who was actually sponsored by Congressman Foley, 
     stressed the importance of continuing the program because of 
     how the program changed his life as well.
       The only people who do not want the program to continue are 
     people who know nothing about the program and have never 
     talked to a page.
       Congressman Foley made a mistake, and should be punished to 
     the full extent of the law, but to punish the page program 
     for his mistake is not only unfortunate but also unjust.

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