At the age of 25, Aaron Weissman takes calls from congressional offices to consult on the politics of cyberspace. Aaron works as a political researcher, confidant, and techie for Representative Rick White (R-Washington). When Aaron isn't advising his boss on issues like top-level Net domains, federal spam legislation, or encryption policy, his job is to keep the congressman's network humming and ensure his Web page is up-to-date. But Aaron's biggest task over the next few weeks is to find someone with the knowledge of Internet issues and the technical chops to replace him.
Aaron's career in politics started humbly enough - first as the network administrator on the campaign trail of Senator Conrad Burns and later as a legislative aid and administrator for White. Then came the Communications Decency Act. After the CDA passed in the Senate with the Exon bill, Aaron played a role in helping his boss co-found the Internet Caucus, a group of senators and representatives who meet to learn about the Net and educate their peers. "Back then, most of Congress saw the Internet as a TV with a typewriter attached," says Aaron. "Our first seminar on content and child-protection software packed over 75 congressional staff in the room."
Since the defeat of the CDA, White has been recognized as a congressional leader when it comes to tech issues. Of course, the congressman's district includes constituents like Nintendo, Microsoft, and other Seattle high-tech firms. White has worked to get other members hooked up to email, make congressional expense accounts publicly available over the Net, and defeat the V-chip.
Meanwhile, Aaron, who majored in philosophy and journalism at Boston University, is feeling a little burned out after four years in politics. He plans to head for Montana with his wife. "I need a better place to live, one with clean water and no crowds." But he wants to leave the congressman in good hands.
Aaron will train his replacement to function much like an associate in a law firm. Legislative assistants do research, help draft and negotiate legislation with the staff of other congressional offices, and respond to people who write to the congressman. "It's a very political job," says Aaron. "You have to be comfortable with Congressman White's voting record, because the whole point of being on his staff is making him look good."
Beyond the policy issues, the tech side of the job includes taking care of NT servers with Windows 95 clients and maintaining the Ethernet network. The congressman has two other district offices in Washington state, which are hooked up by frame relay. All the letters to the office get logged in to an enormous FoxPro database, which you will have to debug when the vendor's not around. You'll need to be a Microsoft Certified Network Administrator or have equivalent training. Benefits to the job include health, two weeks' paid vacation plus a week at Christmas, and all federal holidays.
On the down side, says Aaron, there are two universal laws of nature on Capitol Hill - the food is never very good (football-sized wraps from Burrito Brother are large but tasteless), and neither is the pay, which starts between US$25,000 and $28,000. "No one on staff gets rich on the Hill," says Aaron. "I picture someone with a lot of computer experience, who cares so much about Internet issues that they're willing to take pay that's less than they deserve."
This article appeared originally in HotWired.
