Definitions

Current Employer- This is the name of the current employer of a person. It may be a Member of Congress, Standing Committee of Congress, an organization, company, government entity or other group. Executive Branch employer names are listed starting with "US Government." If the person works for a Congressional leadership office they are listed as "Democratic Senate/House Leadership Staff" or "For Republican Senate/House Leadership Staff". Former Members of Congress or former staff running for Congress as a new candidate are listed under "Federal Candidate 2008". Members' names are spelled as shown in the House and Senate phone books. There are some persons listed under "retired" and "self-employed". There are others with no current employer. Some employers are shown if they are the last known employer on record.

The link points to the home page of the current employer's website, if any.

Current Top Staff- This section shows those only those hill staff with an annual salary rate estimated at $100,000 or above. Because the Report of the Clerk of the House of Representatives published its report sixty days after the end of each quarter, this list may be back several months. The Secretary of the Senate publishes its report sixty days after the end of each six month period (April through September and October through March).

Updates are made as staff changes appear in the media or from other sources.

Former Employee Title- This is the person's title at their previous hill employer. For former Members of Congress their state and party and dates of service were entered. If they were a committee chairman it was also noted. If they were in a leadership position it was noted. For some, the former title is followed by dates of employment, if they had been listed on their lobbying reports, biographies or other source.

Former Employer/Recipient- This may be the name of the Member of Congress or Standing Committee of Congress a person previously worked for. It may also be the Member of Congress they regularly contributed to.

There may be cases where an employee is listed as being employed by a member in the leadership, or they may be listed as employed by "Democratic or Republican Senate or House Leadership Staff". News articles often mix these two categories, such as "John Doe, assistant to Senate Majority Leader Smith."

Former Members- This section shows former Members of Congress who are now employed elsewhere.

Former Staff- This section shows persons who had previously worked for a Member of Congress or a Standing Congressional Committee.

Name- This is the name of the person as it was listed in the Report of the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate or other records. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected after the correct spelling has been found in other official listings, such as the official House or Senate telephone book. Changes have been made when several quarterly and six-month reports listed a more complete or corrected spelling. Quote marks indicate their common name or nickname.

Others With Access- This section shows persons who have a close connection to a Member of Congress or Standing Congressional Committee. They may be a relative, a close friend mentioned in the media, a large fundraiser, a regular multi-cycle large donor to the Member's leadership committee, or a former Member from the same party that previously represented the same district.

Party - The party code of the employee is based in many cases on the job title of the employee when the word minority or majority was mentioned. In other cases it is from listings of Minority and Majority Staff in the official telephone directories of the House and the Senate. For employees working for a Member of Congress, the party of the Member was assumed to be the party of the employee, except in the cases of Lieberman, Sanders, and Jeffords, where "D" was assumed. In some cases, further research found news articles referring to the employee's party affiliation.

Title-Current - This is the title of the position listed in the Report of the Clerk or the Secretary. Obvious typographical errors have been cleaned up and abbreviated words have been expanded to their full spelling. In some cases, a general title, such as "aide" or "staff member" has been used when it is the only information available, as in a news article. The use of the phrase "Staff Director" in the Clerk or Secretary's volumes is often loose and it may refer to the full committee or a subcommittee.

In some cases, news accounts have provided a title which may or may not match employment records.

The link points to the biography of the employee as it appears on their employer's website. If the employer's website did not contain a biography, the link may point to a staff listing, or other biographical source.