WASHINGTON — Near the cafeteria of the Rayburn House Office Building, right next to the trash bins, is a drab room with rows of cubicles wistfully called the “Departing Member Center.”
After every election, sitting members of the House who are retiring or lost their race are relegated to this sad wing for their final weeks in office. At the same time, incoming members show up for a freshman orientation that culminates in gleefully picking out paint colors, drapes and furniture for the offices they will occupy for at least the next two years.
The transition period is a thorny time on Capitol Hill, occupied simultaneously by anticipation and resignation. Attention is showered on wide-eyed new members flooding the halls while those departing are rather ungraciously shunted aside in their final days.
A staffer for one California House member called it “the Congress experience at its worst.”
Even outgoing Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) — elected Nov. 6 to serve as California’s next U.S. senator — was told he had until last Wednesday to vacate his House office.
Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., center, welcomes incoming Democrat senators in his office Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Washington, from right, Sen.-elect Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich, Sen.-elect Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., Sen.-elect Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, Schumer, Sen.-elect Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., Sen.-elect Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., Sen.-elect Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J.
(Mariam Zuhaib / Associated Press)
“I walked back to do a staff photo in my House office, and my name had already been taken off the wall,” he said. “So there was this blank space on the wall. I’m like, oh my God, they’ve taken my name!”
Like most, he was wholly unimpressed by the temporary digs offered in the departing member center. He has a separate basement office that he described as “totally luxurious” by comparison.
Fortunately for Schiff, he will take over outgoing Sen. Laphonza Butler’s space when she and her team leave next month.
Incoming House members met early Thursday morning at the Capitol for the 119th congressional office lottery, a tradition that started with the 60th Congress in 1908.
Members were called at random to approach a polished wooden box holding numbered chips that determined the order in which they would get to choose an available office suite. Those with the lowest numbers would get first pick.
It was a moment of competitive levity at the end of their whirlwind two-week orientation — but also one of high stakes. It determined whether their staff would work in a spacious suite with window views of the National Mall and a short walk to the Capitol building, or be stuck with something far less impressive and convenient.
Rep.-elect Craig Goldman (R-Tex.) was up first. He got 48.
“Oh, that hurts!” Rep.-elect Sam Liccardo (D-San Jose) jokingly heckled from the sidelines. “Enjoy the basement!”
Rep.-elect Sam Liccardo (D-San Jose) speaks after a news conference to introduce newly elected members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on Nov.