Dems: Bring back the House page program

Three House Democrats on Tuesday introduced legislation that would reinstate the House page program, which Republican and Democratic leaders agreed to cancel over the summer in order to cut costs.

H.Res. 397, introduced by Reps. Dan Boren (D-Okla.), John Dingell (D-Mich.), and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), would re-establish the page program after a new advisory panel offers recommendations on how it should operate.

The bill offers no advice on how the advisory panel should be guided as it makes recommendations, but does outline who would serve on it. The nine-person panel would be composed of three House Republicans, three House Democrats, and three former House pages who are not members of the House.

The findings section of the bill notes that the House page program is "part of a historic tradition of the House of Representatives," first used in 1774. It adds that former pages have gone on to become "our Nation's leaders both in the public and private sectors" and that the decision to end the program is "detrimental to both the House of Representatives and the education of our Nation's young people."