Rep. Greg Walden is asking colleagues how they think the House should be run. GOP survey targets Hill spending

House Republicans are surveying all congressional offices this week, asking them for input on changes they should make in how the House is run.

Rep. Greg Walden, the Oregon Republican who is chairing the GOP’s transition efforts, is sending a survey to all members of Congress, chiefs of staff and schedulers on both sides of the aisle, asking them for help “in identifying aspects of House operations that are most in need of reform.”


In a letter to offices, which was obtained by POLITICO, Walden harkens back to pre-1994 House traditions in illustrating what he considers waste: House offices used to have ice buckets delivered each day. It was meant to act as refrigeration, but continued for many years “because it was the way things had always been done,” Walden writes in the note to House offices.

“As members and staffers, you doubtless encounter ‘ice buckets’ in your daily work: inefficiencies, flawed processes and rules or practices that waste taxpayer dollars while doing little to improve the House’s work on behalf of the American people,” Walden writes in the letter, asking “where are the ice buckets of 2010?”

The survey, which will be Web-based, asks respondents to answer questions on a sliding scale. Inquiries include: how satisfied is the office with financial matters, new staff issues, modular furniture, I.T., ease in finding out about general services to staff, scheduling of tours through the Capitol Visitors Center and training.

It allows Hill employees to openly address what savings they can envision, what services they’d like to see and what services should be eliminated.

To be sure, surveys of this nature are frequently ignored, or paid scant attention. And coming off bruising losses in the House, some Democratic staffers may simply ignore the effort.

But the survey illustrates just how far the Republicans are saying they’ll go as they look to cut spending in the House. Walden has said that he’s open to cutting Capitol employees, by in this survey he’s asking staffers to rate just how effective specific offices have been.