Quora Question: Do Congressional Staffers Often Work Secretly With the White House?

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, left, Senator Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Paul Ryan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi participate in the "first nail ceremony" kicking off the Inauguration Platform... Reuters

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Answer from Jim Moore, former press secretary, military legislative aide at U.S. Senate (1984-1986):

Is it common for Congressional aides to work on legislation or other projects without their bosses' knowledge? The short answer is no.

It is not uncommon for Congressional staff to be tasked, by their bosses, to assist the White House, cabinet offices or agencies, in drafting documents requiring specialized knowledge or tapping into resources available to House and Senate staff for deeper dives into specific issues.

No one branch of government is omniscient; no individual, within any of the three branches can claim complete knowledge of all subject areas necessary to the progress and maintenance of the federal government's executive, legislative and judicial responsibilities. Within each branch, there are additional branches—Cabinet departments' organization charts are wonders (or nightmares) of linked boxes of titles and operational buzzwords. This chart, from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of the Assistant Secretary for Operations, Security and Preparedness, is a subset of the much larger VA org chart.

From time to time, a staff member representing one of these boxes may be tasked to prepare a policy paper, or a position paper, on a subject he or she knows only in part. It is likely they will have to ask for help from subject matter experts, particularly if their tasking includes referencing legislation affecting their particular box's regulations or legislative mandate. If the subject-matter expert can't be found within VA, the staffer may turn to VA's office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs (OCLA) (see box, lower right).

At that point, a staff member from OCLA will work his or her contacts with the relevant Congressional committee or individual House or Senate offices to find the appropriate response to the VA staffer's information need. A dialogue will begin, the questions asked and answered, with both sides working in complete transparency.

And that is a very normal chain of relationships between the Executive and Legislative branches. It happens every day. And it works both ways. From time to time, legislators or their staff will contact an agency for clarification of a matter, or specific expert advice. All above board. And, relevant to the question at hand,with the full knowledge and approval of their respective employers.

What doesn't happen every day—and should never happen Constitutionally—is a backdoor, private, lets-not-tell-the-boss, relationship between a member of the White House staff and a staff member to either a Senator, Representative, or Congressional committee leadership.

Just as the separation of church and state are sacrosanct in the American canon of republican ideology (note the lowercase republican—this is not a political discussion)—so too is the separation of executive branch and legislative branch sacrosanct when it comes to actual taskings of staff. Congressional staff must never be tasked by the Executive, nor should any Executive branch employee be importuned by a tasking from a legislative office without all the legal and ethical checks being applied to the relationship, and that relationship made fully and publicly transparent.

Beyond and above the unambiguous commandment laid out in that last sentence, it is intolerable for any staff member on the public payroll—Executive, Legislative, Judicial—to operate behind their employer's back. A Congressional employee working discretely, secretly, at the behest of any employee of the Executive branch—including the President—and purposefully avoiding the express permission of his or her Senator or Representative is acting not only against the institution of the Congress, but against the interests of the American people.

Is it common for Congressional aides to work on legislation or other projects without their bosses' knowledge? originally appeared on Quora—the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions:

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