The Invisible Policymaker: Congressional Staff Members as Users and Producers of Science Communication

Congressmen and women serve as the public face of policymaking on Capitol Hill, familiar figures to us from the media. But behind them, thousands of largely invisible staff members serve on the front lines processing—and producing—science communication for their offices. For decades, legislative scholars have recognized that making decisions on new policies is the least frequent use of information in Congress. Indeed, staff members often use expert information in promoting issues in which the elected official's position is well known, communicating within their offices, within Congress, with stakeholders and the media, and with the public. As such, they are not only science communication users, but producers. We present data from a year-long study on the challenges that congressional staff members face in accessing and using scientific information, how they use it, and what they perceive that helpful sources do. We employ a conceptual model of knowledge usability along with theories of communication and policy change to assess how science communication in Congress may differ from other contexts.