WASHINGTON, DC – INCLUSV, a political diversity hiring initiative & project of PowerPAC+, applauds this week’s news that under the leadership of Senator Chuck Schumer, Senate Democrats have adopted new hiring rules in an effort to diversify the senior staff that leads their offices.
Under the new rules, Senate Democrats have adapted a version of the NFL’s Rooney Rule–Requiring offices to interview at least one person of color for each senior staff position that is open. Implementing the Rooney Rule will go a long way towards ensuring that talented staffers of color aren’t skipped over early in the hiring process, and could eventually result in creating a staff corps that reflects the diversity of the nation, a pressing concern given that research from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies found that only 7% of top Senate staffers are people of color.
Additionally, Inclusv praises Senator Schumer’s vow to publish official diversity statistics from Senate offices on the website of the Senate Diversity Initiative. Senator Schumer’s commitment to be transparent about the state of diversity within his Caucus’ offices follows a promising and unprecedented trend that began in 2016, when after urging from Inclusv, the Clinton and Sanders campaigns as well the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee publicly released their internal staff diversity data.
Eric Lundy, Program Director, Inclusv responded to this week’s news:
“We are very pleased to see Senator Schumer urging Senate Democrats to adopt best practices already being used to diversify the leadership ranks at organizations such as the National Football League, Facebook, and Pinterest. In an America that is growing more diverse by the day, it is unacceptable that only 7% of top Senate staffers are people of color, but Senate Democrats have taken a tremendous step towards addressing the systemic barriers that have long prevented the offices of members of congress from reflecting the diversity of the constituents they serve.
“We look forward to seeing each Senate office fully embrace the spirit of these changes, and call on the leaders of the House Democratic Caucus to take similar steps to ensure their members are taking a serious approach to hiring and promoting more people of color in their offices.”