WEBVTT 00:00:01.340 --> 00:00:04.259 Welcome to today's Deep Dive. We're really thrilled 00:00:04.259 --> 00:00:07.379 to have you joining us. Now, if you are anything 00:00:07.379 --> 00:00:09.640 like me, when you think about the United States 00:00:09.640 --> 00:00:12.460 Senate, your mind immediately goes to the politicians. 00:00:12.679 --> 00:00:15.000 Right. Absolutely. You picture the grand speeches, 00:00:15.259 --> 00:00:18.620 the heated debates at the podium, those late 00:00:18.620 --> 00:00:21.140 night votes on the floor and, you know, the cameras 00:00:21.140 --> 00:00:24.440 flashing in the hallways. But today. We are going 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:26.879 to look right past all of that. Yeah, we are. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:28.559 We're pulling from this fascinating Wikipedia 00:00:28.559 --> 00:00:31.579 article detailing the role of the Secretary of 00:00:31.579 --> 00:00:34.000 the United States Senate. Yeah. And our mission 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:36.920 for this deep dive is to uncover the invisible 00:00:36.920 --> 00:00:39.920 engine that actually runs one of the most powerful 00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:42.380 legislative bodies in the entire world. Exactly. 00:00:42.439 --> 00:00:44.920 We want to prove to you that the real machinery 00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:48.340 of government goes far, far beyond the elected 00:00:48.340 --> 00:00:51.789 officials we see on television. It is a... It's 00:00:51.789 --> 00:00:53.630 a completely different world once you pull back 00:00:53.630 --> 00:00:56.350 that curtain. The scope of this position is honestly, 00:00:56.450 --> 00:00:58.289 it's almost hard to overstate when you look at 00:00:58.289 --> 00:01:00.670 the sheer breadth of what they are responsible 00:01:00.670 --> 00:01:03.250 for on a day to day basis. Right. We spend so 00:01:03.250 --> 00:01:05.549 much time analyzing the people who vote on the 00:01:05.549 --> 00:01:08.489 laws and we just we completely ignore the people 00:01:08.489 --> 00:01:11.469 who physically build and maintain the arena where 00:01:11.469 --> 00:01:13.909 those votes happen. And just to tease the scope 00:01:13.909 --> 00:01:17.209 of this role for you. This is a position that 00:01:17.209 --> 00:01:21.909 currently pays a salary of $172 ,500 a year. 00:01:22.069 --> 00:01:25.129 Wow. Yeah. It is a job that dates all the way 00:01:25.129 --> 00:01:29.950 back to 1789. And it has evolved from essentially 00:01:29.950 --> 00:01:33.870 buying quill pens and ink for the founding fathers 00:01:33.870 --> 00:01:36.870 to managing highly classified national security 00:01:36.870 --> 00:01:39.010 documents. Massive tech initiatives. Exactly. 00:01:39.129 --> 00:01:42.030 Cutting -edge modern tech initiatives. It is 00:01:42.030 --> 00:01:44.640 a wild trajectory. And that is exactly why you're 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:47.019 here with me today, to help us synthesize all 00:01:47.019 --> 00:01:49.579 of this historical and administrative info and 00:01:49.579 --> 00:01:51.780 really break down why this role matters to anyone 00:01:51.780 --> 00:01:54.540 who wants to truly understand how the U .S. government 00:01:54.540 --> 00:01:57.299 functions on a daily basis. Well, I'm very glad 00:01:57.299 --> 00:01:59.640 to be here. It's it's incredibly easy to get 00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:01.620 distracted by the politics of the Senate and 00:02:01.620 --> 00:02:04.200 ignore the logistics. But without the logistics, 00:02:04.579 --> 00:02:07.180 the politics literally cannot happen. I mean, 00:02:07.180 --> 00:02:09.939 a senator cannot cast a vote if there is no one 00:02:09.939 --> 00:02:13.039 there to record it, process it and archive it. 00:02:13.180 --> 00:02:14.919 OK, let's unpack this from the very beginning, 00:02:15.060 --> 00:02:18.340 because a job this massive doesn't just, you 00:02:18.340 --> 00:02:20.879 know, appear out of nowhere. If we look back 00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:22.800 at the origins of the United States government, 00:02:22.979 --> 00:02:25.080 they basically had to build the airplane while 00:02:25.080 --> 00:02:27.969 they were flying it. When did they actually realize 00:02:27.969 --> 00:02:30.610 they needed a chief administrator? They realized 00:02:30.610 --> 00:02:33.389 it almost immediately. Yeah, the role was officially 00:02:33.389 --> 00:02:37.030 created on April 8, 1789. To put that timeline 00:02:37.030 --> 00:02:39.550 into perspective for you, that is just two days 00:02:39.550 --> 00:02:42.229 after the Senate achieved its very first quorum 00:02:42.229 --> 00:02:44.710 for business. Wow. Just two days. Right at the 00:02:44.710 --> 00:02:46.430 beginning of the first United States Congress. 00:02:46.629 --> 00:02:48.849 They barely had enough people in the room to 00:02:48.849 --> 00:02:51.650 officially conduct business. They had these monumental 00:02:51.650 --> 00:02:53.770 tasks ahead of them regarding the foundation 00:02:53.770 --> 00:02:56.270 of the country. And their immediate next thought 00:02:56.270 --> 00:02:59.979 was. We need someone to actually run this place. 00:03:00.219 --> 00:03:02.439 They needed an office manager, basically. Pretty 00:03:02.439 --> 00:03:05.099 much. And that brings us to the very first person 00:03:05.099 --> 00:03:08.659 to hold the job, a man named Samuel Alleyne Otis. 00:03:08.900 --> 00:03:11.840 Now, you have to hear this detail because it 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:15.419 is absolutely mind boggling. Samuel Alleyne Otis 00:03:15.419 --> 00:03:19.699 held the post of secretary for 25 years. 25 years. 00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:22.639 And in those 25 years, he never missed a single 00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:25.099 day that the Senate was in session. Not one day. 00:03:25.259 --> 00:03:27.780 Not one single day. Think about the physical 00:03:27.780 --> 00:03:30.539 toll of traveling and working in the 18th and 00:03:30.539 --> 00:03:33.520 early 19th centuries. The lack of modern medicine, 00:03:33.699 --> 00:03:36.259 the grueling conditions of those early legislative 00:03:36.259 --> 00:03:40.599 sessions in drafty, poorly lit rooms. And he 00:03:40.599 --> 00:03:42.680 was there for every single gavel drop. It is 00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:45.560 a staggering level of dedication. And it really 00:03:45.560 --> 00:03:48.180 speaks to the caliber of person they wanted for 00:03:48.180 --> 00:03:50.319 this role. Right. He wasn't just anybody. Exactly. 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:53.280 Otis wasn't just some hired clerk pulled off 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:55.219 the street. He had previously been the speaker 00:03:55.219 --> 00:03:57.500 of the Massachusetts legislature. Oh, wow. Yeah. 00:03:57.560 --> 00:03:59.280 And a member of the Continental Congress. He 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:02.280 was a highly significant political figure in 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:04.780 his own right. But he dedicated a quarter of 00:04:04.780 --> 00:04:06.840 a century to keeping the machinery of the Senate 00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:09.810 moving without taking a single sick day. I mean, 00:04:09.830 --> 00:04:11.810 I can barely go a week without needing a mental 00:04:11.810 --> 00:04:15.090 health day. And this guy did 25 years through 00:04:15.090 --> 00:04:16.790 the founding of the republic. It's unbelievable. 00:04:17.149 --> 00:04:18.949 So let's talk about what he was actually doing 00:04:18.949 --> 00:04:22.269 every day during those early years. The original 00:04:22.269 --> 00:04:24.389 job description was a really interesting mix. 00:04:24.490 --> 00:04:27.430 It was part high -level administrator, part errand 00:04:27.430 --> 00:04:29.889 runner. Very hands -on. Yeah, he was responsible 00:04:29.889 --> 00:04:32.069 for keeping the minutes and the records of the 00:04:32.069 --> 00:04:34.610 Senate, including the vital records of the senators' 00:04:34.769 --> 00:04:38.009 elections. He had to receive and transmit official 00:04:38.009 --> 00:04:41.449 messages to and from the president and the House 00:04:41.449 --> 00:04:43.810 of Representatives. He was also the one purchasing 00:04:43.810 --> 00:04:45.709 the physical supplies. Like going to the store. 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:49.740 Basically, in 1789, that meant buying the quill 00:04:49.740 --> 00:04:52.259 pens, the ink and the parchment that the senators 00:04:52.259 --> 00:04:56.100 needed to literally draft legislation. And perhaps 00:04:56.100 --> 00:04:58.019 most importantly to the senators themselves, 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:01.600 he served from the very beginning as the Senate's 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:03.920 dispersing officer. The payroll coordinator. 00:05:04.220 --> 00:05:06.240 The guy with the money. He was literally handing 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:09.019 out the cash. He was paying the original senators 00:05:09.019 --> 00:05:12.500 their salary, which was just $6 a day at the 00:05:12.500 --> 00:05:15.649 time, plus travel expenses. Just imagine. Imagine 00:05:15.649 --> 00:05:17.790 this role for a second. Think about being the 00:05:17.790 --> 00:05:20.689 ultimate office manager, the head of the HR department, 00:05:21.089 --> 00:05:24.290 the payroll coordinator, and the IT support all 00:05:24.290 --> 00:05:27.930 rolled into one single job. A nightmare. Right. 00:05:28.029 --> 00:05:30.769 But instead of a regular corporate startup, your 00:05:30.769 --> 00:05:33.129 office is the foundational government of the 00:05:33.129 --> 00:05:35.930 United States. You are literally buying the ink 00:05:35.930 --> 00:05:38.810 that will write the laws of a new nation. What's 00:05:38.810 --> 00:05:40.930 fascinating here is how that administrative foundation 00:05:40.930 --> 00:05:44.610 naturally bled into actual legislative power. 00:05:44.750 --> 00:05:48.050 How so? Well, the role didn't just stay in the 00:05:48.050 --> 00:05:50.709 back office counting quills and handing out $6 00:05:50.709 --> 00:05:54.089 paychecks. As the Senate grew into a major national 00:05:54.089 --> 00:05:57.449 institution, the secretary's role became deeply 00:05:57.449 --> 00:06:00.050 embedded in the actual daily floor operations 00:06:00.050 --> 00:06:02.509 of the legislative branch. Okay, let's dive into 00:06:02.509 --> 00:06:04.089 those floor operations because this is where 00:06:04.089 --> 00:06:06.560 the invisible engine really starts to... flex 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:09.220 its muscle. The secretary isn't just watching 00:06:09.220 --> 00:06:11.259 from a balcony taking notes anymore. No, not 00:06:11.259 --> 00:06:13.579 at all. They are physically down there in the 00:06:13.579 --> 00:06:17.379 mix. Very much so. The secretary regularly accompanies 00:06:17.379 --> 00:06:19.439 the chaplain into the Senate chamber for the 00:06:19.439 --> 00:06:21.300 opening of the day session. They actually have 00:06:21.300 --> 00:06:23.339 a seat reserved for them right beside the presiding 00:06:23.339 --> 00:06:25.800 officer. Front and center. Exactly. But their 00:06:25.800 --> 00:06:28.480 most critical legislative function, and this 00:06:28.480 --> 00:06:30.759 is something that often goes completely unnoticed 00:06:30.759 --> 00:06:33.839 by the public, is that the secretary examines 00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:37.430 and signs. Every single act that has been passed 00:06:37.430 --> 00:06:39.930 by the Senate. Every single one. Every single 00:06:39.930 --> 00:06:42.810 one. That is a massive bottleneck of power and 00:06:42.810 --> 00:06:46.230 responsibility. Nothing gets through without 00:06:46.230 --> 00:06:49.329 their signature. And if you think about the complexity 00:06:49.329 --> 00:06:52.790 of modern legislation, we are talking about omnibus 00:06:52.790 --> 00:06:55.209 spending bills that are thousands of pages long. 00:06:55.269 --> 00:06:57.750 Oh yeah. Dictating trillions of dollars in national 00:06:57.750 --> 00:07:01.259 and global funding. The secretary is the final 00:07:01.259 --> 00:07:04.300 set of eyes, the ultimate quality control. If 00:07:04.300 --> 00:07:06.500 a comma is out of place, if a page is missing, 00:07:06.660 --> 00:07:09.399 if a procedural rule was violated in the drafting, 00:07:09.560 --> 00:07:11.920 it stumps at their desk. To manage that kind 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:14.699 of workflow, the secretary supervises a whole 00:07:14.699 --> 00:07:18.480 team of highly specialized floor staff. Because 00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:21.240 the first secretary, Samuel Otis, took the minutes 00:07:21.240 --> 00:07:24.000 of the proceedings by himself, but that function 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:26.720 obviously evolved significantly. Right. One person 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:29.939 can't do that today. Exactly. Today, that specific 00:07:29.939 --> 00:07:32.660 duty is carried out by the journal clerk, who 00:07:32.660 --> 00:07:35.720 operates directly under the secretary. The secretary 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:38.680 also oversees the parliamentarian. The referee 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:41.500 of the Senate rules. Basically, yes. The parliamentarian, 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:43.920 the bill clerk, the legislative clerk, and the 00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:46.439 reporters of debates who prepare the Daily Digest 00:07:46.439 --> 00:07:49.060 for the congressional record. They are the director 00:07:49.060 --> 00:07:51.279 of the entire production that is the Senate floor. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:55.339 I read this anecdote from June 2010 that completely 00:07:55.339 --> 00:07:57.779 shifted how I view the weight of this role. It 00:07:57.779 --> 00:08:00.399 was right after Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:02.740 passed away. He had been serving as the president 00:08:02.740 --> 00:08:05.560 pro tempore. At the same time, Vice President 00:08:05.560 --> 00:08:07.819 Joseph Biden, who normally presides over the 00:08:07.819 --> 00:08:09.959 Senate, was absent from the chamber. So you have 00:08:09.959 --> 00:08:12.620 a literal power vacuum on the Senate floor. The 00:08:12.620 --> 00:08:14.899 two people constitutionally mandated to sit in 00:08:14.899 --> 00:08:18.459 the chair are gone. What actually happens in 00:08:18.459 --> 00:08:20.879 that scenario? That is where the institutional 00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:24.500 fail -safes kick in. The rules dictate that in 00:08:24.500 --> 00:08:26.459 the absence of the vice president and the president 00:08:26.459 --> 00:08:29.000 pro tempore, the secretary of the Senate literally 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:32.320 steps up and takes the chair. Wow. And that is 00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:36.019 exactly what happened on June 28, 2010. Secretary 00:08:36.019 --> 00:08:38.960 Nancy Erickson stepped up and briefly presided 00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:40.759 over the United States Senate until they could 00:08:40.759 --> 00:08:43.440 adopt a resolution to elect Senator Daniel Inouye 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:46.340 of Hawaii as the new president pro tempore. That 00:08:46.340 --> 00:08:48.500 is incredible. The person in charge of the payroll 00:08:48.500 --> 00:08:51.179 and the minutes suddenly holding the gavel for 00:08:51.179 --> 00:08:53.019 the United States Senate. It perfectly illustrates 00:08:53.019 --> 00:08:55.419 how vital the role is for the continuity of government. 00:08:55.879 --> 00:08:57.980 The politicians are the ones debating and voting. 00:08:58.139 --> 00:09:00.960 But when the structure itself fractures, it is 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:03.299 the administrator who steps into the breach and 00:09:03.299 --> 00:09:05.659 keeps the institution from falling apart. It 00:09:05.659 --> 00:09:09.080 is a failsafe built into the very fabric of the 00:09:09.080 --> 00:09:11.399 Senate's parliamentary rules. Here's where it 00:09:11.399 --> 00:09:14.059 gets really interesting, though. Because as much 00:09:14.059 --> 00:09:16.279 as they are involved in the legislative process 00:09:16.279 --> 00:09:19.539 on the floor, the modern administrative duties 00:09:19.539 --> 00:09:22.679 of the secretary have expanded into an absolute 00:09:22.679 --> 00:09:25.559 empire behind the scenes. Oh, empire is the perfect 00:09:25.559 --> 00:09:28.039 word for it. We've moved way beyond ordering 00:09:28.039 --> 00:09:30.539 quill pens and parchment. The modern jurisdiction 00:09:30.539 --> 00:09:33.299 of the secretary is incredibly vast and frankly, 00:09:33.419 --> 00:09:35.820 a bit of an administrative contradiction. What 00:09:35.820 --> 00:09:37.440 do you mean by contradiction? Well, let's walk 00:09:37.440 --> 00:09:39.299 through a few of the offices they oversee because 00:09:39.299 --> 00:09:42.120 it paints a bizarre but fascinating picture. 00:09:42.789 --> 00:09:45.549 You mentioned quill pens earlier. Well, today 00:09:45.549 --> 00:09:48.250 the secretary has responsibility for the Senate 00:09:48.250 --> 00:09:50.850 stationary room. OK. But this isn't a simple 00:09:50.850 --> 00:09:53.629 supply closet where interns grab printer paper. 00:09:53.769 --> 00:09:56.570 It is a multimillion dollar retail operation 00:09:56.570 --> 00:09:59.889 that keeps all the senators offices fully supplied 00:09:59.889 --> 00:10:02.690 with customized materials. A multimillion dollar 00:10:02.690 --> 00:10:05.230 retail store just hiding inside the legislative 00:10:05.230 --> 00:10:07.809 branch. Yes. And that's just the mundane side 00:10:07.809 --> 00:10:10.580 of things. It gets much, much more intense. Consider 00:10:10.580 --> 00:10:12.720 the friction between running a massive retail 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:15.980 operation and running national security. The 00:10:15.980 --> 00:10:18.340 secretary also oversees the Office of Senate 00:10:18.340 --> 00:10:21.200 Security. Wow. This is the office responsible 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:23.259 for maintaining highly classified documents. 00:10:23.659 --> 00:10:26.419 They are managing the secure facilities where 00:10:26.419 --> 00:10:28.440 senators go to review top secret intelligence 00:10:28.440 --> 00:10:31.860 briefings. So you go from overseeing the procurement 00:10:31.860 --> 00:10:35.279 of customized letterhead to overseeing the vault 00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:37.840 containing the nation's most sensitive geopolitical 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:41.190 secrets. all under one job title. And the portfolio 00:10:41.190 --> 00:10:44.049 just keeps expanding. They oversee the United 00:10:44.049 --> 00:10:46.330 States Senate Library, the Senate Historical 00:10:46.330 --> 00:10:49.429 Office, and the Office of Senate Curator. Right. 00:10:49.570 --> 00:10:52.070 So they are the head librarians, the chief historians, 00:10:52.269 --> 00:10:54.769 and the museum curators of the Senate. They are 00:10:54.769 --> 00:10:57.110 responsible for preserving the physical history 00:10:57.110 --> 00:10:59.669 of the building, the art. the antique furniture 00:10:59.669 --> 00:11:01.789 and the historical records. But then there's 00:11:01.789 --> 00:11:03.570 the Office of Public Records, which is arguably 00:11:03.570 --> 00:11:05.789 one of the most important functions for modern 00:11:05.789 --> 00:11:08.289 democratic transparency. The Office of Public 00:11:08.289 --> 00:11:10.899 Records is vital. Under the Secretary's direction, 00:11:11.220 --> 00:11:14.299 this office collects, processes, and makes publicly 00:11:14.299 --> 00:11:17.120 available millions of pages of documents relating 00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:20.659 to campaign finance, financial ethics, foreign 00:11:20.659 --> 00:11:23.460 travel, and lobbying. That's huge. Whenever you 00:11:23.460 --> 00:11:25.980 hear an investigative journalist or a news report 00:11:25.980 --> 00:11:28.600 citing a senator's campaign finances or breaking 00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:31.080 a story about lobbying disclosures, they are 00:11:31.080 --> 00:11:33.879 relying entirely on an office managed by the 00:11:33.879 --> 00:11:35.659 Secretary of the Senate. They are keeping the 00:11:35.659 --> 00:11:38.519 receipts for the entire legislative branch. Literally. 00:11:38.840 --> 00:11:41.059 And if a senator needs to travel internationally 00:11:41.059 --> 00:11:43.240 to meet with foreign leaders or attend a summit, 00:11:43.419 --> 00:11:45.639 the secretary is intimately involved there too. 00:11:46.039 --> 00:11:48.320 That falls under the Office of Interparliamentary 00:11:48.320 --> 00:11:51.399 Services, which the secretary maintains. This 00:11:51.399 --> 00:11:53.799 office provides logistical and administrative 00:11:53.799 --> 00:11:56.460 support for interparliamentary conferences that 00:11:56.460 --> 00:11:59.019 the Senate participates in. And it handles the 00:11:59.019 --> 00:12:02.159 incredibly complex logistics of assisting senators 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:04.679 with their international travel. Right. You are 00:12:04.679 --> 00:12:06.539 talking about coordinating with the State Department, 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:09.299 foreign governments and security details. It 00:12:09.299 --> 00:12:12.039 is staggering. multi -million dollar retail, 00:12:12.299 --> 00:12:15.720 classified top secret documents, historical preservation, 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:19.120 ethics enforcement, and acting as a high -level 00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:22.220 international travel agency, all under one person's 00:12:22.220 --> 00:12:26.029 jurisdiction. But how did the staff itself evolve 00:12:26.029 --> 00:12:29.370 to handle all of this? Because clearly one person 00:12:29.370 --> 00:12:31.669 isn't doing all of this alone anymore. No. The 00:12:31.669 --> 00:12:33.509 scale of these modern responsibilities required 00:12:33.509 --> 00:12:36.629 a massive professionalization of the staff. We 00:12:36.629 --> 00:12:38.750 see a major turning point highlighted in the 00:12:38.750 --> 00:12:42.149 1960s. 60s. OK. During that decade. Under the 00:12:42.149 --> 00:12:45.029 leadership of a secretary named Francis R. Vallejo, 00:12:45.169 --> 00:12:47.669 the staff positions under the secretary of the 00:12:47.669 --> 00:12:50.629 Senate were fundamentally redefined. Vallejo 00:12:50.629 --> 00:12:53.009 essentially realized that an operation this critical 00:12:53.009 --> 00:12:55.850 couldn't survive on the old spoil system. They 00:12:55.850 --> 00:12:58.009 needed to stop handing out jobs as political 00:12:58.009 --> 00:13:00.649 favors to loyalists and start building a dedicated 00:13:00.649 --> 00:13:02.769 class of professionals. That makes total sense. 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:05.399 You are the middle of the Cold War. The U .S. 00:13:05.399 --> 00:13:07.940 government is expanding exponentially and you 00:13:07.940 --> 00:13:10.440 can't have the person guarding top secret documents 00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:12.879 or managing international logistics be someone 00:13:12.879 --> 00:13:14.820 who just got the job because they knocked on 00:13:14.820 --> 00:13:17.200 doors for a winning senator. It's exact. You 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:20.519 need serious career driven experts. And that 00:13:20.519 --> 00:13:23.000 trend towards strict professionalization was 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:26.159 continued by all of Vallejo's successors. It 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:27.960 is the only way the Senate can function as a 00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:31.100 modern, complex organization. We also see that 00:13:31.100 --> 00:13:33.399 evolution perfectly encapsulated in the role 00:13:33.399 --> 00:13:35.840 of the assistant secretary. How so? Well, back 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:39.240 in 1789, the secretary was authorized to hire 00:13:39.240 --> 00:13:42.740 exactly one principal clerk. And for many years, 00:13:42.779 --> 00:13:45.179 this chief clerk essentially just stood on the 00:13:45.179 --> 00:13:47.559 Senate floor and acted as a reading clerk, reading 00:13:47.559 --> 00:13:50.350 the text of bills allowed to the room. But again, 00:13:50.570 --> 00:13:54.129 during that pivotal 1960s era, in response to 00:13:54.129 --> 00:13:56.450 that massive growth in administrative duties, 00:13:56.710 --> 00:13:59.350 that principal clerk position evolved into the 00:13:59.350 --> 00:14:01.610 modern assistant secretary of the Senate. Today, 00:14:01.750 --> 00:14:04.149 that assistant secretary is essentially the chief 00:14:04.149 --> 00:14:06.250 operating officer and chief technology officer 00:14:06.250 --> 00:14:08.529 rolled into one. They oversee the administration 00:14:08.529 --> 00:14:11.009 of the secretary's office, which includes managing 00:14:11.009 --> 00:14:13.429 the vast computer networks and the secretary's 00:14:13.429 --> 00:14:15.830 website. That's a massive job. They are currently 00:14:15.830 --> 00:14:18.470 spearheading two of the largest technology initiatives 00:14:18.470 --> 00:14:21.470 in Senate history, both designed to bring state 00:14:21.470 --> 00:14:23.350 -of -the -art efficiency to the management of 00:14:23.350 --> 00:14:25.929 legislative and financial information. Which 00:14:25.929 --> 00:14:28.870 is crazy when you think about it. Right. Digitizing 00:14:28.870 --> 00:14:32.129 the records of a body that operates on 18th century 00:14:32.129 --> 00:14:35.909 parliamentary rules is a monumental task. And 00:14:35.909 --> 00:14:38.570 on top of all that tech integration, the assistant 00:14:38.570 --> 00:14:41.909 secretary actually steps in to perform the functions 00:14:41.909 --> 00:14:44.809 of the secretary whenever the secretary is absent. 00:14:45.230 --> 00:14:47.090 Which brings us to a really fascinating question. 00:14:47.490 --> 00:14:50.129 With a job this powerful, this vast, and this 00:14:50.129 --> 00:14:52.389 deeply entrenched in the daily survival of the 00:14:52.389 --> 00:14:54.629 government, how do you actually get the job? 00:14:54.830 --> 00:14:56.950 It's a great question. If the Constitution says 00:14:56.950 --> 00:14:59.330 the Senate elects their own officers, you would 00:14:59.330 --> 00:15:01.269 assume this involves a massive floor campaign. 00:15:01.889 --> 00:15:04.129 But the reality of how this person is chosen 00:15:04.129 --> 00:15:06.629 is much more backroom, right? Legally, the Constitution 00:15:06.629 --> 00:15:09.850 is quite clear. Article 1, Section 3. known as 00:15:09.850 --> 00:15:12.029 the Senate Officers Clause, states that the Senate 00:15:12.029 --> 00:15:14.750 shall choose their other officers. And Article 00:15:14.750 --> 00:15:17.470 6 requires that these officers take an oath to 00:15:17.470 --> 00:15:19.870 support the Constitution, a mandate enforced 00:15:19.870 --> 00:15:23.190 by the very first Congress. Okay. So officially, 00:15:23.350 --> 00:15:26.070 the secretary is elected by a vote of the entire 00:15:26.070 --> 00:15:28.629 Senate. However, by agreement of the two major 00:15:28.629 --> 00:15:31.409 political parties, the majority leader is actually 00:15:31.409 --> 00:15:33.429 the one who selects the secretary of the Senate. 00:15:33.610 --> 00:15:36.070 Really? The actual election on the floor is merely 00:15:36.070 --> 00:15:39.360 ceremonial. It's a rubber stamp. Whichever party 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:42.059 holds the majority, their leader picks the person 00:15:42.059 --> 00:15:44.279 for the job. So, for instance, we know that the 00:15:44.279 --> 00:15:46.500 current secretary for the 119th United States 00:15:46.500 --> 00:15:49.440 Congress is Jackie Barber, who just took office 00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:54.279 on January 3, 2025. It is incredible to think 00:15:54.279 --> 00:15:56.419 about the unbroken chain of people stretching 00:15:56.419 --> 00:15:59.919 from Samuel Otis in 1789 all the way to Jackie 00:15:59.919 --> 00:16:02.879 Barber today. It really is. There have only been 00:16:02.879 --> 00:16:05.720 35 people to hold this title in the entire history 00:16:05.720 --> 00:16:07.879 of the United States. And looking at the list 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:10.879 of those 35 people, it is a surprisingly colorful 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:13.580 cast of characters. It hasn't always been strictly 00:16:13.580 --> 00:16:16.259 administrative bureaucrats. Historically, the 00:16:16.259 --> 00:16:18.500 role has attracted some very prominent figures 00:16:18.500 --> 00:16:20.860 from entirely different walks of life. We've 00:16:20.860 --> 00:16:23.000 seen significant military figures holding the 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:25.639 post, like General Anson McCook of New York served 00:16:25.639 --> 00:16:28.559 as secretary. He was a former House member and 00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:30.679 famously one of the fighting McCooks of the Civil 00:16:30.679 --> 00:16:33.779 War. We also had William R. Cox of North Carolina 00:16:33.779 --> 00:16:36.000 hold the role. He was a former congressman and 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:38.580 a former Confederate general. Wow. The post -Civil 00:16:38.580 --> 00:16:41.480 War era saw a lot of military leaders transitioning 00:16:41.480 --> 00:16:44.139 into these high -level administrative government 00:16:44.139 --> 00:16:46.759 roles. We've also seen former elected officials 00:16:46.759 --> 00:16:49.559 step into the role. Two former U .S. senators 00:16:49.559 --> 00:16:51.759 actually came back to serve as the secretary, 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:54.879 Charles Cutts of New Hampshire and Walter Lowry 00:16:54.879 --> 00:16:57.240 of Pennsylvania. It is an interesting dynamic 00:16:57.240 --> 00:17:00.210 to consider. Yeah. You go from being a voting 00:17:00.210 --> 00:17:02.629 member of the body, subject to the whims of the 00:17:02.629 --> 00:17:04.930 electorate, to being the person running the building, 00:17:05.130 --> 00:17:08.029 overseeing the finances, and managing the very 00:17:08.029 --> 00:17:11.089 staff you used to rely on. We also saw a historic, 00:17:11.269 --> 00:17:14.410 albeit long overdue, milestone during the 99th 00:17:14.410 --> 00:17:18.630 Congress, from 1985 to 1987, when Joanne Coe 00:17:18.630 --> 00:17:20.849 became the very first woman to serve as Secretary 00:17:20.849 --> 00:17:22.980 of the Senate. That's amazing. It took nearly 00:17:22.980 --> 00:17:26.380 200 years to break that specific ceiling, but 00:17:26.380 --> 00:17:28.339 she paved the way for modern leadership in the 00:17:28.339 --> 00:17:30.920 role. But perhaps the most interesting demographic 00:17:30.920 --> 00:17:33.420 of people to hold this position is a group we 00:17:33.420 --> 00:17:36.420 might call the lifers. I love this detail. The 00:17:36.420 --> 00:17:39.529 people who... Basically grew up inside the Capitol 00:17:39.529 --> 00:17:42.009 building. It has not been unusual for secretaries 00:17:42.009 --> 00:17:44.549 of the Senate to have devoted their entire careers 00:17:44.549 --> 00:17:47.250 to the Senate. Several of them actually started 00:17:47.250 --> 00:17:49.369 their careers at the very bottom of the ladder 00:17:49.369 --> 00:17:52.730 as Senate pages. No way. Yeah. They came in as 00:17:52.730 --> 00:17:54.630 teenagers running messages across the floor, 00:17:54.809 --> 00:17:57.750 learned every intricate detail of how the institution 00:17:57.750 --> 00:18:00.650 operates over decades, and eventually rose to 00:18:00.650 --> 00:18:03.710 the very top administrative job. That is such 00:18:03.710 --> 00:18:06.089 a great visual. A 16 -year -old running a piece 00:18:06.089 --> 00:18:07.809 of paper between Senate. senators eventually 00:18:07.809 --> 00:18:10.769 growing up to be the person who signs every single 00:18:10.769 --> 00:18:13.289 act passed by the United States Senate. Edwin 00:18:13.289 --> 00:18:16.390 Halsey is a prime example of a lifer. He served 00:18:16.390 --> 00:18:18.369 as secretary throughout the incredibly dramatic 00:18:18.369 --> 00:18:20.869 and intense years of the New Deal. He started 00:18:20.869 --> 00:18:22.970 as a page and worked his way up. That's wild. 00:18:23.150 --> 00:18:25.910 Or consider Leslie Biffle, who served as secretary 00:18:25.910 --> 00:18:29.849 during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Biffle 00:18:29.849 --> 00:18:32.460 wasn't just a paper pusher. He became a very 00:18:32.460 --> 00:18:35.480 close confidant of President Harry S. Truman. 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:38.119 Truman would actually slip over to the Capitol 00:18:38.119 --> 00:18:41.480 to have private lunches in Biffle's office. Think 00:18:41.480 --> 00:18:44.700 about the soft power that implies. The guy running 00:18:44.700 --> 00:18:47.519 the logistics, the man managing the payroll and 00:18:47.519 --> 00:18:51.339 the records, has the direct ear of the president 00:18:51.339 --> 00:18:53.700 of the United States. He was a political barometer 00:18:53.700 --> 00:18:55.910 for Truman. That's incredible. If we connect 00:18:55.910 --> 00:18:57.630 this to the bigger picture, it reveals something 00:18:57.630 --> 00:19:00.750 fundamental about how Congress operates. We tend 00:19:00.750 --> 00:19:02.509 to view the government entirely through the lens 00:19:02.509 --> 00:19:05.130 of elections, campaigns, and rotating political 00:19:05.130 --> 00:19:07.670 parties. Right, the stuff on TV. But there is 00:19:07.670 --> 00:19:10.049 a hidden, dedicated career track that exists 00:19:10.049 --> 00:19:12.349 entirely separate from the politicians who cycle 00:19:12.349 --> 00:19:15.109 in and out of office every six years. There is 00:19:15.109 --> 00:19:17.410 an institutional memory maintained by people 00:19:17.410 --> 00:19:19.750 who spend their entire lives ensuring the building 00:19:19.750 --> 00:19:22.470 keeps standing. So what does this all mean for 00:19:22.470 --> 00:19:25.700 you listening today? I think the big takeaway 00:19:25.700 --> 00:19:28.759 from this deep dive is a massive shift in perspective. 00:19:29.380 --> 00:19:31.460 The next time you see the Senate on the news, 00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:33.720 the next time you see a contentious vote on a 00:19:33.720 --> 00:19:35.740 major piece of legislation or a grand speech 00:19:35.740 --> 00:19:38.859 at the podium, I want you to look past the politicians. 00:19:39.240 --> 00:19:40.920 Look behind them. Yeah, look at the people sitting 00:19:40.920 --> 00:19:44.019 near the presiding officer. Think about the massive 00:19:44.019 --> 00:19:47.819 historic administrative apparatus led by the 00:19:47.819 --> 00:19:50.319 secretary of the Senate that is quietly keeping 00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:53.119 the lights on. They are the ones managing the 00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:55.599 multimillion -dollar budgets, running the massive 00:19:55.599 --> 00:19:58.460 tech initiatives, securing the classified documents 00:19:58.460 --> 00:20:01.240 in underground vaults, and applying the final 00:20:01.240 --> 00:20:03.920 signature to the legislation that dictates the 00:20:03.920 --> 00:20:06.299 future of the country. They are the invisible 00:20:06.299 --> 00:20:08.670 engine of the United States Senate. And it leaves 00:20:08.670 --> 00:20:10.490 us with an interesting thought to consider as 00:20:10.490 --> 00:20:12.589 we look toward the future. We just spent this 00:20:12.589 --> 00:20:15.109 time discussing how this role evolved from a 00:20:15.109 --> 00:20:18.569 man buying quill pens in 1789 to a team managing 00:20:18.569 --> 00:20:21.009 massive state -of -the -art digital data cases 00:20:21.009 --> 00:20:23.690 today. As artificial intelligence and machine 00:20:23.690 --> 00:20:25.769 learning start automating massive administrative 00:20:25.769 --> 00:20:29.670 tasks, how will the role of these lifelong institutional 00:20:29.670 --> 00:20:33.710 anchors change in the next 50 years? If the goal 00:20:33.710 --> 00:20:36.859 of the secretary is to be the ultimate infallible 00:20:36.859 --> 00:20:39.740 nonpartisan administrator checking every comma 00:20:39.740 --> 00:20:43.220 archiving every document processing every payroll 00:20:44.089 --> 00:20:46.349 Is it possible that the invisible engine of the 00:20:46.349 --> 00:20:48.730 Senate will eventually be an algorithm? Oh, well. 00:20:48.849 --> 00:20:50.789 Could the ultimate failsafe of our democracy 00:20:50.789 --> 00:20:53.390 one day be a piece of code rather than a person? 00:20:53.490 --> 00:20:56.089 That is a phenomenal, slightly terrifying point 00:20:56.089 --> 00:20:58.490 to end on. And I, Secretary of the Senate, a 00:20:58.490 --> 00:21:00.190 huge thank you to you for joining us on this 00:21:00.190 --> 00:21:02.289 deep dive. We hope you walk away with a totally 00:21:02.289 --> 00:21:04.349 new understanding of the hidden mechanics of 00:21:04.349 --> 00:21:06.470 how the government actually works. Keep questioning 00:21:06.470 --> 00:21:08.509 the world around you. Keep looking past the obvious 00:21:08.509 --> 00:21:10.470 headlines and we will catch you next time.