The Life of a Senate Page:An Interview With Annelise Brink-Johnsen

By Katherine Chen

Hanover High School Senior Annelise Brinck-Johnsen spent last spring in D.C. as a U.S. Senate page. She was one of thirty high school juniors who worked on the Senate floor for a semester. The Broadside interviewed her about the experience.

Broadside: How did you find out about becoming a page? Why were you interested?

Annelise: Mr. Murphy told my West Wing March Intensive about the page program. I am pretty interested in government, politics, and public policy. I figured being a page would be good way to learn about our government by spending a semester in D.C. The page program is fairly reputable, but not that many people know about it in New Hampshire. Normally, it’s the sort of thing that runs in schools. Maybe that could start at Hanover.

Broadside: How did you apply to be a page?

Annelise: Most senators have links on their web pages about the page program. So I applied to be a page for Judd Gregg during the fall semester. I didn’t get it, probably because I talked about how I had campaigned for Obama. But then I applied to be Senator Shaheen’s page for the spring semester. For the actual application process, I had to fill out a form and write a short essay about why I wanted to be a page. Senator Gregg’s office interviewed me, but Senator Shaheen’s did not.

Broadside: What was a day as a page like?

Annelise: We would wake up at 4:45am. We would go to school from 6:15am until an hour and fifteen minutes before the Senate went into session. That would normally mean classes ended at about 8:30am; the latest we would ever go to would be 9:45am when the Senate was in recess. Then we would go to work. We would spend an hour on the Senate floor, and then an hour off to do our homework. If you were on the early shift, you would end at 6pm, and if you were on the late shift, then you would end whenever the Senate got out of session. So, it would not be unusual to have a ten- or twelve-hour day.

Broadside: How was school ?

Annelise: We had four classes a day. We didn’t have very long classes, but the classes were all very small. I think my biggest class had six people in it, so the pace was a lot quicker and the homework load was a lot higher that it is in Hanover. It wouldn’t be that weird for me to have an hour and a half of homework for each class a night. So we learned a lot.

Broadside: What was it like working on the floor?

Annelise: During your time on the Senate floor, the Senators and the people who work on the floor as well would send you on runs. You would sit in line on a stair. The first person in the line does whatever job there is. Then they come back and sit at the end. But when there’s a vote, which happens almost every day, then you need pages to be on the doors, setting up water, running documents. Theoretically, you would alternate having an hour on and an hour off, but you still needed to be ready to work whenever.

Broadside: I read that the government cancelled the House Page Program. How do you feel about that?

Annelise: I can understand why they did it, because the page programs cost a lot of taxpayer money, but I think that just looking at the programs from a financial point of view overlooks the importance of teaching kids about government and developing leaders. The page program was founded in 1829 by Daniel Webster. Since then, there have been pages serving continuously in the Senate. There used to be House pages and Supreme Court pages as well, but both have now been cancelled. But the page program is part of Senate’s history and tradition. I doubt that the Senate would ever get rid of the page program, because the Senate is more traditional than the House.

Broadside: Have many of the high school pages gone on to hold positions in government?

Annelise: There are pages who have gone on to be congressmen. I think some pages have also gone on to be senators. I know Senator Mark Pryor’s daughter was a page, and I believe he was one as well. Lots of staffers on Capitol Hill were pages, and lots of people who work on the floor, like the Parliamentarian and the journal clerks, were pages, too.

Broadside: Did anything exciting happen while you were a page?

Annelise: The pages went to see the Israeli prime minister speak at the House. During his speech, a pro-Palestine protestor jumped out of crowd and started waving a banner. Then five security guards jumped her immediately and dragged her, kicking and screaming, out of the House chambers. They [injured] her neck. It was a big deal and an interesting lesson in democracy.

Broadside: What was the best part of being a page? The worst ?

Annelise: The best part was meeting the other pages. They were really nice. I also saw Joe Biden blowing his nose. It was actually really awkward. I went off the floor and stared at him for a while, until he was like, “Hi. How are you doing?” And I thought, ‘Oh. That was awkward. I was just caught staring at the vice president.’ The worst part was going to bed at 11:00pm and waking up at 4:45am, which was rough. But overall, it was a really great experience.