Lawmakers choose words carefully when describing feds, study finds

Members of the House of Representatives in the 103rd and 104th Congresses, particularly Republicans, often used the term "bureaucrat" pejoratively to influence the debate over the size and role of government, according to a new study by a think tank scholar.

"If pejorative terms about government are used in floor debates on legislation, this suggests that the law is being shaped with a negative view toward those who will implement it," wrote Thad E. Hall, a University of Georgia doctoral student currently working at the Century Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank. The study, "Live Bureaucrats and Dead Public Servants: How People in Government Are Discussed on the Floor of the House" will be published in the March-April 2002 issue of the Public Administration Review.

Republicans accounted for about 83 percent of instances where the term "bureaucrat" was used during the two Congresses, the study found. At the same time, Democrats were much more likely to use the term "public servant" to describe a member of the federal workforce, and only used the word "bureaucrat" in a positive way to respond to Republican attacks, according to the study.

But Hall also found that lawmakers of both political parties used the term "public servant" most of the time to describe themselves. "In 61 percent of the cases of both Congresses, the term 'public servant' is used self-referentially to describe members of Congress," Hall wrote. In the remaining cases, House members used the term to describe federal employees retiring from the government or those recently deceased.

The use of the term "bureaucrat" by House lawmakers to describe federal employees increased steadily between the 101st and the 104th Congresses, according to the study. The change in administration from a Republican president-George H.W. Bush-to a Democratic president-Bill Clinton-coupled with the Republican win of control of the House in 1994 explains the increase in the negative use of "bureaucrat," according to Hall. By studying the context of congressional speeches, Hall concluded that most of the references to bureaucrats at this time involved employees working at the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency and the United Nations.

"The election of President Clinton freed Republicans to attack individuals in the executive branch," the study said. "Also during the 104th Congress, strategists recommended that Republicans frame important issues in terms of cutting bureaucrats."

Republicans used negative rhetoric involving bureaucrats most often to attack the Clinton administration's health care initiative during the 103rd Congress, but starting in the 104th session they focused on decreasing the overall size of government in their attacks on federal bureaucrats. But the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Okla. and the government shutdown in early 1996 again changed the way lawmakers referred to federal employees, he said.

"After the bombing, Republicans used the term bureaucrat far less frequently-but perhaps more skillfully-than they had during those first 100 days of the Republican revolution, as they moved from bashing bureaucrats in one-minute speeches to using the term to frame policy debate, " the study said.

During the government shutdown from December 1995 to February 1996, the terms "government worker" and "civil servant" were used far more often than "bureaucrat," but federal employees became bureaucrats again when the government reopened, Hall said.

Despite the efforts of Republicans to use negative images of bureaucrats to advocate for a smaller federal government, their strategy may have backfired, according to Hall. The government continued to expand in the mid-1990s and public approval of Congress-not the executive branch-dropped 50 percent after the government shutdown. "In the end, the public servants in Congress were viewed much worse by the public at large after their attacks on bureaucrats and the government shutdown."