Goodbye

House Ends Page Program

Due to budget cuts and technology improvements.

House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced Monday they were shutting down the House page program after an outside review questioned its $5 million annual cost and effectiveness in the modern age of BlackBerry communication. The program, started 175 years ago, brought high-school juniors to Washington, D.C., where they acted as couriers while living in dormitories and getting an education. But the program became embroiled in scandal in 2006, when it was revealed that Rep. Mark Foley had been exchanging inappropriate text messages with underage male pages, and then again in 2007 when four House pages were expelled amid allegations of shoplifting and sexual misconduct. But pages won’t be gone entirely from the Capitol—the Senate will continue its program.