	History and Background

The United States Congress is served by a group of young adults known as pages. Pages have been employed since the early Congresses, and some Members of Congress have served as pages. At various times, congressional actions related to employing pages have addressed the lack of supervised housing as well as pages' ages, tenure, selection, education, and management. Most reports of misbehavior were later found to be unsubstantiated. As a consequence of the allegations, however, both the House and Senate for the first time provided supervised housing for their pages; established separate page schools and took over the education of the pages, which had been provided under contract by the District of Columbia school system; and developed more educational and recreational opportunities for their pages. In August 2011, Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi announced the termination of the House page program effective August 31. Senate Pages

There are 30 Senate page positions, 16 for the majority party and 14 for the minority party. The Senate Page School is located in the lower level of Webster Hall. Participants in the House page program typically served for one academic semester during the school year, or during a summer session.
For more than 180 years, messengers known as pages have served the United States Congress. Pages must be high school juniors and at least 16 years of age. Several incumbent and former Members of Congress as well as other prominent Americans have served as congressional pages.
Senator Daniel Webster appointed the first Senate page in 1829. The first House pages began their service in 1842. Women were first appointed as pages in 1971.
In August 2011, House leaders announced the termination of that chamber's page program.
Senate pages are appointed and sponsored by Senators for one academic semester of the school year, or for a summer session. The right to appoint pages rotates among Senators pursuant to criteria set by the Senate's leadership. Academic standing is one of the most important criteria used in the final selection of pages. Selection criteria for House pages was similar when the page program operated in that chamber.
Prospective Senate pages are advised to contact their Senators to request consideration for a page appointment.