A Congress.gov Interview with Wade Ballou, the Legislative Counsel of the House of Representatives

Today’s interview is with Wade Ballou, the Legislative Counsel of the House of Representatives.

As Legislative Counsel, Wade Ballou oversees the House Office of the Legislative Counsel (HOLC). HOLC provides legislative drafting services to the committees and Members of the House of Representatives on a nonpartisan, impartial, and confidential basis.

Recent recognition of Wade’s service to Congress includes the 2024 Democracy Award for Lifetime Achievement by Congressional Staff and exceptional leadership and contributions, including through the development of the Comparative Print Suite for the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Describe your background.

I am from Roanoke, Virginia. During my youth I was active in sports, Scouting, and the YMCA. I earned a B.S. in forestry (industrial forestry operations with cooperative education certificate) from Virginia Tech in 1980. At Tech, I was active in Alpha Phi Omega. APO is the coed national service fraternity affiliated with Scouting. I met my wife in APO. We’ve been married for 41 years and have two married sons and two grandchildren. I am an Eagle Scout and have served as an adult leader in Scouting, both as cubmaster and scoutmaster.

What is your academic/professional history?

After Virginia Tech, I went to the University of Virginia School of Law and earned a J.D. in 1983. I joined the Office of the Legislative Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives in the fall of 1983, where I am presently employed. The Office is a non-partisan, career office responsible for drafting legislation for the House, its committees, members, and leadership. After completing training, during which I drafted federal law generally, I worked with foreign affairs legislation. Due to needs of the Office, in 1986, I moved into the areas of Native American issues (including health care and land claims), federal land issues (including natural resources, water reclamation and irrigation, public lands, and forestry), and intelligence, and later picked up parts of veteran’s affairs. In 1996, I changed to the tax team, again due to the needs of the Office. As a member of the team, I drafted in all areas of federal tax law, specializing in pensions, health care, bonds, and excise taxes. Alongside of tax, I have worked in public debt, ERISA, health care, and social security.

I earned a graduate certificate in spiritual direction studies from Washington Theological Union in 2013 and a certificate in spiritual formation from the Avila Institute in 2015.

In 2016, I was appointed the 8th Legislative Counsel of the House of Representatives, effective August 1. During my time as the head of the Office, there has been significant change in both the House and the Office, including a 45% increase in the number of attorneys and a significant increase in demand for draft legislation. The Office now has some 90 personnel, including 68 attorneys. Some of the changes include improving the recruiting system and modifying the training methodology for new attorneys and transitioning the Office to a new Sharepoint site and digital leave management system.

I have also been fortunate to be able to work with other institutions in the legislative branch, especially through participation in the Congressional Data Task Force. This includes:

1. Partnering with the Clerk of the House and the Government Publishing Office to develop and update the Comparative Print Suite, a software tool that provides on-demand comparisons of how a bill changes law, how amendments change a bill, bill-to-bill differences, and a bill viewer; and

2. Working to provide educational opportunities concerning the legislative process and drafting software applications.

How would you describe your job to other people?

My official job title is Legislative Counsel of the House of Representatives. The fun way to describe my job is that I am responsible for producing paper for the House. This is a throwback to my forestry days where the job of a procurement forester is to ensure that the mill never runs out of timber.

Additionally, I meet with members and staffs of parliaments around the world to discuss and share ideas for improvements in legislative process and drafting. These opportunities include working through the House Democratic Initiative, the National Democratic Institute, and the International Republican Institute. I am an associate member of the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel and a frequent speaker and contributor to webinars on improving legislative drafting organized by Bússola Tech, an international leader in this arena.

What is your role in the development of Congress.gov?

I do not think of this as a role, but I brought to the attention of Congress.gov various research and document needs that are useful to drafters. They developed features to meet those needs. It is interesting to me that most of my draft files are on Congress.gov in the form of bills and resolutions.

What is your favorite feature of Congress.gov?

Well, there are two features that I use a lot. Whenever a drafting request requires beginning with a public version of a bill or resolution (introduced, reported, passed, etc.), we begin with the version that is posted on Congress.gov in the XML format. So, the download feature that allows me to save this version on my computer system is a big hit for me. In addition, I use the tables of public laws and appropriations a lot. I will get to these either from links on the website or from searches and filters.

What is the most interesting fact you’ve learned about the legislative process while working for Congress?

Ha. The legislative process happens. Sometimes it is textbook. Sometimes it is a bit convoluted. Sometimes a bill is conferenced before it is introduced. But, the formal steps are acknowledged, even if it is by discharge or unanimous consent. So, it is important to know the ideal path to how a bill becomes law so that you can place a question in the context of this ideal.

What’s something most of your co-workers do not know about you?

During high school and college, I was a member of forest fire fighting teams. Today we would call these wildland fire teams.

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