Angela Napili’s “Charmed Life” at the Congressional Research Service

Angela Napili is a senior research librarian in the Congressional Research Service.

Tell us about your background.

I’ve lived a charmed life. Our family left the Philippines after Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, and I grew up in beautiful San Francisco. Every week, our parents took us to the main children’s reading room of the public library. Libraries have felt like home ever since. I earned bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and math from Stanford, where my student job was assisting the cataloging team of the university’s Green Library. The librarians were some of the nicest and most interesting folks on campus. Then, I earned master’s degrees in philosophy and library and information services at the University of Michigan. There, I worked the late shifts at the reference desks of the graduate and undergraduate libraries. Helping students the night before their term papers were due was good practice for the short deadlines of the Congressional Research Service.

What brought you to the Library, and what do you do?

As a grad student, I did a summer internship at CRS, attracted by the lofty mission. An informed legislature is crucial for democracy! Then, I was hired through CRS’ Graduate Recruit Program. Almost 25 years later, I still feel privileged to work here every day. The vast majority of my time is spent either answering congressional research requests directly or doing research for CRS policy analysts and attorneys to help them prepare briefings, memos and other work for Congress. Sometimes, that means hunting down elusive statistics. Sometimes it means doing literature searches or compiling relevant excerpts from academic studies or reports of advisory commissions, government agencies or think tanks. Sometimes, to describe a statutory provision’s history, we search committee reports, floor debates, scholarly literature and contemporaneous press accounts for clues about why a provision was enacted. Sometimes, we check federal program eligibility rules in case they might apply to a constituent’s situation. In other words, Congress gives us a huge variety of work. It’s a super fun job if you’re curious and enjoy intellectual challenges. My colleagues are kind, indefatigable and brilliant. Like I said, a charmed life.

What are some of your standout projects?

Because confidentiality is a core CRS value, some of our most impactful achievements are things we can’t talk about. However, Congress.gov publicly posts some CRS reports written for general congressional audiences. Our Medicaid team updated our Medicaid overview, and my colleague Sarah Braun and I wrote a new guide to Medicaid enrollment data sources to help Congress learn about the beneficiaries in their states and districts. CRS has a series of “Connecting Constituents” reports to help Congress connect constituents to resources and benefits. I helped write reports about health information and services and on longterm services and support for older adults. When my dad started having health issues, I gained firsthand experience with some of the resources I’d written about, such as the State Health Insurance Assistance Program’s free Medicare consultations and the Aging and Disability Resource Center’s free options counseling. They helped our family navigate a complicated health care system. A particularly meaningful Library experience was volunteering with my colleague Pam Hairston to do “Man-on-the-Mall” Veterans History Project interviews at the 2004 World War II Memorial dedication. We interviewed one of the first soldiers to land at Omaha Beach on D-Day, a prisoner-of-war survivor of the Bataan death march, two survivors of Pearl Harbor and a nurse who treated concentration camp survivors. I will never forget their stories.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I’m a volunteer photographer for Indy Honor Flight, which flies older and terminally ill veterans to D.C. to visit memorials. I’m also a volunteer photographer for the National Mall and the Library’s costume balls and family days. The DC Public Library recently acquired eight of my National Mall and animal photos for its Exposed DC Photography Collection. My most famous snapshots, though, are those that won the Washington Post’s squirrel photography contest! These days, my favorite photo subjects are the National Zoo’s goofy pandas and my handsome cat, Captain Georg von Trapp (“Georgie”).

What is something your coworkers may not know about you?

I’m a longtime National Park Service volunteer. If you see me at the Washington Monument, where I volunteer most Sundays, ask me about “The Pope’s Stone.” The story is bananas!

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