Congressional office lottery

What it is

The lottery is a House of Representatives custom with a practical job: it fixes the order in which newly elected members may claim rooms in the congressional office buildings. It runs every two years, once the chamber's elections are over, and it is only for the House. Senators do not take part; their offices are handed out through a seniority system instead. Because the outcome matters to every member, the event draws a crowd, and staff and families often come along to watch. Members treat the drawing as a light-hearted occasion rather than a solemn one.

Origins and history

The practice dates to January 1908. That year a House page pulled numbered marbles from a container to sort out rooms in the Cannon House Office Building, which had just been finished. Until that building existed, representatives had to find and lease quarters of their own in Washington. The lottery has continued in the years since, though not always in person. In 2020 the pandemic forced a change: a computer algorithm made the allocations, and members followed along on Microsoft Teams. Two years later the face-to-face draw came back.

How the draw works

Numbered buttons come out of a wooden box, and each member's number sets their place in the picking order. The event is theatrical: watchers groan for those who draw badly and cheer the lucky ones, though some play against the mood. Aaron Bean high-fived the room after drawing 68th out of 73. As of 2022 the draw is held at the Cannon building, and it has also taken place at Rayburn. A representative may send a staffer instead, and anyone with nobody present picks last. Members who prepare rank the rooms they would accept, because they get roughly five minutes to decide. One comparison likened the process to an NBA draft, only slower and with less excitement.

Luck and ritual

Nobody treats the draw as purely random. The people who organise it say dancing improves the odds of a low number, and in 2022 Bloomberg noted that a member whose name was said wrongly seemed to do better. Before the buttons are pulled, members and staff have played a Frank Sinatra song, rubbed the head of a bald colleague or dropped to the floor for push-ups. Steve Knight joked in 2014 that a Jedi mind trick had won him the first pick. The 2010 winner, Cory Gardner, said he rehearsed pulling tissues from a box until his form looked right. Others carry charms: a scarf printed with that year's female candidates, a piece of quartz, a favourite pair of jeans.

What a room is worth

Location carries weight. Rooms in the Rayburn building are usually wanted most because a subway link runs from there, yet newcomers seldom manage to secure one. Cannon and Longworth are the other options. Members have weighed construction noise, how well a room suits allergies, and the view. Ted Yoho wanted a spot high up and well apart from other people; Jim Hagedorn took the room his father had used, as a tribute. Katie Hill traded with Ayanna Pressley so that Pressley could occupy Shirley Chisholm's former office. One newspaper treated a poor location as a kind of exile, while an official from the Architect of the Capitol said no office on the Hill counts as bad, since it is the one a member was elected to hold.

How Congressional office lottery is kept

Members of the House and their staff gather in the office building where the draw is held. Buttons numbered for each place in the order are pulled from a wooden box, one after another, until everyone has a number. Representatives may attend themselves or send a staffer; if no one comes for a member, that member chooses after all the others. When a turn arrives, the member has a short window, about five minutes, to name a room. Some bring a ranked list of rooms they would accept, and many arrive with charms or small rituals before the box is opened. The mood is festive rather than formal.

When and where

The lottery follows the House elections, so it comes round every two years, after new members are elected and before they settle into their offices. It does not happen for the Senate. In 2020 the pandemic pushed it online, with allocation by algorithm, and by 2022 it was held in person again.

It belongs to Washington, D.C., where the House office buildings stand. As of 2022 the drawing takes place at the Cannon House Office Building, and it has also been held at the Rayburn building. The rooms on offer sit in three buildings: Cannon, Rayburn and Longworth.

What Congressional office lottery means

The draw turns a dry administrative problem into a shared occasion. Members hand over the choice of where they will work for the next two years to chance, and the ceremony gives them a moment of company before the session starts. A low number is treated as good fortune and a high one as bad luck to be laughed off. The rituals and lucky objects are ways of claiming some control over an outcome nobody can control. The room a member ends up in becomes part of their identity on the Hill.

Questions people ask about Congressional office lottery

See also

Independence DayThe United States' national day of parades, barbecues and fireworks, kept each July 4State of the Union addressThe US president's yearly report to Congress and the nation, given in the House chamberTalking stickA carved staff that shows who may speak at a Northwest Coast gatheringFlag DayAn annual American observance marking the 1777 adoption of the national flag

Good reading and sources

• Congressional office lottery on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-12.