Congress Watch Research Internship

Winter / Spring 2025 Research Internship – Congress Watch

Congress Watch, a division of Public Citizen, is seeking a research intern for the Winter / Spring academic session.  Public Citizen is a national, non-partisan, public interest group with more than 500,000 members and activists. The Congress Watch division engages in public education, grassroots organizing, and advocacy before Congress and administrative agencies on topics like open government, corporate accountability, financial regulation, health and safety, access to justice.

This internship will provide the opportunity to contribute to investigative research projects and write time-sensitive reports and other materials in support of Congress Watch’s public education and advocacy campaigns.

Possible issue areas the intern will work on include civil justice, financial reform, good government, health care, regulatory policy, defense spending, worker safety, political influence and spending and more (see what our Congress Watch team works on, here).

Responsibilities

Investigate policy issues; political fundraising issues; and individuals, corporations, and trade association lobbying by using traditional investigative methods. Help conceive and produce written materials in collaboration with the research director and other team members, including:  reports, fact sheets, editorial board memos, op-eds, and blog posts. Provide a wide range of research support including database management, data entry, data cleaning, and other tasks as assigned.

Requirements

Skills: Excellent research, analytical thinking, oral and written communication, and organizational skills. Experience with database management, data entry and data cleaning.

Qualities: Strong commitment to public interest work. Conscientious, accurate, and tenacious. Willingness to assist with all aspects of research.

To Apply:

We accept unpaid internship applications on a rolling basis and currently are accepting applications for paid internships for Winter / Spring 2025. This internship is 8-10 weeks.

Public Citizen offers unpaid internships (credit can be arranged) and a small number of paid internships ($17.50 an hour). To be considered for a paid internship for Winter / Spring 2025, candidates must apply by November 18, 2024, and submit materials listed below.

When applying, please include a cover letter that includes the following:

• Why you want to work at Public Citizen, including which aspects of our work would interest you most. We understand that many candidates’ work history may be limited. As such, letting us know why you want to work for Public Citizen is important.
• A brief overview of your work history and skills
• If you are applying for a paid internship, please include a statement of your need for financial support (500 words or less). If you have completed the FAFSA, please also submit a copy of your Student Aid Report (SAR).

For both paid and unpaid applications, submit a cover letter, resume, and writing sample as attachments to congresswatchaction@citizen.org with the subject line indicating which internship you are applying for:

• “CW-Research Winter/Spring 2025 Paid Internship” or
• “CW-Research Winter/Spring 2025 Unpaid Internship”

No phone calls please. Please note: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we are only able to contact those students who will be moving forward in the application process.