Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) recently added new staff members to her Washington, D.C., office. [IMGCAP(1)]

Beth Ann Pramme, 27, will serve as scheduler and press assistant in the office. She previously worked as an executive assistant to Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) from 2005 to 2006.

A 2004 graduate in political science and mass communication from Arizona State University, Pramme is quite the speaker. She wrote in an e-mail that she was “California State Champion in debate and Bronze Medalist in Persuasive Speaking.” When she is not wooing audiences with her oratory skills, Pramme said she “loves karaoke and NASCAR.”

Pramme hails from Danville, Calif.

Also brand-new to the office is Staff Assistant Paul Swanson, 22, who said his new gig is his “first permanent, full-time job.”

While at the University of California at Berkeley, Swanson studied a year abroad in England and received a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2006.

“[My] rowing coach at Cambridge [during my year abroad] was the retired chief of Britain’s [intelligence service] MI6 — the real life ‘M’ from 007,” he recounted in an e-mail.

Swanson hails from Walnut Creek, Calif.

“Beth Ann and Paul are wonderful additions to my DC staff,” Tauscher said in a statement. “They are smart, talented, homegrown professionals who have real life experience with the issues that East Bay residents face everyday.”

New Counsel. The House Ways and Means Committee has added a new tax counsel in the form of Melissa Mueller, 40. In addition to her role as tax counsel, Mueller will serve as assistant to the subcommittee on select revenues Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.).

“Melissa brings a wealth of knowledge to the Committee,” Neal said in a statement, “and I am pleased that she will rejoin our team. Her background in tax issues and extensive experience here on Capitol Hill will be invaluable, particularly as the Subcommittee begins its work tackling the onerous Alternative Minimum Tax.”

Before assuming her new post, Mueller worked as tax counsel for the Senate Finance Committee since 2004. From 2002 to 2004, she was the legislative director for Neal, and from 1999 to 2001, she was the Ways and Means counsel for Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas). She also served as assistant attorney general in the Texas Attorney General’s office from 1994 to 1999.

In an e-mail, Mueller wrote that she has “twins who turned 3 [years old] this month. Have sympathy for me.”

A native of San Antonio, Texas, Mueller earned both her bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.

Movin’ on Up. Jacob Johnson, 31, has just moved up the ladder in the office of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Having previously served as a legislative aide in the office, he now will serve as a legislative assistant for Hatch and will be responsible for issues such as transportation, housing and small business, among others.

Johnson also served as a legislative correspondent for Hatch from 2003 to 2005, and as a staff assistant on the Senate Judiciary Committee, when Hatch was chairman, for a brief period in 2003.

From Castle Dale, Utah, Johnson wrote in an e-mail that he “served a 2-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Rio de Janeiro.”

Johnson graduated from Southern Utah University with a bachelor’s degree in business management in 2001.

“I appreciate everything Jacob has done for me, and I’m looking forward to what he’ll do in this new position,” Hatch said in a statement. “Jacob is a hard worker and has an extensive knowledge of Utah issues. [Utah residents] can be proud of the job he’s doing to help their state.”