After a week in Washington, D.C., getting their office assignments and orientation, the new members of Congress are back at home for Thanksgiving this week.
But it's far from a holiday for those hiring staff for their new congressional roles and closing out their current jobs by year end.
Chattanooga attorney Chuck Fleischmann, the 48-year-old Republican elected to succeed U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., in Tennessee's 3rd Congressional District, is closing down his law office in Chattanooga and sorting through resumes to hire more than a dozen workers to staff congressional offices in Chattanooga, Oak Ridge and Washington, similar to what Wamp has maintained during his 16 years in Congress.
After spending most of last week at orientation events for newly elected members of Congress, Fleischmann said he is eager to be sworn into office in January.
"It's a great freshman class, and I'm anxious to get to Washington," he said.
In the neighboring 4th Congressional District of Tennessee, Jasper physician Scott DesJarlais said he will keep a limited medical practice open in Marion County. But after ousting four-term Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., the 46-year-old DesJarlais, a GOP newcomer, said he is turning his attention from medicine to politics.
DesJarlais said he is busy this week interviewing staff for his capital and field offices across the sprawling 26-county district.
"I've got a lot to read and study and we have a lot to put together for both the Washington and the district offices," DesJarlais said. "I'm looking forward to the challenge."
Fleischmann said his campaign manager, Chip Saltsman, "is leading my transition staff" and "we're talking about his role" in any congressional office arrangement.
Saltsman, a former chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party and campaign manager for presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in 2008, said he is helping Fleischmann make the transition this fall.
"But at this point, that is all I am doing," he said. "I'm looking forward to spending more time in Arkansas in the coming weeks and less time in D.C."
In the lottery for congressional office suites among the 85 freshmen members of the U.S. House, DesJarlais said he drew No. 45 and Fleischmann drew No. 47.
Both said they were pleased with the upper-floor offices in the Cannon office building in Washington.
DesJarlais ended up in suite 411, just down the aisle from Dr. Phil Roe, another physician from Tennessee. Fleischmann is up another floor in suite 511.
DesJarlais said he will keep his medical license and a nurse practitioner and his wife, a registered nurse, will keep his Tennessee practice going while he serves in Congress.
The congressman-elect said he will see enough patients to keep his license active, pay his malpractice insurance and office expenses to break even.
DesJarlais said he would like to get on Education and Labor or the Agriculture committees, which he said are key for the rural 4th District.
"I know Gov.-elect Haslam wants to improve our education system, so being on the education and work force committee might offer some opportunity for us to work together," he said.
Eventually, DesJarlais said, he would like to get on the Ways and Means Committee or the Budget Committee, although he acknowledged that freshmen members "don't always get what they ask for" with committee assignments.