AI Summer Camp: Summarization
Generative AI can help Congressional staff quickly turn complex information—like emails, bills, news, and casework—into clear, actionable summaries. It boosts efficiency, sharpens insights, and supports smarter decisions across every role in a Congressional office.
See tips and sample prompts for every member of your team:
Safety First: Like any good adventure, using AI involves well-marked paths to follow—and a few areas best avoided. Stay safe and be responsible by keeping these AI safety tips in mind.
Staff Assistants
Ranger Tip
AI-enabled summarization can greatly improve your day-to-day workflow by transforming how you manage all the information that comes across your desk. From helping to distill lengthy email chains, meeting notes, and to-do lists into clear, actionable insights, to creating impactful reports that can inform your Member and legislative team, these new tools can both save you time and increase your impact.
Quest Directive
Use an institution-approved LLM to:
Summarize anonymized call tallies - Turn those handwritten hashmarks of constituent concerns into insightful summaries for your Member, chief of staff, and legislative team
Create a daily brief or memo - Compile daily news clips and institutional updates into digestible morning or evening briefings
Sample Prompts
“Please take the attached spreadsheet of anonymized caller concerns and summarize this data into an informative summary that highlights trends as well as outliers. Organize the information by similar policy topics and please end the summary with detailed information of any calls requiring action or immediate attention.”
“Create a daily briefing summary from these 5 news articles and 3 e-Dear Colleagues. Assume your audience works for the US Congress and is interested in the content from a legislative point of view. Use bullet points and keep each section under 50 words.”
Ready for more? Check out additional tips and sample prompts related to brainstorming, content creation, strategizing, and predicting the future.
Letters from camp: Have a particularly good (or wild) experience with this quest? Tell us all about it!
Legislative Staff
Ranger Tip
AI summarization can revolutionize your research process by quickly extracting key findings from lengthy reports, bills, and policy documents, allowing you to focus your expertise on analysis rather than basic information gathering. You'll be able to digest more information on a shorter timeline — finally digging through those reports you’ve been meaning to read.
Quest Directive
Use an institution-approved LLM to:
Analyze relevant legislation - Summarize introduced legislation, amendments, press releases, and committee reports to identify key provisions, potential impacts, and stakeholder positions. Explore how LLMs can create visualizations of policy implementation details
Summarize key research reports - Condense think tank reports, CRS studies, and academic research into actionable policy insights and talking points
Sample Prompts
“Summarize this 47-page transportation bill. Focus on: new funding levels, changes to existing programs, and potential impact on our district, where the priorities for residents are [X, X, X]. Present as 3 main takeaways with specific dollar amounts and timeline. Create a flowchart that visualizes agency responsibilities on the timelines proposed.”
“Analyze this CRS report on renewable energy policy. Extract: current policy landscape, 3 key policy options, and pros/cons of each option. Format as a briefing memo under 300 words.”
Advanced prompts
“Create an implementation timeline for this legislation: who must do what by when?”
“Create an organizational chart for this legislation; what are the roles and responsibilities of each agency?”
Ready for more? Check out additional tips and sample prompts related to brainstorming, content creation, strategizing, and predicting the future.
Letters from camp: Have a particularly good (or wild) experience with this quest? Tell us all about it!
Communications Staff
Ranger Tip
AI can give new energy and responsiveness to your communications strategy by rapidly synthesizing news coverage, social media trends, and public statements to help you craft timely, informed messaging. This means you can stay ahead of the news cycle while ensuring your Member's voice is heard on the issues that matter most to constituents.
Quest Directive
Use an institution-approved LLM to:
Monitor media coverage and provide analysis - Summarize daily news coverage, editorial opinions, and social media discussions about issues relevant to your Member's priorities, committee assignments, and caucuses
Research key information for speeches and statements - Distill background research, talking points, leadership memos, and recent developments into concise briefings to support your Member’s preparation for speeches or media interviews
Sample Prompts
“Summarize today's news coverage about the passage of [X legislation] out of the House of Representatives. Include: main arguments from both sides, key quotes from Congressional leadership, and any mentions of [Member]'s position. Organize by outlet type (national news, local news, opinion pieces).”
“I’m aiding an elected official who will be giving remarks on recent changes to education funding. Create talking points from this attached research, introduced legislation, and policy memo. Focus on: current statistics (attached in report), 3 main challenges, and 2 success stories. Format for a 3-minute radio interview with conversational language.”
Ready for more? Check out additional tips and sample prompts related to brainstorming, content creation, strategizing, and predicting the future.
Letters from camp: Have a particularly good (or wild) experience with this quest? Tell us all about it!
Caseworkers
Ranger Tip
AI summarization can help you quickly understand complex agency programs and rules by extracting key details from lengthy government documents and complicated websites, allowing you to provide faster, more effective assistance.
Quest Directive
Use an institution-approved LLM to:
Analyze constituent cases - Summarize anonymized constituent correspondence, notes, and agency responses to identify key issues, timeline of events, and next steps needed
Identify potential legislative impacts - Analyze how proposed legislation or regulatory changes might affect constituents based on case patterns and feedback received
Sample Prompts
“Summarize this spreadsheet of anonymized constituent casework involving VA benefits. Include: average time to resolution, a summary of common problems, and any other observations and trends from this area of casework. End with 2-3 suggestions of ways our team could strengthen our casework in this area.”
Tip: you can work with your CRM vendor to generate a report with identifying information (name, address, contact information) removed.“Analyze this VA-related bill for its potential to generate additional casework demand for our team. Create a clear memo summarizing the bill’s impact and anticipating implementation problems that may encourage veterans to seek help from our office.”
Ready for more? Check out additional tips and sample prompts related to brainstorming, content creation, strategizing, and predicting the future.
Letters from camp: Have a particularly good (or wild) experience with this quest? Tell us all about it!
Schedulers
Ranger Tip
AI's summarization capabilities can help you quickly extract key information from public materials and published research to provide essential background context for your Member's meetings and events. This means smoother transitions between meetings and better-prepared conversations that make the most of your Member's valuable time.
Quest Directive
Use an institution-approved LLM to:
Research background for upcoming meetings and events - Summarize publicly available information about organizations, policy issues, or events to provide context for upcoming meetings without using any internal communications
Time allocation analysis - Summarize your Member's quarterly or monthly schedule data to create reports showing time spent on different activities, priorities, or constituencies
Activity pattern recognition - Analyze scheduling patterns to identify trends, peak activity periods, or areas where time allocation could be optimized for greater effectiveness
Sample Prompts
“Summarize this organization's recent annual report and website information for an upcoming meeting with the organization’s head of congressional affairs. Include: the org’s main priorities, recent achievements, and any federal policy interests noted. Limit the summary to under 200 words.”
“Analyze this list of Q3 meetings and events. Categorize by: Committee work (X hours), Constituent meetings (X hours), Coalition building (X hours), District events (X hours), and Media/Communications (X hours). Create a summary showing the percentage of time in each category with 2-3 key insights about priorities.”
Tip: meeting data can be downloaded from a calendar as an Excel spreadsheet, which can then be edited to delete location-based data as well as specific names and other PII. This scrubbed Excel spreadsheet can then be uploaded to assist with this prompt.
Ready for more? Check out additional tips and sample prompts related to brainstorming, content creation, strategizing, and predicting the future.
Letters from camp: Have a particularly good (or wild) experience with this quest? Tell us all about it!
Legislative Directors
Ranger Tip
AI summarization empowers you to stay on top of multiple complex policy areas simultaneously by quickly distilling legislative analyses, stakeholder positions, and political intelligence into strategic insights. This enhanced oversight capability means you can provide more informed support to your Member while efficiently coordinating your legislative team's priorities.
Quest Directive
Use an institution-approved LLM to:
Analyze policy - Synthesize multiple sources on key legislative priorities to assess political feasibility, stakeholder alignment, and potential amendments or compromises
Provide team coordination and oversight - Summarize policy developments, committee activities, and legislative staff reports to maintain strategic oversight and identify emerging opportunities or threats
Sample Prompts
“Attached are two versions of HR. X, one introduced in the US House of Representatives and one by the US Senate. Please highlight differences between these two pieces of legislation; compare the potential economic, social, or regulatory impacts of each version; and evaluate which amendments might be needed to reconcile the bills.”
“Synthesize this week's committee hearings and staff reports from the attached transcripts and staff/intern notes. Identify: the emerging issues needing Member attention; any unexpected developments that may affect the congressional district of [State-District] and how; and recommendations for prioritization of next steps.”
Ready for more? Check out additional tips and sample prompts related to brainstorming, content creation, strategizing, and predicting the future.
Letters from camp: Have a particularly good (or wild) experience with this quest? Tell us all about it!
Field Representatives & Community Outreach Directors
Ranger Tip
AI can support your community outreach effectiveness by summarizing local news coverage, community feedback, and stakeholder communications to help you stay connected with district priorities and concerns. This means more informed conversations with constituents and better intelligence gathering for your Washington-based team.
Quest Directive
Use an institution-approved LLM to:
Gather community intelligence - Summarize local media coverage, community meeting notes, and stakeholder feedback to identify emerging district issues and public sentiment trends
Prepare for events and outreach - Distill background information on local organizations, community leaders, and regional issues to prepare for meetings, events, and public appearances
Sample Prompts
“Summarize this week's local news coverage about our district, [State-District]. Identify: top 3 issues residents are discussing, any mentions of federal policy impacts, and upcoming local events our office should know about.”
Tip: For models that can search the internet, you can provide links to trusted local sources. You may even want to consider adding these to a “project”.“Prepare me for tomorrow's Chamber breakfast meeting. Summarize: recent business climate issues in our area [insert town or region], attendee backgrounds and agenda, and 2-3 federal issues that likely will come up. Format as talking points.”
“Analyze feedback from the transcripts of our last 3 town halls and this month's constituent surveys. Identify: top 5 issues constituents raised, demographic patterns in concerns, and any policy solutions they suggested. Present as a community priorities memo.”
Tip: for town halls and other public events on YouTube, hit the “more” button below the video to see the automatically generated transcript. For bonus points, you can also experiment with AI transcription tools like Otter!
Ready for more? Check out additional tips and sample prompts related to brainstorming, content creation, strategizing, and predicting the future.
Letters from camp: Have a particularly good (or wild) experience with this quest? Tell us all about it!
Chiefs of Staff & District Directors
Ranger Tip
AI summarization can transform your ability to maintain strategic oversight across all office operations by quickly processing diverse information streams from policy updates to political intelligence to administrative reports. This bird's-eye view enables you to make faster, better-informed decisions while ensuring nothing critical slips through the cracks.
Quest Directive
Use an institution-approved LLM to:
Provide a daily executive overview - Compile summaries of overnight news developments, staff reports, and priority issues into a comprehensive daily briefing that covers legislative, political, and administrative priorities
Conduct strategy planning and risk assessment - Synthesize publicly available polling data, news coverage, and staff analyses to identify strategic opportunities and potential challenges for upcoming decisions
Sample Prompts
“Create my daily executive briefing from these attached inputs: 3 news clips, 3 committee hearing schedules (if applicable) , 2 email newsletters, the available House Floor schedule, and my schedule today. Organize by: Immediate decisions needed, strategic opportunities, and items to monitor. Keep each section under 75 words.”
“Analyze potential risks and opportunities for the Member's supporting position on the upcoming vote on [HR X]. Synthesize: any available polling data, editorial board positions, stakeholder feedback, congressional debate transcripts, and congressional leadership preferences. Provide 3 strategic options with trade-offs.”
Ready for more? Check out additional tips and sample prompts related to brainstorming, content creation, strategizing, and predicting the future.
Letters from camp: Have a particularly good (or wild) experience with this quest? Tell us all about it!
Members of Congress
Ranger Tip
AI summarization can help you stay informed across multiple complex issues without getting overwhelmed by information overload, enabling you to engage more effectively in debates, interviews, and constituent meetings. This technology becomes your strategic advantage in making well-informed decisions quickly while maintaining authentic connections with the issues that matter most to your constituents. It can also be prompted to provide information to you in the format you most prefer to match your learning style and demanding schedule.
Quest Directive
Use an institution-approved LLM to:
Digest key policy briefs - Quickly digest comprehensive briefing materials, committee reports, and background research before important votes, hearings, or media appearances
Analyze constituent and stakeholder intelligence - Summarize feedback from town halls, meeting reports from staff, and correspondence from key constituency groups to stay connected with district priorities and public sentiment
Sample Prompts
“Prepare me for tomorrow's committee hearing on trade policy. Summarize these 3 briefing documents and 4 witness testimonies focusing on: key arguments I should be prepared to make, likely questions from the other side, and 2-3 district-specific examples I can reference in representing [State-District].”
“Summarize this month's constituent feedback on healthcare policy from the attached anonymized call notes and emails received. Include: main concerns residents are raising, specific stories that illustrate broader issues, and how these align with or differ from national polling trends.”
Ready for more? Check out additional tips and sample prompts related to brainstorming, content creation, strategizing, and predicting the future.
Letters from camp: Have a particularly good (or wild) experience with this quest? Tell us all about it!
Letters from Camp
Have a particularly good (or wild) experience with this quest? Tell us all about it!
