What Exactly Is AI, Anyway?
South Carolina’s Senate Special Committee on AI starts with defining the technology, treating AI literacy as a prerequisite to policymaking. Plus: state executive branch AI adoption in Vermont and Kansas, ADA digital accessibility requirements for legislatures, and an AI-powered North Carolina bill explainer tool.
What the 120th Congress Could Be
As one of the largest freshman classes in decades heads to the 120th Congress, AI is reshaping the landscape: frontier models are advancing in math and encryption, OpenAI shelved a model it couldn’t see inside, DHS banned DeepSeek, and House Rules proposals target Congressional modernization.
Ten Years of the Hellenic OCR Team: Modernization Through Collaboration
Most parliamentary AI tools serve staff and Members rather than connecting citizens to lawmakers. A study mapping 72 tools finds only five link different actors, with Brazil’s citizen-comment summaries and Chile’s Member-drafting tools as exceptions, raising questions about efficiency, participation, and representation in legislatures.
POPVOX Foundation's Sample AI Policy for Congressional Offices
POPVOX Foundation’s updated AI use policy template gives House and Senate offices a free, customizable starting point for setting internal rules on generative AI. It covers prohibited uses, best practices, and recommended use cases, with steps for adapting it to each Congressional office.
Claude is Approved for Senate Use. POPVOX is Here to Help.
POPVOX Foundation offers free, vendor-neutral AI training for Senate, House, state legislative, and parliamentary offices. Following the Senate’s approval of Claude Enterprise, one-hour, off-the-record sessions cover prompting, security, hallucination risks, and Congressional use cases, helping legislative staff adopt AI responsibly and confidently.
Updated: Where the House and Senate Are on Internal Use of AI
A detailed overview of how the US House of Representatives and Senate are governing internal use of artificial intelligence, including a summary of current AI policies, approved tools, and key limitations on staff use.
The POPVOX Foundation Model
POPVOX Foundation’s nonpartisan model helps legislatures modernize from the inside out by recognizing problems, mapping pain points, proposing solutions, piloting them, and sharing lessons. Case studies include remote Congressional proceedings, Internapalooza, casework data systems, AI training for staff, and Congressional modernization efforts.
The Inward-Facing Parliament
Most parliamentary AI tools serve staff and Members rather than connecting citizens to lawmakers. A study mapping 72 tools finds only five link different actors, with Brazil’s citizen-comment summaries and Chile’s Member-drafting tools as exceptions, raising questions about efficiency, participation, and representation in legislatures.
Reclaiming the First Branch: Eight House Rules Changes for the 120th Congress
Eight practical House Rules updates for the 120th Congress would modernize how the first branch works, strengthening Congressional capacity, evidence-based lawmaking, and oversight. By replacing language from the era of paper and stenography, the House can keep pace with fast-changing technology and serve constituents better.
AI and Legislative Workshop with Caribbean Parliaments
POPVOX Foundation, the House Democracy Partnership, and ParlAmericas convened staff from 17 Caribbean parliaments in Miami to explore AI adoption, digitization, legislative data standards, and Hansard workflows. Delegates built tools live and received invitations to join the Digital Parliaments Project.
Building the Future of Parliaments, Together: Digital Parliaments Project 2026 Q3 Convening Progress Report
The Digital Parliaments Project's Q3 2026 convening recaps summer regional workshops in Albania, Ghana, and Miami, new ParlLink updates including a chatbot creator and added languages, upcoming AI assessment and training resources, vibe coding experiments, and plans to expand the global parliamentary community.
Model Legislative Text: Giving Congress Standing Access to Program Data
POPVOX Foundation's draft legislative text gives Congressional committees, GAO, CBO, and CRS standing, automated access to federal program data. Drafters can add the modular provision to authorization or appropriations bills, requiring machine-readable data, unthrottled access, and annual agency compliance certifications to strengthen Congressional oversight.
AI’s Exponential Change and Riding the Wave
AI models are accelerating faster than staff can track, with AGI claims, agent swarms breaking sandbox limits, and new watermarking and data-retention rules reshaping the landscape. Congressional staff get practical context on these developments, plus guidance on vibe coding and POPVOX Foundation's upcoming Three Horizons vision for Congress.
After the Bill Passes
California's pilot Outcomes Review program brings lawmakers back to examine how new laws are working in practice, from wildfire mortgage-forbearance protections to the 988 crisis lifeline. New NCSL survey data also tracks rising generative AI adoption and governance policies across state legislatures nationwide.
Casework Navigator: New Report on the State of Casework
Congressional casework demand is rising as federal agencies decay and constituents turn to legislative offices for help. A new report, The State of Congressional Casework, examines this trend and introduces the Constituent Service Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit continuing casework research, advocacy, and support for caseworkers nationwide.
Announcing the Casework Navigator Program’s Next Chapter: The Constituent Service Institute
POPVOX Foundation's Casework Navigator Program is spinning off into a standalone organization, the Constituent Service Institute, led by Anne Meeker. Built on years of webinars, training manuals, newsletters, and research supporting congressional caseworkers, the new institute continues advancing dedicated resources and education on constituent service.
New Report: Congressional Casework, the Last Safety Net for Americans Caught in Federal Bureaucracy, Approaches a Breaking Point
Congressional casework is straining under mounting demand, as constituents increasingly turn to their representatives to resolve problems with federal agencies. A new landscape analysis traces this rise to policy decay and implementation debt, and outlines five recommendations to modernize constituent services.
POPVOX Foundation Launches Digital Parliaments Project in Africa
The Digital Parliaments Project has expanded into Africa, with POPVOX Foundation and the House Democracy Partnership launching the initiative at a ceremony hosted by the Parliament of Ghana, uniting leaders from across the continent to advance AI-enabled tools for legislative transparency, constituent engagement, and parliamentary modernization.
Digital Parliaments Project Launches in Africa with Workshop in Accra
Parliamentary staff and institutional leaders from Ghana, Botswana, The Gambia, Senegal, South Africa, and the Pan-African Parliament gathered in Accra for the launch of the Digital Parliaments Project Africa, building skills in AI adoption, digitization, and governance modernization through hands-on training and cross-institutional knowledge sharing.
From Shadow to Institutional AI
Parliaments worldwide are adopting AI faster than they're governing it, with unsanctioned "shadow AI" tools signaling gaps in official systems. Institutional AI offers a framework separating legislative AI from consumer or enterprise tools, keeping core functions human while AI assistance scales with a decision's stakes.