POPVOX Foundation’s “Future-Proofing Congress” is a newsletter created for the busy Congressional staffer to keep you updated (and inspired!) about operational improvements and new resources on and off the Hill. Learn more and subscribe here.

Legislative victories worth celebrating and a thank you event for all that you do

The shutdown is over, and Congress is back! Kudos to you for making it through the longest shutdown in American history, though not exactly the merit badge you wanted to receive, I am sure. You deserve recognition and thanks for continuing to show up for your boss and your team during what has been a really challenging time. As offices return to normal operations and the flurry of catch-up work begins, I hope you will take a moment to acknowledge what you accomplished during those challenging weeks.

During the shutdown, POPVOX Foundation and our partners relaunched CapitolStrong to provide resources and support for Congressional staffers like you. The team created the CapitolStrong effort for moments like these, and it will continue to be a resource for future challenges. Now that things are stabilizing, we want to celebrate you and say thank you in person! Join us on December 3 for morning coffee, treats, and an opportunity to say hi to the POPVOX Foundation team and our partners on the Hill. It will be a chance to take a quick mental break, connect with colleagues, and start your morning on a positive note before a busy day. We will share more details in the coming weeks.

In this month’s newsletter, we will talk about:

Major legislative wins for casework and AI innovation
A new project capturing federal employee insights
Modernization wins and ongoing projects for the Legislative branch
Thanksgiving Day trivia and Snoopy

Wishing you a happy and restful Thanksgiving season,

Danielle Stewart
Advisor for Congressional Initiatives
POPVOX Foundation

CapitolStrong Relaunch

The government may have reopened, but things may take a while to feel “normal” again. After a missed paycheck, backed up constituent tours, and shuttered services you may need some extra support getting back into the swing of things. That’s why POPVOX Foundation, with several of our incredible partners, relaunched CapitolStrong, a collaboration dedicated to supporting Congressional staff through challenging times. If there are specific resources that would have been super helpful for you and your team during the last six weeks that you did not have access to, please let me know! We would love to hear from you and find ways to future-proof your office for the next challenge.

Save the date: On December 3, we will be hosting a “thank you” event on the Hill with coffee, snacks, and an opportunity to start your morning on a positive note during what we know is a very busy season. Rumor has it cuddly dogs may be in attendance. We will be in touch with more details!

In case it’s still helpful, the CapitolStrong website has a resource guide with practical links to emergency financial services, food assistance, mental health support, and workplace rights information. Visit capitolstrong.org to access these resources.

Make Room for More Modernization

With the shutdown officially behind us (may your inboxes recover quickly), there’s some good news to celebrate on the House modernization front. Included in the bipartisan funding package to reopen the government was $4 million for the House Modernization Initiatives Account (MIA). This dedicated fund supports projects that make daily work in the House more efficient, more accessible, and frankly, a lot less frustrating (think: FlagTrack and LegiDex)!

Check out the next tranche of projects on deck from the Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Modernization and Innovation:

A software upgrade for the House Sergeant at Arms, giving HSAA the ability to build custom apps as needs arise and streamline internal processes.
FlagTrack 2.0, an enhanced version of the system that has already made flag requests more transparent. The new upgrade would allow constituents to track their flags from the moment they are flown to the moment USPS delivers them, saving loads of time!
A CMS Innovation Discovery effort at the CAO, focused on exploring new ways to help Member offices manage their data and safely test emerging tools. This work could open the door to better, more modern digital workflows for teams across the House.
A new Committee Archiving Tool from the Clerk, finally creating a single, standardized system for committees to store and manage their records.

These projects represent exactly the kind of practical and forward-thinking improvements that keep the House running more efficiently.

Casework and AI Wins in the Funding Bill

Many of your bosses advocated for priorities that were included in this year’s Legislative branch funding bill, and the bipartisan package to reopen the government included key provisions to address casework improvements, legislative data mapping, and AI training. A huge thanks to YOU for your continued support of these items that help to make Congress more responsive and reflective of the American people.

Constituent Casework Improvements

The legislation includes critical support for the work you do every day helping constituents. It ensures continued funding for Case Compass development, the dashboard that will track anonymized casework data to help caseworkers catch trends and get ahead of problems. The bill also directs CRS to expand its Congressional liaison directory beyond DC contacts to include regional and field office information, plus compile agency policies on Privacy Act release forms. Finally, the CAO will examine what additional assistance can be provided to Member offices to more effectively handle constituent casework.

Artificial Intelligence Training and Data Support

The legislation recognizes the growing role of AI in Congressional operations, with up to a quarter of House staff already using generative AI tools regularly. The CAO’s AI working group will provide quarterly updates on promoting responsible AI use, with emphasis on continued training and appropriate privacy protocols. The bill also requires an inventory of data maps across House entities, which is a critical step toward ensuring the Legislative branch can securely manage data for future AI adoption.

These wins represent advocacy from many of you and demonstrate that Congress is taking concrete steps to support the staff who serve constituents every day.

Departure Dialogues

Every year, thousands of people leave federal service and they take invaluable knowledge about what makes government work (or does not) with them. POPVOX Foundation Managing Director Anne Meeker just launched the Departure Dialogues project to capture those insights. The feedback from former federal employees will be compiled and shared to highlight real opportunities for government reform and modernization.

Early themes from dozens of conversations are already emerging:

outdated laws and rigid compliance rules are slowing service delivery,
there are gaps in Congress-agency communication that lead to laws that don’t reflect implementation realities, and
frontline expertise is missing from legislative discussions.

As one former staffer from the General Services Administration’s 18F digital services agency shared: “We often saw a gap between what Congress intended and how the program was actually being implemented.”

This project demonstrates what is possible with new information gathering techniques, proving that Congress can gather and analyze structured feedback from the federal workforce quickly and inexpensively.

Learn more at popvox.org/departure.

An Ongoing AI Conversation Abroad

Research shows that conversations in parliaments around the world have shifted from debating whether AI belongs in the legislative process to actively experimenting with how it is already shaping their work. In her recent edition of ModParl, POPVOX Foundation Fellow Beatriz Rey highlighted emerging academic research mapping this evolution and shows that the real opportunities and challenges of AI in lawmaking are not just about automation, they are about its impact on trust, legitimacy, and how well institutions represent the people they serve.

A recent study from the United Kingdom and Japan shows people are comfortable with AI helping Members of Parliament in daily operations, but strongly reject AI or robots being the decision makers. In one experiment, two researchers found that AI-generated constituent communication with strong human oversight can increase customer trust and satisfaction. But similar communication with little oversight can have the opposite effect. There have also been varying conversations around the “right” way to use AI in policy circles - for example, the US frames AI around defense and security, Singapore around innovation and labor, the EU around ethical oversight, and Switzerland around regulatory caution. Read the full summary of what the research is finding in Beatriz’s full post here.

For more news from international legislatures, subscribe to our Modern Parliament (“ModParl”) newsletter.

The Ongoing Conversation on AI and the Future of Democracy

Did we see you in DC this week? Over the last few days, the POPVOX Foundation team has hosted a trio of discussions with cybersecurity and data experts Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders across the Capitol campus. Schneier and Sanders are coauthors of the recently released book, Rewiring Democracy, which focuses on the question: how will artificial intelligence reshape democratic processes and what can Congress do to prepare? This week, they engaged with Congressional staff and individuals across the First Branch think tank and support ecosystem to share perspectives on what AI can mean for daily work — from the legislative workflow to constituent engagement — and what they are seeing in use case examples from parliaments around the world. Keep an eye out for our write-up on the key takeaways of this ongoing conversation regarding the unique moment democratic institutions face: harness the potential of how this emerging technology can amplify democratic norms and processes, or lean back and hope that institutions will somehow retain enough relevancy in a world dramatically changed?

Give Your Brain a Break (Thanksgiving Edition)!

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is celebrating its 52nd anniversary this year! The Vince Guaraldi Peanuts holiday music is a must on my playlists every year - it makes the perfect background music for work or chill time at home. Here is the link for the soundtrack on Apple Music and Spotify.
Did you know that Philadelphia hosts the oldest Thanksgiving Day parade in the country? The first parade was held in 1920. Do you know where the first turkey trot took place? Click here to find out and to learn more turkey day trivia.
Members of Congress have debated nearly everything on the House Floor - including their preferred week for celebrating Thanksgiving! After becoming a national holiday in 1870, every President until Franklin D. Roosevelt recognized Thanksgiving Day on the last Thursday of November. President Roosevelt moved it back a week to prolong the Christmas shopping season for businesses still recovering from the Great Depression. House Joint Resolution 41, introduced in 1941, officially cemented the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. More House history here.

Shout Outs & Events

Save the date for December 3, when the POPVOX Foundation team and CapitolStrong partners will be on the Hill in the morning to say “thanks!” for all that you do with coffee, snacks, and snuggly pups.

The Future is Now

Lose the Dash: Are you tired of ChatGPT’s use of dashes? Now when you give the chatbot instructions, you can ask it not to use em-dashes…and it will actually listen to you. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman called it a “small but happy win.”
AI Tops the Charts: “Walk my Walk“ by Breaking Rust, recently hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart. A single chart topper is not particularly newsworthy, except that Breaking Rust is an AI-generated artist. In less than a month, the song was streamed more than 3 million times on Spotify.
The Garden State Embraces AI: By using AI, New Jersey’s Office of Innovation helped connect an additional 100,000 children to free summer meals this year. The office worked with other agencies to identify children who were eligible for the free meals, but who were not yet enrolled in the program.
The Capitol Ledger: An anonymous Redditer shared a new site that posts AI-generated daily summaries of House and Senate sessions with key debates, votes, and automated analysis of all the drama. We can’t recommend the site since we don’t know who’s behind it, but it’s the kind of application that is becoming easier to launch, so you may want to take a look just to stay informed.

About POPVOX Foundation

POPVOX Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit that helps democratic institutions keep pace with a rapidly changing world. Through publications, events, prototypes and technical assistance, the organization helps public servants and elected officials better serve their constituents and make better policy.

Giving Thanks and Celebrating Wins