New Senate AI guidance is here. POPVOX Foundation helps offices build foundational best practices for responsible use.
Free, vendor-neutral AI training for Senate, House, state legislative, and parliamentary offices
The Senate has updated its AI technology authorization list and approved Anthropic’s Claude Enterprise for official use. For offices that have been waiting for Senate guidance to more closely mirror the House’s approved tool list, this is welcome progress. It also creates the immediate need for training, professional development, and advising:
What is different about Claude than the existing tools?
If our office is new to AI, which tasks should we consider its use for?
How do we help staff prompt well without risking cybersecurity or the PII of constituents?
How do you check AI-generated content and ensure staff don’t become overreliant on this technology?
The Senate Sergeant at Arms (SAA) is offering Claude training demos, office hours, and AI learning resources to help Senate staff get started, and we encourage offices to take advantage of them. If your office would like additional support, POPVOX Foundation is here to help.
Since 2023, POPVOX Foundation has been designing and hosting AI training to answer these questions for legislative offices within the US Congress, state legislatures, and international parliaments. Our training is free, off-the-record, and tool agnostic; we don’t endorse one product over another, beyond expressly educating staff on what tools are authorized for official use.
Why we offer these trainings
AI is advancing faster than legislative institutions can build the knowledge to use it and oversee it. Our training complements the support the Senate and House provide to their staff and aims to narrow that gap through communicating best practices, fostering hands-on learning, and creating environments where staff can ask real questions about responsible use. Our goal is to empower Member offices to understand the tools, know the applicable rules, and decide for themselves when and how AI belongs in their work.
The sessions are free and are part of POPVOX Foundation’s charitable mission to help democratic institutions keep pace with a rapidly changing world.
What a session looks like
Every session is one hour and is run office by office, behind closed doors (virtually, in-person, or hybrid). We have trained House and Senate offices across the political spectrum and at all stages of their AI adoption journeys. Sessions typically cover:
Current House and Senate guidance on AI use
Prompting best practices
Use cases we have seen work across congressional offices, tailored by role for DC and district staff
Ways to reduce hallucinations and security risks
Live demos of the tools, with hands-on practice
Open team discussion and Q&A
Sessions can be in person, virtual, or hybrid, so a DC team can meet in the office while district staff join remotely.
One tool or all of them
Our training covers the full range of AI tools. We do not endorse any tool over another, and we keep our training in line with official House and Senate guidance on which tools are authorized. Because the House CAO and Senate SAA policies are not publicly available, we align with the most recent guidance that has been shared with us. Senate offices with questions about licenses, approved platforms, or how Senate data is handled should contact the SAA’s Technology Experience Partners.
Beyond Congress
Our AI training is not only available for the US Congress. We work with state legislatures and with parliaments around the world, including through our Digital Parliaments Project. Legislators everywhere are working through the same questions, and what we learn in one institution often helps another.
Resources you can use today
Along with live training, we publish an ever-growing suite of resources made for legislative staff, including a change management starter kit for Chiefs of Staff, a guide to AI-powered deep research tools, a guide to creating and using custom GPTs, and a self-led AI Field Guide.
Sample Office AI Use Policy
For Microsoft Copilot access, the House requires, and for all other AI tools, both the House and Senate recommend, that each office establish an office AI use policy, and our sample AI use policy is a good place to start.
Schedule a session
To bring training to your office or to request more information, visit popvox.org/ai-trainings.
