POPVOX Foundation Appropriations Requests: A Focus on Future-Proofing, Constituent Services, Security, and the Member Experience
Fiscal Year 2027 Requests Submitted to Key House Committee Members for Consideration
BY DANIELLE STEWART
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As this year’s appropriations cycle moves forward, the POPVOX Foundation team shared several legislative priorities with House Appropriations Committee Members for consideration in the upcoming fiscal year’s (FY27) funding package. The requests this year focus on four key pillars:
Investing in Future Congress,
Strengthening Security for Members and Staff,
Supporting Constituent Services, and
Enhancing the Member Experience.
Each pillar reflects the priorities and projects led by POPVOX Foundation team members, and reflects key initiatives led by Members of Congress to support institutional modernization and innovation.
Last year, several priorities, detailed here, were included in the committee’s final report texts (the House report text can be seen here, and the Senate report text can be seen here). These priorities were signed into law on November 12, 2025.
The team’s top requests can be seen below, and the full request list can be found here.
Establish a Congressional Capacity and Technology Office
Aim
Establish a Congressional Capacity and Technology Office (C-TECH) as an independent, nonpartisan House office dedicated to supporting Members and staff in the responsible adoption of artificial intelligence tools approved for institutional use, funded at $1,000,000 for fiscal year 2027.
Why it is important
Artificial intelligence capabilities are advancing faster than at any prior point in history, reshaping the economy, national security, and the daily lives of constituents. The House has taken meaningful first steps: the 119th Congress Rules Package directed AI integration efforts, the Chief Administrative Officer's AI Center of Excellence was established, and Microsoft Copilot began rolling out to thousands of House staff in 2026. Yet no dedicated institutional office exists to proactively support Members and staff in understanding, adopting, and confidently using institution-approved AI tools. Without such a resource, adoption remains fragmented, confusion regarding the technology’s capabilities and use cases among staff remains high, and the House risks falling further behind the Executive branch, private industry, and peer legislatures in deploying AI to strengthen its capacity to serve constituents and fulfill its constitutional role. Phase 1 establishes C-TECH with a six-person team: a Director, Deputy Director, two AI Trainers (one focused on Member offices and one on committees), a Resource Developer, and an Executive Assistant. The mission of this team fills gaps that complement (not compete with) the work of existing institutional offices. Creation of C-TECH is an infrastructure investment coming to fruition to meet a pressing need.
Click here to read more about the C-TECH proposal from POPVOX Foundation.
Establish a Congressional Casework Liaison Office
Aim
The Committee should direct the establishment of a Congressional Casework Liaison Office (CLO) — a small, dedicated function housed within the CAO (House) and the Sergeant at Arms (Senate) — to serve as a central advocate, communication hub, knowledge manager, and data steward for the Congressional casework community. The CLO would begin with one full time employee per chamber and scale to three full time employees per chamber based on demonstrated need.
Why it is important
Casework is one of Congress' most direct and consequential constitutional functions: it is how individual Americans experience their government being responsive to them, and how the Legislative branch checks the Executive branch on behalf of individual citizens. 541 offices across both chambers manage active caseloads spanning dozens of federal agencies, and end-of-year summaries frequently show that casework efforts recover millions of dollars in delayed and retroactive benefits for constituents and local economies.
Despite the scale and importance of this function, caseworkers operate without dedicated institutional coordination, communication infrastructure, or visibility within either chamber. Both chambers have taken meaningful steps in recent years — the CAO Coach program's dedicated casework coach, more frequent fly-in events, and the Senate Employee Assistance Program's caseworker forums — and caseworkers themselves have shown remarkable ingenuity in building peer networks and sharing agency intelligence across offices on their own initiative. But structural gaps remain that these efforts cannot fill on their own.
There is no central point of contact for caseworkers navigating institutional resources. The landscape of communication channels between federal agencies and the caseworkers who handle their portfolios is fragmented: agencies have no reliable way to reach all relevant caseworkers when they need to push urgent updates, and caseworkers have no institutional channel to surface systemic issues back to agencies. The CRS Executive Branch Liaison list provides only top-level agency contacts, and Congress has directed CRS for several years through appropriations language to expand this directory — but CRS has consistently responded that the task is too resource-intensive at the scope caseworkers need. As a result, each office independently builds and maintains its own agency contact lists, develops its own processes, and trains its own new hires — massively duplicating effort across hundreds of offices. Meanwhile, institutional knowledge walks out the door every time an experienced caseworker departs, and the volunteer-run caseworker peer communities that have filled institutional gaps impose a disproportionate burden on the individual caseworkers who moderate and organize them on top of their full caseloads.
The CLO would address these gaps through six core functions:
Agency–Congress Communication Hub. Serve as the two-way door between federal agencies and the casework community — maintaining structured communication channels so agencies can reliably reach all caseworkers who handle their portfolio, and aggregating trend-line information in both directions. The CLO would maintain an up-to-date directory of casework staff and their agency portfolios, working with the LegiDex internal staff directory (House) and developing equivalent infrastructure in the Senate, so that agency updates can be routed to every relevant caseworker without granting agencies direct access to internal Congressional directories.
CaseCompass Stewardship. Serve as the institutional home for the CaseCompass aggregator tool — a standardized taxonomy and data aggregation system developed by the House Digital Service — including maintaining and updating the taxonomy, managing the agency staff directory, and ensuring data quality across participating offices.
Knowledge Management and Community Facilitation. Provide institutional support for caseworker peer communities, including moderating and organizing existing Teams channels into searchable repositories of institutional knowledge, and developing shared resources (process guides, resolution templates, onboarding materials) that preserve expertise against turnover.
Central Advocate, Wayfinding Resource, and Hill Presence. Serve as the dedicated point of contact for caseworkers navigating institutional resources, provide a visible presence on Capitol Hill for a largely district- and state-based workforce, and complement the CAO Coach program's 1:1 office consulting with community-wide coordination. The CLO can assist with logistics for fly-ins and convenings while leaving direct office advising to the Coaches. The CLO can also ensure that every casework team is familiar with available CAO resources on disaster resilience and emergency planning.
CRM Vendor Liaison. Represent caseworker needs and priorities in the CAO's work with CRM vendors, ensuring that the heaviest and most specialized users of these platforms have a collective voice in vendor discussions, feature development, and procurement decisions.
Nonpartisan Data Resource for Oversight. Socialize CaseCompass data as a factual, nonpartisan resource for committees conducting oversight — providing briefings on casework trends and systemic agency issues modeled on the Taxpayer Advocate's reports to Congress, without engaging in policy advocacy.
This proposal builds on bipartisan groundwork laid by the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, the CHA Subcommittee on Modernization (which held a hearing on constituent engagement and AI in December 2025), and years of practitioner engagement by POPVOX Foundation through its Casework Navigator program.
Support Institutional Modernization and Innovation
Aim
Continued investment in the House Modernization Initiatives Account to support ongoing efforts related to the implementation of new and existing modernization recommendations, initiatives, and additional technological innovation across the House, supported by additional reporting requirements.
Why it is important
The Modernization Initiative Account (MIA) is an important resource that has helped the House address many of the issues identified by Members as ways to improve the institution’s efficiency and effectiveness. The MIA was created within prior Legislative branch appropriations bills following the work of the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, which issued recommendations and conducted hearings and fact-finding on a bipartisan basis during the 116th and 117th Congress. MIA funding has supported House-wide projects such as FlagTrack, LegiDex, and Deconflict. Projects in the pipeline that will benefit from continued funding and support include CaseCompass, FlagTrack 2.0, House Digital Signage and Wayfinding, and Constituent Management System Innovation Discovery.
The MIA is a critical piece of the ongoing work to modernize and enhance the effectiveness of the Legislative branch.
Require Comprehensive Security Training
Aim
To ensure all Members of Congress, staff, and interns are equipped at the start of every Congressional session and throughout the calendar year with the most up-to-date security protocols, information, and training, the House Sergeant at Arms should provide mandatory training, funded at $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2027, covering physical security, emergency and disaster response, and threat awareness.
Why it is important
Members of Congress and their staff face an increasingly complex threat environment, ranging from physical security risks in district and DC offices to sophisticated cyber attacks and information security challenges. In 2025, the USCP’s Threat Assessment Section (TAS) investigated 14,938 concerning statements, behaviors, and communications directed against Members of Congress, their families, staff, and their DC or district offices. Those recorded threats have nearly doubled since 2022.
While many security resources are currently available through the CAO and the House Sergeant at Arms, participation in security training is optional and inconsistent across offices. Cybersecurity training is mandatory for staff annually, but there is currently no required physical security and safety training for existing Members, staff, and interns.
In 2024, 147 security awareness briefings were provided by the Sergeant at Arms (SAA) in coordination with US Capitol Police (USCP). Though helpful and informative, these trainings are not automatically provided and must be requested by staff or Members. At New Member Orientation, newly elected Members of Congress receive security briefings from USCP and SAA, but there is no official follow-up in the physical offices once the Members are sworn in to prepare staff. New staff often receive minimal security orientation, and existing staff may not receive regular updates on evolving threats and protective measures. Offices are required to have a Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP), and it is often the front office staff who are the point of contact and the individual responsible for sharing information and updating staff lists when needed. Especially for front-office staff and interns who are regularly interacting with constituents and answering office phones, having a standardized tool kit and the most up-to-date resources available would enhance their ability to stay safe and know how to report concerning behaviors or incidents.
Additionally, Congressional district and state staff play a crucial role in emergency response or disaster relief efforts, working alongside federal agencies to support constituents during crises. These staff members communicate vital information such as relief program application deadlines and shelter locations, prioritize urgent cases through direct Congressional liaisons, and help constituents navigate bureaucratic challenges to access essential benefits and services. Their on-the-ground experience also provides valuable insights for future disaster response oversight. Responding to disasters or local emergencies can take a toll on staff, and can lead to increased turnover and burnout among casework staff.
Requiring comprehensive security and emergency preparedness training for all House personnel would strengthen the institution's overall security posture, protect sensitive information, ensure continuity of operations, and safeguard the safety of Members, staff, and constituents.
Supporting Congressional Families
Aim
The Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), in coordination with the Committee on House Administration are directed to establish a structured, bipartisan family welcome program for newly elected Members of Congress and their families during the first week of a new Congress.
Why it is important
The start of a new Congress brings an intense period of transition for newly elected Members of Congress and their families. Families of incoming Members frequently arrive in Washington, DC with little institutional support tailored to their specific needs. The 119th Congress has seen a record number of Member retirements, with family needs cited as a major factor for those who leave service.
Several recurring challenges exist for Members and their families when arriving in Washington. These include:
Coordinating House-issued identification for family members which often falls to official staff, whose time is already stretched during the transition.
Children accompanying their families during swearing-in and the first week of Congress have few structured or engaging activities available to them, creating disruptions in busy Member offices.
Families with young children who relocate to the DC area face difficulty identifying safe and reliable child care in a new city, and lack easy access to information about the House Daycare and its waitlist process.
The heavy police and security presence in the Capitol complex during the start of a new Congress can be unsettling for young children unfamiliar with the environment.
These gaps represent a meaningful institutional opportunity. Establishing a structured, family-focused welcome program, which could include a designated family space in the House Office Buildings or US Capitol, access to food and refreshments, a family photo booth for ID processing, an art and activity station for children, an informational booth staffed by the House Daycare, and a meet-and-greet with US Capitol Police, would ease the transition for Members and their families, reduce the burden placed on official staff, and support Member readiness to serve at the start of a new Congress.
What Comes Next
The next step in this process will be for the Appropriations Committee to host subcommittee hearings and markups to prepare for the full committee markup of this year’s must-pass funding bills. The full committee hearing and markup schedule can be found here.
Learn more about the funding process here.
POPVOX Foundation’s requests were submitted for consideration in the Legislative branch funding bill, which includes funding for the Library of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, and the US Capitol Police, as well as funding for Member, Leadership, and committee offices, and staff and intern pay, among many other agencies and support offices.