POPVOX Foundation Team Submits Public Witness Testimony for FY 2027 Legislative Branch Appropriations
Three POPVOX Foundation team members submitted testimony to the House Appropriations Legislative Branch Subcommittee, making the case for investments in AI capacity, constituent services, member security, and institutional modernization.
Ahead of this year’s appropriations cycle for Fiscal Year 2027, three members of the POPVOX Foundation team — Aubrey Wilson, Anne Meeker, and Danielle Stewart — each submitted written testimony outlining specific funding requests that reflect the Foundation's core areas of work. They include supporting institutional modernization, constituent services, and casework support, along with strengthening Member and staff security throughout Congress.
The full list of POPVOX Foundation requests can be found here. This post highlights the key arguments made in each testimony and the team members who made them.
Strategic Investment in Artificial Intelligence
Submitted by Aubrey Wilson, Director of Government Innovation and Global Initiatives
Aubrey submitted testimony focused on institutional changes the House could implement to support Members and staff in better adoption and understanding of AI.
Establish the Congressional Capacity and Technology Office (C-TECH)
Over the last three years, POPVOX Foundation has delivered resources and training to Congressional Members and staff to increase their familiarity and confidence in using institution-approved tools. In every training, staff share the same concerns: they feel behind, unsure of what is permitted, and overwhelmed about where to start. Housed under the House Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), the AI Center for Excellence works with Members and staff on implementation and training, but operates without dedicated staff or funding. Lengthy technology review timelines undertaken by CAO’s House Information Resources (HIR) are incompatible with an AI landscape that releases meaningful capability updates every few months, resulting in a delay of emerging technology getting into the hands of those who are crafting the policies to govern them.
C-TECH would fill the AI professional development and education gap present in the House as an independent, nonpartisan office modeled on the House Office of the Whistleblower Ombuds, established to address a specific capability gap no existing office is designed to fill. A six-person team would focus on training, office hours, proactive outreach, and practical resources for both Member offices and committees. The foundational message: AI augments, not replaces. Congressional work requires human judgment, constituent relationships, and institutional knowledge that no tool can replicate. But without the dedication of meaningful resources and efforts to help keep pace with the rapidly changing landscape and growth of widely-used new tools, the Legislative Branch and its workforce will continue to fall behind.
Read the full C-TECH proposal, including staffing structure and long-term budget recommendations, here.
Congressional Support Agency Technology Experimentation Fund
Currently, Congressional support agencies lack the dedicated resources, innovation offices, and cross-government coordination initiatives available to their Executive branch counterparts. This fund would distribute one-year resources across eight agencies (the Congressional Budget Office, Congressional Research Service, the Joint Committee on Taxation, Office of the House Legislative Counsel, Office of the Law Revision Counsel, Architect of the Capitol, Office of the Sergeant at Arms, and Office of the Clerk of the House) to evaluate AI tools through hands-on experimentation led by the substantive, nontechnical staff whose domain expertise is irreplaceable.
A fund of this type exemplifies a new approach that the Legislative Branch can take to foster innovation without traditional multi-year or multi-million dollar development projects.
Modernize Technology Procurement at CAO's House Information Resources Office
As touched on above, technology authorization timelines exceeding a year are not uncommon in the current HIR review process. These delays do not make the House more secure; they make it less capable of keeping pace with the Executive branch, the private sector, and peer legislatures. The solution is both structural and resource-driven: additional cybersecurity and technology assessment personnel, combined with a risk-tiered assessment framework that calibrates review depth to actual risk level. Low-risk tools should move quickly; higher-risk tools should receive comprehensive review. Greater transparency in the submission process would benefit Member offices and technology vendors alike.
Strengthening Congressional Casework
Submitted by Anne Meeker, Managing Director
Anne submitted testimony focused on the infrastructure that supports one of Congress’ most direct constitutional functions: helping individual Americans navigate their government. Her testimony made three requests centered on strengthening casework across the House.
Establish a Congressional Casework Liaison Office (CLO)
As Anne's testimony notes, in the midst of this year’s annual appropriations process, caseworkers across the country are fielding urgent calls from constituents stranded in the Middle East, a reminder that every crisis reveals both the value of casework and the structural gaps in how caseworkers are supported. With 441 offices and frequent turnover, the House faces an acute challenge in retaining institutional knowledge. When experienced caseworkers leave, the agency relationships and expertise they built leave with them.
The CLO would serve as a central advocate, communication hub, knowledge manager, and data steward for the House casework community. Its core functions would include maintaining structured two-way communication channels between agencies and caseworkers, providing an institutional home for CaseCompass (the standardized casework taxonomy and data aggregation system developed by the House Digital Service), organizing peer knowledge communities into searchable repositories, representing caseworker needs with CRM vendors, and serving as a visible Hill presence for a largely district-based workforce.
Expand the CRS Directory of Agency Liaisons
The existing CRS directory covers only DC-based contacts, but caseworkers frequently need regional, processing center, and local contacts. Each of the 441 offices currently builds and maintains these lists independently, duplicating effort across the institution. CRS should provide an expanded, machine-readable directory including local and regional contacts, and a report on agency Privacy Act release form policies.
Prohibit Restricting Agency Responsiveness to Casework
During transitions and reorganizations, communication freezes — bounce-back emails, unanswered phones, disappeared contacts — translate directly into delayed benefits and financial harm for constituents. A general provision prohibiting the use of funds to restrict agency responsiveness to casework, paired with a reporting requirement on inquiry volume, response timelines, and liaison staffing, would protect the communication channel itself.
Future-Proofing Congress
Submitted by Danielle Stewart, Advisor for Congressional Initiatives
Danielle submitted testimony focused on the long-term health and safety of Congress and its workforce. Her testimony addressed three priority areas — institutional modernization, Member and staff security, and supporting congressional families.
Continued Investment in the Modernization Initiatives Account (MIA)
Since its creation, the MIA has supported House-wide projects like FlagTrack, LegiDex, and Deconflict. Projects currently in the pipeline — including CaseCompass, FlagTrack 2.0, House Digital Signage and Wayfinding, and Constituent Management System Innovation Discovery — would benefit from continued funding. Danielle's testimony calls for maintaining MIA at the same level as FY2025 ($10,000,000) and adding reporting requirements to improve oversight and guide future investment decisions.
Require Comprehensive Security Training for Members and Staff
In 2025, the USCP's Threat Assessment Section investigated nearly 15,000 concerning statements, behaviors, and communications directed against Members of Congress, their families, and staff — a figure that has nearly doubled since 2022. While security resources exist, participation in training is optional and inconsistent. There is currently no required physical security training for Members, staff, or interns. Danielle's testimony calls for mandatory, standardized security training covering physical safety, emergency preparedness, de-escalation, and threat awareness — particularly important for front-office staff and district-based caseworkers who are the institution's first line of contact with the public.
Support Congressional Families
The 119th Congress has seen a record number of Member retirements, with family needs cited as a major factor. Families arriving in Washington at the start of a new Congress face real and recurring challenges — from navigating House ID processes to finding childcare in a new city. Danielle's testimony calls for the CAO, in coordination with the Committee on House Administration, to establish a structured, bipartisan family welcome program for the first week of a new Congress, including a designated family space, activities for children, childcare information, and a meet-and-greet with US Capitol Police.
What Comes Next
The next step in the process is for the Appropriations Committee to hold subcommittee hearings and markups ahead of the full committee markup. The full hearing and markup schedule can be found at appropriations.house.gov/schedule.
POPVOX Foundation will continue to support this process and provide resources to congressional staff as the FY27 cycle moves forward. For questions or to learn more about any of these requests, reach out to us at info@popvox.org.
