POPVOX Foundation Senate Appropriations Requests: Supporting Constituent Services, Investing in Future Congress, and Strengthening Security
Fiscal Year 2027 Requests Submitted to Senate Appropriations Committee Members for Consideration
BY DANIELLE STEWART
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The POPVOX Foundation team shared several legislative priorities with Senate Appropriations Committee Members for consideration in the upcoming fiscal year's (FY27) funding package.
The requests this year focus on three key pillars:
Supporting Constituent Services,
Investing in Future Congress, and
Strengthening Security for Members and Staff.
Each pillar reflects the priorities and projects led by POPVOX Foundation team members, and reflects key initiatives 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 full list submitted to the Senate can be seen here.
Several priorities were also shared with key House Appropriations members for consideration, which can be seen here.
Study on a Congressional Casework Liaison Office
Aim
The Secretary of the Senate should conduct a study evaluating the feasibility of establishing a Constituent Casework Liaison Office (CLO) — a small, dedicated function housed within the Senate Sergeant at Arms — to serve as a central advocate, communication hub, knowledge manager, and data steward for the Senate casework community.
Why it is important
Casework is one of Congress's 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. Senate offices 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 the chamber. The Senate Employee Assistance Program's caseworker forums and state staff resource hub represent meaningful recent investments, 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.
The communication channels between federal agencies and caseworkers are fragmented: agencies have no reliable way to push urgent updates to all relevant caseworkers, and caseworkers have no institutional channel to surface systemic issues back to agencies. Each office independently builds its own contact lists, develops its own processes, and trains its own new hires, which massively duplicates effort across the chamber. 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.
A CLO would address these gaps through six core functions: serving as a two-way agency–Congress communication hub; stewarding aggregated casework data for committee oversight; providing knowledge management and community facilitation support; acting as a central advocate and wayfinding resource for caseworkers; representing caseworker needs in CRM vendor discussions; and socializing nonpartisan casework trend data to inform oversight, modeled on the Taxpayer Advocate's reports to Congress.
This proposal builds on bipartisan groundwork laid by the House's Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, years of practitioner engagement through the POPVOX Foundation Casework Navigator program, and the Senate's own recent investments in caseworker support.
CRS Agency Liaison List
Aim
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) should provide an up-to-date list of casework agency liaisons, available in a machine-readable format, including local, regional, and processing center contact information that district and state staff can actually use.
Why it is important
CRS currently maintains the only extensive list of Congressional liaisons at Executive branch and independent agencies — an invaluable resource for all legislative staff, and especially for caseworkers identifying the right point of contact to route constituent requests. But the scope of agency casework liaisons is much wider than the current list addresses: caseworkers frequently work not only with central DC-based liaisons, but also with regional contacts, processing center contacts, and more.
The limitations of the current list disadvantage new caseworkers and new casework teams who must start from scratch to build internal contact directories, and create inefficiencies when inquiries are mistakenly routed to outdated contacts or inappropriate agency business units. The House Select Committee on Modernization previously recommended (recommendation #150) that CRS maintain and provide this expanded, localized contact information in digital spreadsheet format.
CRS should also compile a report on the Privacy Act release form policies of different federal agencies, including whether specific information is required and whether agencies accept digitally signed forms. While the CASES Act (P.L. 116-50) requires agencies to accept digital privacy release forms, the Committee understands that variance among agencies still exists. An expanded liaison list and a central directory of Privacy Act policies would assist casework teams across the experience spectrum, helping offices act more efficiently by going directly to the right contact.
Prohibit the Use of Funds to Restrict Agency Responsiveness to Congressional Casework Inquiries
Aim
Prohibit Executive branch agencies from using appropriated funds to restrict, delay, or prevent agency personnel — including congressional liaison staff — from receiving and responding to congressional casework inquiries submitted on behalf of constituents.
Why it is important
Constituent casework is a foundational function of Congressional representation. Every year, Members and their staff submit thousands of inquiries to federal agencies on behalf of constituents navigating federal programs, benefits, and services. During Presidential transitions, freezes or pauses on agency communications with Member offices can inadvertently disrupt these critical communications. In previous transitions, Congressional caseworkers have reported bounce-back emails, unanswered phone lines, and the sudden disappearance of longtime agency contacts related to communications pauses or newly-instituted approval requirements.
The disruption has real consequences for constituents. Delayed responses to casework inquiries mean delayed benefits, unresolved tax issues, stalled immigration cases, and unanswered questions from veterans, Social Security recipients, and federal employees alike. End-of-year summaries of casework activities across Member offices frequently show that casework efforts help identify and return millions of dollars in delayed and retroactive benefits to local economies and constituents in need. The Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) recognized this issue in 2024, recommending that agencies adopt best practices for receiving and responding to congressional inquiries in an accurate, efficient, transparent, and timely manner — including continued processing through Presidential transitions.
Establish a Congressional Support Agency Technology Experimentation Fund
Aim
Establish a Congressional Support Agency Technology Experimentation Fund providing $650,000 in one-year funds to enable eight congressional support agencies to evaluate and pilot artificial intelligence and emerging technology tools through hands-on experimentation by substantive, nontechnical staff.
Why it is important
Congressional support agencies are falling behind the Executive branch agencies they are meant to assist Congress in overseeing. Executive branch agencies have access to the Technology Modernization Fund, agency-level innovation offices, and cross-government initiatives like the Federal AI Council. Congressional support agencies have none of these mechanisms. The result is a widening capacity gap that threatens Congress's ability to maintain independent analytical and operational capability as AI transforms the environments in which these agencies work.
The staff who would benefit most from AI tools are the budget analysts, policy researchers, legislative drafters, facilities managers, and security professionals whose domain expertise is irreplaceable. These substantive staff cannot form meaningful judgments about a tool's utility, reliability, or suitability without direct access to it in the context of their actual work. Vendor demonstrations are not a substitute for hands-on evaluation, and secondhand assessments from other institutions cannot account for the unique workflows and quality standards of congressional support agencies. A dedicated experimentation fund gives these agencies the ability — and the permission — to put tools directly in the hands of the staff who do the work, evaluate them on their own terms, and make informed recommendations about adoption.
The fund is structured around three principles designed to maximize institutional learning while minimizing risk: all funds are one-year money, creating urgency to experiment rather than plan indefinitely; each participating agency must evaluate no fewer than two distinct platforms or approaches on a comparative basis; and a lightweight reporting requirement ensures that what each agency learns benefits the Committee and peer agencies alike.
The GAO is intentionally excluded from this fund, as it has an established Innovation Lab with dedicated resources for technology experimentation. The eight agencies included were selected because they directly serve congressional capacity and currently lack any budget flexibility for technology evaluation. At $50,000 per agency — sufficient to subscribe to multiple AI platforms for a year and conduct genuine evaluation — this fund represents a modest investment relative to the potential return. CBO and CRS receive larger allocations of $250,000 and $100,000, respectively, reflecting the breadth of their analytical missions. The total fund of $650,000 creates a named, visible commitment to informed technology adoption across the legislative branch, with cross-agency learning built into the structure from the start.
Establish a Joint Committee on Continuity
Aim
Establish a Joint Committee on Continuity between the House and Senate to enhance the resilience and continuity of legislative operations, addressing potential disruptions, examining current procedures, identifying gaps, and proposing solutions to maintain Congress's stability and functionality during emergencies.
Why it is important
Establishing a Joint Committee on Continuity would help strengthen the resilience of Congress and ensure its operations remain stable during times of crisis or unforeseen disruption. A Joint Committee would allow for a comprehensive review of current legislative procedures across both chambers, identifying gaps that could hinder Congress's functioning in emergencies and developing strategies for maintaining a fully operational legislative branch — ensuring that essential work such as lawmaking, oversight, and constituent services continues uninterrupted.
As seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, the overnight transition to remote operations put a tremendous strain on the Legislative branch due to a lack of available technology and equipment, even as constituent casework demands increased and the need for reliable public communication intensified. Ensuring both chambers share information and address crises together can lead to mutual advancement and innovation, with plans in place to allow for continued operations under any circumstances.
Require Comprehensive Security Training
Aim
To ensure all Members of Congress, staff, and interns are equipped with the most up-to-date security protocols, information, and training, the Senate 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 his FY27 testimony to the House Appropriations Committee's Legislative Branch Subcommittee, US Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan shared that in 2025, the department investigated nearly 15,000 concerning statements, behaviors, and communications directed against the Congressional community — a 58 percent increase from 2024.
As new staff are onboarded throughout Congress, they receive minimal security orientation, and existing staff may not receive regular updates on evolving threats and protective measures. Front-office staff and interns who regularly interact with constituents and answer office phones would benefit significantly from a standardized toolkit and up-to-date resources to stay safe and know how to report concerning behaviors or incidents — including de-escalation training for managing tense or unsafe situations. Congressional state staff also play a crucial role in emergency response and disaster relief efforts, and the toll of responding to local crises contributes to the turnover and burnout that affects the casework community disproportionately.
Requiring comprehensive security and emergency preparedness training for all Senate 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.
What Comes Next
The next step in this process will be for the Senate Appropriations Committee to host subcommittee hearings and markups to prepare for the full committee markup of this year's must-pass funding bills.
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.