POPVOX Foundation Team Submits Public Witness Testimony for FY 2027 Legislative Branch Appropriations
POPVOX Foundation lays out practical FY2027 funding ideas to help Congress work smarter — boosting AI capacity, strengthening casework support, improving Member security, and modernizing operations. The proposals focus on faster tech adoption, better coordination with agencies, and stronger internal support systems so offices can serve constituents more effectively in a rapidly changing landscape.
What’s happening with AI and why should I care?
Congressional staff face a rapidly evolving AI landscape. This overview breaks down the Senate’s approval of tools like Copilot, Gemini, and ChatGPT Enterprise, explains emerging concepts such as agentic AI, and examines how AI is shaping campaigns, workflows, and constituent services.
POPVOX Foundation Appropriations Requests: A Focus on Future-Proofing, Constituent Services, Security, and the Member Experience
POPVOX Foundation submitted fiscal year 2027 appropriations requests to House Appropriations Committee Members focused on modernizing Congress and strengthening its capacity to serve constituents. Key proposals include responsible AI adoption, improved casework coordination, continued modernization funding, enhanced security training, and better support for Members, staff, and Congressional families.
Updated: Where the House and Senate Are on Internal Use of AI
A detailed overview of how the US House of Representatives and Senate are governing internal use of artificial intelligence, including a summary of current AI policies, approved tools, and key limitations on staff use.
What Is RAG And Why It Matters for Legislative AI Use Cases
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is a powerful approach that improves AI accuracy by grounding answers in trusted documents. For legislatures and government offices, RAG helps reduce hallucinations, surface relevant policies, and power reliable tools, making AI more transparent, accountable, and useful for Congressional and parliamentary workflows.
View From the West Balkans: North Macedonia, Kosovo, and Albania
An on-the-ground look at parliamentary modernization in North Macedonia, Kosovo, and Albania, highlighting how legislatures in Skopje, Pristina, and Tirana are approaching AI adoption with urgency and care. Conversations with MPs, parliamentary leaders, and the National Democratic Institute underscore a regional focus on legislative technology, institutional capacity, and cross-border collaboration to strengthen oversight and governance in the digital age.
The Call to Create the Congressional Capacity and Technology Office
As AI rapidly reshapes governance, Congress risks falling behind the institutions it oversees. POPVOX Foundation proposes creating the Congressional Capacity and Technology Office (C-TECH) to provide dedicated training, change management, and strategic tech support — strengthening Congress’s ability to oversee emerging technology effectively.
AI Resources for MPs and Parliament Staff
AI is already changing how parliaments operate, and MPs and staff need practical, responsible guidance. Drawing on global legislative use cases, this post introduces AI resources designed for parliamentary offices, including policy templates, research workflows, and custom AI tools. Built for busy legislatures, these guides help boost capacity, support smart adoption, and keep human accountability at the center of parliamentary work.
When Law Becomes Data: What Brazil’s LexML Reveals About Akoma Ntoso
What Brazil’s LexML reveals about the future of structured law—and what Akoma Ntoso makes possible when legislation becomes interoperable data. A conversation with Monica Palmirani on digital standards, institutional silos, and why legal infrastructure matters in the age of AI.
Year One of the Digital Parliaments Project: What We Accomplished in 2025 and What's Ahead for 2026
One year after Caribbean parliamentarians identified a shared need to modernize legislative operations, the Digital Parliaments Project marks a key milestone. The first year saw the launch of ParlLink, an open-source, AI-enabled platform supporting legislative digitization and data standardization across partner parliaments. In 2026, the project will expand to new countries, introduce additional AI-powered tools, and strengthen a global community focused on practical parliamentary modernization.
If I Can Use AI at Work, You Can Too
A firsthand look at using AI in everyday Congressional work (without coding or technical expertise!) including practical examples, safety considerations, and why responsible AI adoption can help staff work smarter and keep pace with rapid change.
From Slip-Up to Solution: How AI Can Help Fix Lawmaking in Estonia
A single missing word in Estonia’s gambling tax law nearly made online casinos tax-free, exposing how fragile legislative drafting can be. The error also sparked fast civic innovation: a former government CIO built an AI tool in a day to scan draft bills for mistakes, showing how artificial intelligence can strengthen lawmaking, improve oversight, and help catch costly errors before they become policy.
Why Legislative Modernizers Need to Pay Attention to this New Wave of AI
Claude Opus 4.5, Claude Code, Gemini 3 Pro, and agentic AI introduce stronger reasoning, automation, and multimodal capabilities with direct relevance to legislative research, drafting, analytics, and internal systems. For legislative modernizers, the shift signals a move from experimentation to real operational use inside parliaments.
The Year of "and Innovation": What the House Modernization Report Reveals About Congress' Next Phase
An analysis of the House Subcommittee on Modernization and Innovation’s 2025 year-end report and what it signals about Congress’s next phase. The report highlights a shift toward transparency, realistic goal-setting, and new initiatives — from AI adoption to procurement reform — that will shape whether Congress can keep pace with technology and public expectations.
Seasonal Greetings and a 2025 Recap
ModParl closes out 2025 with a practical example of AI in action, spotlighting Anguilla’s House of Assembly and its new AI-powered Hansard and legislative website. We also look back on a year of legislative modernization — from Europe to Africa and Asia.
Simply Having a Wonderful Congress-time
Wrapping up 2025 on Capitol Hill by highlighting a year of Congressional modernization, AI shaping the future of legislatures, new constituent service tools, and leadership transitions. Plus, holiday cheer, campus updates, and a look ahead to 2026’s big tech initiatives like the White House Genesis Mission and agentic AI at federal agencies.
AI in Parliaments is a Journey, Not a Switch
A conversation with Andy Williamson of the Inter-Parliamentary Union examines why adopting AI in parliaments is a gradual institutional journey. Centered on the new Maturity Framework for AI in Parliaments, the conversation explores how legislatures can assess readiness, build governance and capacity, and focus on democratic impact while learning from peer institutions.
Public Witness Testimony on Modernizing Constituent Engagement Through Emerging Technology
On December 17, 2025, POPVOX Foundation Director of Global Initiatives Aubrey Wilson submitted testimony to the Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Modernization and Innovation on how emerging technologies — particularly AI — are reshaping constituent engagement in legislatures around the world and what lessons the US House can draw from these efforts.
Parliaments as Living Information Systems
A global shift is underway as AI pushes parliaments to evolve from paper-bound institutions into fully digital, adaptive information systems. This post explores why past tech waves fell short, what today’s “pacing problem” means for democracy, and how coordinated international action can drive genuine digital transformation.
Congress in 2040?
A global summit on “AI for Parliaments” offered a glimpse of how legislatures might operate in 2040 — and why Congress risks slipping behind as peers race ahead. From international models of AI-enabled lawmaking and upcoming oversight deadlines to leadership transitions and new directives in House rules and appropriations, the latest Future-Proofing Congress breaks down what US lawmakers need to know to stay competitive in an accelerating tech era.