Committee on House Administration Member Day
Since 2019, Members, Congressional staff, and Legislative branch agencies have implemented many meaningful upgrades to outdated processes, streamlining capabilities and boosting the chamber’s effectiveness to adapt Congress to the 21st century. As the 119th Congress gets under way, two pressing challenges are further highlighting the need to continually invest in the institution’s capacity:
Changes in the Executive branch are resulting in higher-than-ever demand for constituent services from Congressional offices. This presents an opportunity for the Committee on House Administration to strengthen institutional resources to support constituent services teams, building public trust and helping all offices serve their constituents in a sustainable way.
Rapid developments in AI across the public and private sectors mean that it is more pressing than ever that Congress address the “pacing problem,” or the gap between technological and societal advancements and the laws and regulations governing them. While the House of Representatives was an early leader among global legislatures in issuing smart, flexible guidance, it now risks falling behind and compromising Congress’ ability to exercise strong and informed oversight.
To address these challenges, POPVOX Foundation offers the following recommendations ahead of the Committee on House Administration's upcoming Member Day, encouraging Member engagement with the Committee on House Administration to build on previous successes in creating a strong, responsive Legislative branch.
Strengthening Constituent Services
1. Work with the Congressional Research Service to update and improve their legislative liaison lists to be maximally helpful to casework teams
The House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress previously recommended that the Congressional Research Service expand its available list of agency Congressional liaison staff to include regional and processing center contacts who are often vital for casework teams. Access to timely and updated information on where to send casework inquiries is especially vital in the midst of Executive-branch reorganization and downsizing. More information.
2. Continue to support House Digital Services’ CaseCompass pilot project
The Committee on House Administration and the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee should direct funding from the House Modernization Fund to support House Digital Services’ continued work on the Data Aggregator Pilot. This project pulls anonymized, top-level data from constituent services across the country into a national dashboard, identifying trends and “hot spots” in casework that can be used for oversight and level-setting for Congressional offices. More information.
3. Explore the feasibility of creating a Casework Liaison Office
The Committee on House Administration and Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee should act to establish a nonpartisan Casework Liaison Office within the Chief Administrative Officer tasked with supporting casework and casework staff to promote the House’s ability to provide excellent constituent services. Specific duties may include serving as a central point of contact for agencies to distribute timely information to caseworkers; serving as a liaison between caseworkers and agencies to resolve widespread problems; partnering with other Congressional support offices to help connect caseworkers to existing training and support resources; partnering with other Congressional support offices to assist with standing up or winding down casework operations; providing long-term development and product management for House Digital Services’ casework data aggregator; etc. More information.
4. Ensure that all House offices receive an annual briefing from the Chief Administrative Officer on available emergency resources
Given the scale of disaster-related disruption to Congressional offices across the country last year, it is apparent that all offices, no matter their region, can benefit from regular briefings on available resources for disaster relief and recovery. This should include available equipment and services like the Mobile Office box, resources for staff mental health post-disaster through the Office of Employee Assistance, and any additional resources. More information.
5. Share a limited version of the Chief Administrative Officer’s staff directory with agency staff
The House Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) is already working on developing a Legislative branch-wide staff directory, updated with legislative staff issue areas. The CAO should also consider including casework staff issue areas, and making the directory available to federal agency liaisons. This would make it easier for agencies to reach all caseworkers with important updates as needed, especially in crisis situations. More information.
6. Liaise with the Ethics Committee to modify guidance around referrals to nonprofits and Member-to-Member staff details
In 2024, the Committee on House Administration worked with the House Ethics Committee to modify ethics rules to allow offices to cosponsor constituent service events with nonprofits. This change reflected the expanded constituent service role many offices play in their communities. These two additional changes — allowing Member offices to detail their staff to colleagues’ offices to support in disasters, and allowing Member offices to directly refer constituents to nonprofit resources — would further bring ethics guidance in line with common practice and provide targeted guidance reflective of Congress’ post-disaster roles. More information.
7. Continue to explore options to provide additional staffing flexibility and resources for districts recovering from disasters
This may take the form of a phased approach, attempting relatively lighter-lift solutions and evaluating their performance before taking on more significant reforms. This could include liaising with the Ethics Committee to modify guidance around Member-to-Member staff details; exploring possibilities to establish surge capacity within CAO; or raising the staff cap on shared or temporary employees to allow offices to hire short-term disaster specialists. More information.
8. Explore options to provide supplemental Member Representational Allowance funding for offices hard-hit by disasters
This funding could go toward short-term leases for equipment like vehicles to set up mobile office hours, text message programs to help constituents access resources, town halls to answer questions and provide additional support, or additional equipment and temporary staffing needs. This may require a change to Communication Standards rules to create a limited exception to pre-election blackout rules for disasters that occur within the blackout period. More information.
House Operations
1. Liaise with the Office of the Clerk to conduct a study into the feasibility of remote voting for Members of Congress facing extraordinary personal circumstances
Extraordinary circumstances may include the birth or adoption of a child, death of an immediate family member, or active medical treatment including chemotherapy or surgery. This study may also provide important groundwork for emergency measures in the event of a natural disaster or other crisis situation impacting the US Capitol area.
2. Continue to review and revise AI policy guidance to foster innovation and responsible use
An important feature of the HITPOL 08.0 policy is that it is slated to be reviewed and revised annually, providing an opportunity to ensure that the House remains a leader in AI adoption for legislatures around the world. The Committee on House Administration should work closely with CAO to ensure future updates to this crucial policy to promote responsible use without stifling innovation and fact-finding on emerging technologies.
3. Through oversight, continue to encourage the creation of ongoing AI pilot projects across the Legislative branch agencies to support comprehensive AI strategies and leadership, automated transcription and documentation, intelligent search and legal document management, data-first legislative processes, and translation and multilingual accessibility.
4. Work with the CAO to develop optional, comprehensive AI training for Members, staff, and interns
Internal scans of House network traffic suggest that up to a quarter of the chamber’s staff are already using some form of GenAI regularly. And as seen in the recent spike in users worldwide of the Chinese-owned DeepSeek AI platform, the development of secure AI usage and a robust policy within the halls of government is at a critical juncture. As chiefs of staff, staff directors, and office managers face the necessary task of helping their staff navigate the smart adoption of these new tools, the development of optional House-approved trainings on AI usage – offered in-house by an institutional office – would empower Members, staff, and interns with access to up-to-date guidance and knowledge on these platforms, paving the way for continued innovation in the Legislative branch and more modern representation for the American people.
