Quill
Developed by: U.S. Senate, later a bicameral collaborative project
Used by: Authorized staff in Member offices in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate
Public link: N/A
Quill facilitates the electronic signing of documents in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.
Quill was developed by the Senate and later shared with the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives in 2021. Quill allows approved congressional signers to edit electronic letters in real time and attach copies of Member’s original handwritten signatures. The system is designed to reduce the amount of time staff and interns need to devote to soliciting signatures from other offices via phone call and traveling throughout the Capitol complex.
The Committee on House Administration announced the availability of the new Quill digital signature system by sending a Dear Colleague letter signed by committee members using the new system!
Development and Launch
Quill was initially developed internally by the Senate before being shared with the House of Representatives. It was adapted to suit the needs of both chambers and released for use in House offices in May 2021.
The House Administration Committee announced Quill’s availability to House offices through a May 5, 2021 Dear Colleague letter — “the first letter in a new era for Congressional sign-on letters” — as all nine House Admin committee Members had signed the letter using Quill.
The letter explained that Quill allows Member offices to “share letters, collect supporting signatures and track the progress of the letter signing process from start to finish without ever making a phone call or visiting another office,” and proclaims that the days of staff roaming around the House office buildings to collect signatures on letters are over.
Functionality
Quill allows offices to upload documents that require lawmakers’ signatures. Signature requests can be sent to specific Member offices or left open for any Member to sign on. Quill also provides sample letterhead properly formatted for the system that offices to use as templates. Once a letter has been distributed, the authors may make edits if necessary and see in real time who has agreed to sign their letter.
Ken Ward, Director of U.S. House Digital Services, shared a demo of the Quill system at the Spring 2022 “Internapalooza”:
Quill also allows offices to give different users different roles: author, viewer, signer, admin, and keyword manager:
Viewers of a letter are able to see a letter’s content, status, and Members who have signed. Authors are able to edit the content of the letter itself.
Signers have the ability to sign the Member’s signature on letters.
Admins can designate who in the office has each role.
Keyword managers can assign different keywords to letters, making them easier to archive and find if needed at a later date.
Letters can be assigned to certain individuals in an office, such as subject matter experts, for review so they can give their opinion on whether the Member should sign (or not).
Once all signatures have been collected for a letter, authors can finalize the formatting and presentation of the signatures before a downloadable PDF is created.
Adoption
In the Spring 2022 demo, Ward shared that all but three House Offices had signed up to use Quill at that time.
In the last year, Quill has become the primary method for circulating and signing letters between Member offices, reducing the need for staff and interns to seek out physical, hard-copy signatures from offices around the Capitol complex.
For information about Quill in the Senate, contact the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms. For information about Quill in the House of Representatives, contact the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer.
