#AskTechCongress: How Can Engineers Break Into Tech Policy?

Before I joined TechCongress as a communications intern in the fall of 2025, I was a security engineer trying to reconcile my past in civil service with my future in commercial technology. I often wondered whether these two worlds were destined to collide or whether I would eventually have to choose between them. I had built an early career in public policy across the executive and judicial branches, and spent years researching and educating on cybersecurity and AI policy through a number of non-profit organizations. It was not until I encountered TechCongress, a community of technology policy professionals combining their technical expertise with research and legislative work, that I realized I could do the same by simply pursuing both.

As I considered a future pivot into tech policy, a series of questions surfaced. What does the work actually look like? How should someone prepare? To find answers, I spoke with many seasoned practitioners, including Hill staffers, think tank researchers, and non-profit communicators and operators. What had once been an abstract landscape slowly transformed into a vibrant and thriving community with its own norms, nuances, and intellectual culture.

From my time with TechCongress, I have assembled a set of observations, some intuitive and others less obvious, that I wish I had known earlier. I offer them here for early career engineers and technologists who want to understand not only the work of tech policy, but more importantly, the unspoken habits and expectations that define this field.

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Find your niche policy area, and commit to it.

One of the earliest and most consequential decisions you will make is identifying a policy domain narrow enough to be actionable yet broad enough to sustain long-term relevance. Areas like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, critical infrastructure, and biotechnology each contain their own subfields and debates, and it can feel overwhelming to locate a starting point. Rather than attempting to master everything at once, select a niche based on your intellectual interests, prior experience, and the specific problems you feel compelled to address. Then commit to learning it well. Hill offices, think tanks, agencies, and non-profits rely on subject-matter experts who can contextualize breaking developments, translate technical ideas into accessible language, or frame certain issues. Over time, your niche can become a point of reference that guides your reading and projects, as well as where you can contribute. Focusing on a policy domain early on won’t limit you but rather establishes the base from which additional areas of expertise can be integrated thoughtfully.

R Street Institute’s panel, “Modernizing Federal IT Systems: Is Government Ready for AI?”, was one of the first Capitol Hill events I attended during my internship. Panels like this offer a valuable way to hear directly from experts, follow emerging debates, and deepen your understanding of a policy area.

Reading and writing will define your career. Embrace them early.

Once you identify your niche, your day-to-day life will revolve around consuming information and producing analysis. Technology policy moves through a constant stream of publications and reports, hearings, academic studies, and industry perspectives. Treat reading as a steady practice rather than an occasional task, and carve out time each week to keep up with the latest material. Equally as important is writing early and often on tech policy issues. I learned quickly that waiting for the “perfect moment” to start writing is a trap. Early memos and drafts of your thoughts may feel rough or incomplete, but the exercise of writing itself will accelerate your learning and communication skills. The more you write, the more fluent you will become in the language of your field: the concepts, the debates, and the subtle turns of jargon that show genuine interest and familiarity.

Book launches are an integral part of the tech policy world, often convening high-profile researchers, practitioners, and community members. Here, I attended Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares’ highly anticipated book at the Junction Bistro & Bar, hosted by the Machine Intelligence Research Institute.

Seek out the people and resources that move you toward your goals.

Policy careers are built on relationships. The more your network expands, the more your opportunities will, too. Tech policy can seem intimidating from the outside, but almost everyone I reached out to was happy to chat, share their experiences, or point me to helpful resources, so take advantage of the learning culture D.C. promotes. Don’t be afraid to reach across political lines either; some of the most insightful conversations I had were with people whose backgrounds were very different from mine. 

I also discovered how useful online spaces can be. Substacks, X threads, policy podcasts, and research newsletters are all great ways to stay plugged in and learn from people who think deeply about these issues. Above all, try to tune out the imposter syndrome, although the learning curve may seem daunting and insurmountable. Everyone starts from somewhere and builds from the ground up. What matters is being curious, asking questions, and surrounding yourself with people who push you a little further each time. The relationships you invest in will open doors for you just as much as the content you study.

The 2025 TechCongress cohort wrapped up their fellowship with an End of Fellowship celebration at Puttery, a mini-golf venue and bar. Sharanya Maddukuri, the Fall 2025 Programs Intern, and I also joined them in marking the conclusion of our internships.

Tech policy depends on engineers, analysts, communicators, and researchers who can translate complex ideas into decisions that serve the public interest. In short, tech policy needs YOU.

I am deeply grateful to TechCongress for giving me a platform and illustrating these ideas to me over the course of my internship. By upskilling technical expertise in Congress and advancing a government that works for the people, TechCongress is an outstanding example of the kind of service aspiring tech policy professionals should strive towards.

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Emmy Ly

(This article was written by Emmy Ly, Fall 2025 communications intern.)

Emmy Ly served as the Fall 2025 Communications Intern at TechCongress, where she managed public-facing communications and supported the organization’s mission to recruit and strengthen technical capacity in Congress. She brings a background in cybersecurity engineering, strategic communications, and technology policy, with a growing focus on AI, cyber defense, and digital security and privacy. Emmy previously held positions across the executive branch and in Fortune 500 companies, and she is active in leadership roles within several national security and technology-driven organizations. She is a recent graduate of the George Washington University, where she earned her B.S. in Information Systems.

Find Emmy on LinkedIn here.

#AskTechCongress: How Do Custom Committee Rules Influence the Legislative Process?

The rules crafted and applied by congressional committees, especially the House Rules Committee, are an essential yet often overlooked force in shaping the lawmaking process. While debates and votes on the House or Senate floor garner more public attention, it is in committee rooms that the boundaries of discussion, amendment, and legislative pacing are often set. By establishing the parameters within which debate will unfold, determining what amendments can be considered, and even setting the order in which agenda items appear, these rules function as an invisible architecture guiding each bill's journey through Congress.

Similar to how traffic police regulatee the flow of vehicles, committee rules determine the flow of legislation in Congress. Through their authority, committees can decide how long members may speak, which amendments are permitted (if any), and which topics reach the floor at all. This system serves a twofold purpose: to manage proceedings efficiently and to maintain an orderly legislative agenda, preventing deliberations from spiraling out of control in a chamber with hundreds of competing priorities. The choice of which rule applies to a bill can significantly influence its legislative outcome.

TYPES OF RULES:

• Open Rule: Permits an unlimited number of relevant amendments and allows full debate without restrictions on the number of proposed changes.

• Structured Rule: Permits only specific amendments that have been pre-selected or pre-approved by the committee.

• Closed Rule: Excludes the possibility of any amendments, requiring an up-or-down vote on the bill as reported.

Committee rules also alter the balance of power between majority and minority parties. The majority party, which holds greater influence over the Rules Committee in the House, can craft rules that favor its priorities, such as limiting the minority's amendment opportunities, shortening debates, or dictating an order of proceedings that aligns the legislative schedule with its own objectives. This can suppress minority proposals and control the pace at which a controversial bill moves forward. 

For example, during the debate on the Affordable Care Act in 2010, Democratic leadership used structured rules to allow for debate and vote on only two predetermined amendments, in an effort to limit Republican amendments to the bill. Similarly, in 2017, when Republicans held the majority, the Rules Committee moved the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to the floor under a structured rule, which allowed debate. Still, it prevented Democrats from offering amendments that might have altered the bill's structure or delayed its passage.  These instances illustrate how both major parties have leveraged rule-setting power to advance their legislative goals quickly and to prevent the other side from reshaping any given bill.

The implications of such control present a clear trade-off. On the positive side, these rules can streamline lawmaking, avoid procedural gridlock, and allow the majority to fulfill promises to constituents. Tight control over procedure can keep legislation on schedule and ensure that unintended amendments do not derail the core purpose of a bill. On the negative side, restricting debate and amendments reduces opportunities for bipartisan cooperation and limits the representation of minority viewpoints.

The rule-making process is at the heart of legislative control, shaping not only what legislation comes to the floor but also how it is debated and amended. The rules determine the pace, tone, and scope of policymaking, making it one of the most influential processes in Congress. By deciding who gets a voice and which rules apply, committee rules can transform the ambitions of individual lawmakers into actionable legislation. In doing so, the committee rules exemplify the institutional discipline required to turn competing priorities into the laws that steer the nation forward.

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Sharanya Maddukuri

(This article was written by Sharanya Maddukuri, Fall 2025 Programs Intern)

Sharanya Maddukuri is the Programs Intern at TechCongress. She is a senior at George Mason University studying Government and International Politics with a minor in Ethics & AI. As a pre-law student, Sharanya has a background in exploring how AI can be leveraged to improve public services and the legal system. She also serves as the Director of Operations at the Paragon Policy Fellowship, a tech policy fellowship, and leads the Sycamore Institute at Mason, the nation’s first undergraduate-led foreign policy think tank.

Find Sharanya on LinkedIn here.

#AskTechCongress: What is the process of amending a bill?

TechCongress aims to bridge the divide of knowledge and experience between politics and tech for better outcomes for both. Our new #AskTechCongress series will answer your questions about Congress, providing insight into the legislative process from an introductory perspective. Submit questions and keep updated with the series by following us on Twitter and Bluesky!

The process of amending a bill is a fundamental part of congressional lawmaking. While it may have the biggest effect on legislation itself, it is often the least publicized. As legislation moves through Congress, amendments serve as critical tools to reshape, refine, and sometimes completely transform bills before they become law. Amendments represent the tangible expression of negotiation and compromise that define congressional procedure. 

An amendment is a proposed change to legislation. Once a bill is introduced, it is assigned to the relevant committee, which holds hearings before entering the mark-up session.¹ This period is when amendments can be submitted. Changes can range from minor adjustments in wording to complete substitutions that replace entire sections of a bill. A first-degree amendment is a change to the text in a bill, and a second-degree amendment is a change to the text in a first-degree amendment.² In addition, an amendment that replaces a bill’s full text is an amendment in the nature of a substitute, while an amendment that replaces a first-degree amendment’s full text is a substitute amendment. These amendments upon amendments can be complicated, and drawing amendment trees can help visualize these relationships. While the terminology can be confusing, what is most important is that the members of the committee the bill was referred to will then vote to accept or reject these changes. If the changes are accepted, then the bill will then go to the floor of the chamber.³ 

Between the House and Senate, there are some key differences in the amendment process: 

• In the House of Representatives, the Rules Committee acts as the gatekeeper for amendments. For most legislation, this powerful committee issues a "rule" determining whether amendments will be permitted and in what quantity. These can range from open rules allowing any relevant amendment to closed rules prohibiting all amendments.

• The Senate operates with fewer procedural constraints. For example, amendments can have minimal connection to the underlying bill and lead to "Christmas tree bills," where unrelated amendments are attached like ornaments.

When amendments to bills are accepted and passed on the floor of one body of Congress, it must go to the other body and again go through the process of discussion, amendments, and voting.

The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 offers a perfect case study of the amendment process. What began as a targeted investment in semiconductor manufacturing evolved substantially through amendments, and TechCongress fellows supported this process with critical expertise. One particularly significant amendment was the Senate’s incorporation of the Endless Frontier Act to transform the bill into a much broader innovation package.⁴ This expanded the legislation's scope from primarily semiconductor funding to include comprehensive research and development initiatives across multiple agencies. CHIPS also illustrates how final changes can be made even past the bill being signed into law. A month after its signing, the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology published a Guardrails Rule to prevent companies receiving CHIPS funding from expanding semiconductor manufacturing in countries of concern—addressing national security considerations that were not fully articulated in the original text.⁵ These amendments demonstrate the iterative changes of congressional procedure through technical expertise and stakeholder input.

Amendments hold leverage as bargaining chips in larger negotiations, especially during crucial time periods like the end of a session. Leadership may agree to allow certain amendments to secure votes for final passage, while members might withhold problematic amendments in exchange for other concessions. The amendment process reveals the true character of Congress—requiring both collaborative relationships and technical expertise, ultimately serving as the engine that transforms abstract ideas into the laws that govern our nation.

References

¹https://www.house.gov/the-house-explained/the-legislative-process/in-committee 

²https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/98-853 

³https://www.usa.gov/how-laws-are-made 

⁴https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4346/summary/72 

⁵https://www.nist.gov/chips/frequently-asked-questions-preventing-improper-use-chips-act-funding

#AskTechCongress: What does it mean for Congress to be at the end of a session?

TechCongress aims to bridge the divide of knowledge and experience between politics and tech for better outcomes for both. Our new #AskTechCongress series will answer your questions about Congress, providing insight into the legislative process from an introductory perspective. Submit questions and keep updated with the series by subscribing to our Today In Tech newsletter.

On January 3, 2025, the second session of the 118th United States Congress will officially come to a close, marking the end of this legislative period. In the time leading up to January, Congress may finalize pending bills, address budget appropriations, and attempt to pass key policies before the transition of power to newly elected Congress members. Negotiations and compromises on last-minute “omnibus” bundle bills and other unresolved pieces of legislation are common. With 18,455 bills and resolutions currently before Congress, and only about 7% passing and becoming law¹, this session marks an important shift in both legislative priorities and political dynamics. 

The term “session” describes the series of meetings held by the House of Representatives and the Senate each year. With elections every two years, each Congress serves for two legislative sessions. Because of the 20th Amendment, Congressional sessions have started and ended at noon on the January 3rd of odd numbered years since 1935². Before this amendment, sessions began with inaugurations in March and ended with elections in November. This created a four month “lame duck” period where members of Congress serving out the rest of their term were limited in their ability to hold meetings and carry out major changes during their last days in office. This shift in the timing of Congressional sessions provides a framework for understanding how the legislative calendar unfolds, from the introduction of bills to the final adjournment.

The legislative timeline consists of bill introductions, committee hearings, debates, votes, and more, but it typically concludes with a sine die adjournment. “Sine die”—“without a day” in Latin—signifies an end to a session without a specified date to reconvene, meaning Congress will not meet again until the next session. The exact timing of adjournment depends on various factors including legislative deadlines and elections, so instead, a target adjournment date—December 20th for this session³—is set before the holidays.

Ending a session plays a crucial role in legislative strategy, as any bills that are not passed into law by the end of the session will “die” and must be reintroduced in a future session. This puts lawmakers under pressure to pass—or block—critical measures before the session ends. Issues such as budget, defense, and healthcare are frequently brought up in last-minute policy proposals, and multiple bills may be repackaged into a single one to be voted on. The end of session may even include Senate confirmations of federal positions and judicial appointments. 

This waiting period before the new year puts Congress under a magnified lens of public scrutiny. People evaluate the “productivity” of a Congressional session by how many significant bills it passes. This adds more pressure for parties to push initiatives in the final months, and especially during a Presidential Election year since both major parties pivot priorities to fulfill campaign promises. 

The legacy of the 118th Congress will depend on how it prioritizes different issues and navigates the political landscape. Recognizing the importance of this phase of the legislative process is the first step in understanding the nuance and impact of the Congressional session. 

References

¹https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/#bystatus 

²https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/constitutional-amendments-amendment-20-date-changes-presidency-congress-and-succession

³https://www.senate.gov/legislative/2024_schedule.htm