2020 began in Congress with grave challenges—a Presidential impeachment trial had just begun, a conflict with Iran loomed on the horizon, and the World Health Organization announced the emergence of a deadly coronavirus. The turmoil intensified as the virus spread globally, wreaking havoc on healthcare and economic systems, and exacerbating existing social and economic inequalities. Constituent needs spiked at the very moment governance institutions all over the world were forcefully incapacitated by a dramatic shift to virtual work.
Throughout the 116th Congress and into the 117th, the United States Congress fulfilled its Constitutional duties under conditions and rules that were not designed for the digital age. The circumstances required the institution to rapidly adjust its technical and operational capabilities, accelerate its existing modernization efforts, and adapt its rules and procedures amid health, justice, economic, and political crises. Despite the unprecedented and trying circumstances, the U.S. Congress rose to the challenge and found new and creative ways to continue serving the American people. In the House, among many innovations, the House Armed Services Committee adapted to a paperless process and finished its markup of the National Defense Authorization Act in record time. The House Office of the Clerk shifted away from accepting legislation through the ornate wooden “Hopper” on the floor of the House of Representatives and moved to a new electronic submission system. New emergency rules were put in place for members to vote by proxy. Both the Senate and the House conducted virtual hearings, increased adoption of digital signatures, and made it possible to allow staff and members to conduct work from home to comply with social distancing recommendations.
One year before the global pandemic forced Congress to move to a virtual work environment, on a blustery March 12, 2019, the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress held its first hearing with the stated priorities of improving legislative transparency, technology, cybersecurity, staffing recruitment, and staff retention. During the hearing, Majority Leader Hoyer (D-MD) announced that he and Minority Leader McCarthy (R-CA) were committed to creating a congressional digital service organization modeled after the United States Digital Service (USDS) that was created for the Executive Branch by President Obama in 2014. A Congressional Digital Service, like the USDS, would utilize cutting-edge technical expertise and operate outside of traditional CIO and CTO functions to help Congress adapt its processes and technologies to legislate more effectively in the modern era.
Fifteen months later the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress (SCMC) hosted the TechCongress Congressional Digital Service (CDS) fellows to support the technical and digital needs of the institution, provide technical expertise to the Committee’s technology recommendations, and to provide an educational opportunity for the fellows.
Prior to the launch of the TechCongress Congressional Digital Service Pilot Fellowship, TechCongress conducted an assessment of the existing technical capabilities in Congress and how digital service organizations are best designed and equipped. TechCongress interviewed technology experts from global legislative bodies that had adapted quickly to pandemic conditions and consulted technical experts within the United States Congress. With that information, TechCongress designed a fellowship program that might demonstrate how a uniquely tailored digital service organization could support the U.S. Congress. Because of the urgency presented by the pandemic, TechCongress finished the assessment and launched the program in less than six weeks. Once launched, the TechCongress Congressional Digital Service Fellowship concentrated most of its work in the House of Representatives, but its scoping and collaboration efforts included the Senate.
This report represents a collaborative effort and provides the background of the Congressional Digital Service pilot and the conditions under which it was launched. It highlights some of the issues the pilot sought to address, and the institutional offices and the SCMC recommendation projects the pilot supported. It also includes highlights from the global perspective, crises learnings during a critical period in Congress, and relevant findings of the program.
Although the effort was unique for TechCongress and the SCMC, it would not have been possible without visionary leadership in Congress, the longstanding efforts of both House and Senate technical experts, or the large network of individuals and organizations that are committed to supporting the first branch of the U.S. Government.
The engineers, designers, developers, and technologists who participated in the pilot had extensive experience in software and hardware engineering, design, information and cybersecurity, project management and strategy. They contributed to several projects within the institutional support offices of the House of Representatives including electronic bill submissions, constituent management systems, rules for cloud computing, and cybersecurity assessments.
The Congressional Digital Service pilot experts also supported the existing efforts in the US Congress to improve the links between technology and institutional processes. These efforts contributed to the SCMC’s broad recommendations to make Congress more effective, efficient, and transparent, modernize and revitalize House technology, streamline processes, save taxpayer dollars, and improve the continuity of operations.
We are so proud of the efforts of everyone it took to get here, especially our CDS Director, Leisel Bogan, and our CDS Fellows: Britney Lyons, Alex Prokop, and Johncarlo Cerna!
Read the full Congressional Digital Service Fellowship Pilot Report here.