Learn more about our January 2025 Congressional Fellowships by listening to a recording of one of our info sessions.
We’re looking for up to 16 engineers, computer scientists, and other technologists to join us as fellows in January 2025.
We award $500 to someone who refers a veteran or transitioning service member, underrepresented person of color, woman, or nonbinary individual to the fellowship.
We are excited to highlight our June 2023 Fellows and their placements in Congress!
Meet Congressional Innovation Fellow Jhonatan Ewunetie. Jhonatan will be working with the House Committee on Appropriations and Sub-Commitee on Transportation, Housing & Urban Development. His work will focus on emerging issues in transportation and HUD, including transportation data and autonomous vehicle regulatory policy.
Since our beginnings in 2015, TechCongress has strived to place technologists in Capitol Hill to positively impact the future of tech policy. With the rapid growth of A.I., social media platforms, cybersecurity threats, and other technological developments, the need for adequate tech policy is greater than ever. The 2024 Congressional Innovation Fellows will apply their technical expertise and insightful backgrounds to support federal policymakers in addressing current challenges and contribute to the creation of a better tomorrow.
We are honored to host such a talented and diverse group of fellows, and will be highlighting each fellow in our cohort in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to learn more about our fellows’ journeys to TechCongress, their areas of expertise, and where they’ll be working during the fellowship.
Jack Cable authored the first in-depth peer-reviewed research into the Conti leaks. We mapped over $80 million in new payments to Conti.
This paper was published in December as part of the APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research, for which we received the best paper award.
In February 2022, over 168,000 internal chat messages of the Conti ransomware group were leaked. Conti is one of the most prominent ransomware groups of all time. We sought to build a picture of Conti's (quite profitable) business based on on-chain analysis of Bitcoin payments.
To do so, we manually annotated all 666 Bitcoin addresses present in the leaks based on message context (our team included a native Russian speaker). We tag addresses as either a salary, reimbursement, or ransom payment address.
The Idaho Department of Finance announced John Yaros has been appointed the Securities Bureau Chief.
In this capacity, Yaros will manage a bureau of financial professionals who provide regulatory oversight for the more than 153,000 entities and individuals who are licensed or registered to offer securities and financial services to Idaho residents. While the securities bureau is focused on investor protection, education and enforcement of state securities laws, the bureau also licenses and regulates money transmitter companies, escrow companies and endowed care cemeteries.
Alumn Seeyew Mo was invited to participate in the RSA Conference 2023 as a panelist speaker.
The introduction of the US Cyber Workforce Strategy and EU initiative on cyber skills presents a critical opportunity to enable the workforce of the future – it also requires an entire stack, all hands on board approach. With new threats and requirements emerging, this panel of experts from government, industry and academia will distill latest developments and action needed to address these needs.
Recently, I was thrilled to accept a fellowship with TechCongress, an organization that helps bridge the gap between Congress and the tech industry by connecting technology experts with legislators and their staff. I am particularly excited about this opportunity because it allows me to combine my background in economics with my interest in artificial intelligence (AI) policy.
If you had asked me earlier in my life if I would be working on Capitol Hill, I would have never believed you. But this is an incredible way to fulfill my obligation of service to the country that has given me fantastic opportunities. The quote by President John F. Kennedy, "Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country," is a call to service. It creates the desire to give back in meaningful ways at whatever level you can, either through your local community or on the national level.
It is the duty and responsibility of our Legislative branch to ensure that we bend the arc of the country toward the more equitable world. This daunting, complex task is one that I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of. The ability to influence the future of our country, in any small way, is an opportunity that can’t be taken for granted.
I am of the opinion that the challenges facing the current (and future) technology landscape cannot be resolved through a single lens, nor can new problems be resolved by attempting to fit evolving technical issues into outdated constructs. I desire to support pressing issues such as post-quantum preparedness and information security, building sustainable and effective supply chains, intellectual property protection and encouraging innovation for U.S.-based manufacturers, critical infrastructure development and risk management, investing in and constructing more diverse and inclusive S.T.E.M. talent pipelines, and ultimately increasing the bipartisan legislation requisite to defending the Homeland.
I am, at my core, an engineer. To me, being an engineer means being a problem solver. I began my career in cyber security because I’ve always been good with technology (I hacked my first computer in elementary school), and it seemed like the area of technology with the biggest problems that needed solving. This eventually led me to work at a startup called Evernym, where I helped develop innovative new privacy and security enhancing digital identity technology.
I applied to join TechCongress because I wanted to work in a completely different way than I had before. A technologist around policy experts and lawmakers. A fish out of water, perhaps, but, hopefully, providing some insight into the state of technology as it is today and what Congress can do to better implement technology for purposes of Defense and National security. Broadening the scope even more, I believe technologists working in the Public Interest will be critical to the ongoing preservation and revitalization of the American innovation ecosystem. I hope to play a small role in that.
Founder and Executive Director Travis Moore co-authored “Why 2023 could be a year for civic-tech optimism”
This year has the potential to be a positive, transformational year for government at all levels.
You’d be forgiven for scoffing at that sentence. With a divided Congress, many are ready to call 2023 a wash and set their sights on 2024. But from our vantage point in the world of public interest technology, that would be a mistake. We’ve never been as poised to drive meaningful, lasting change in government.
It’s taking place at every level of government — federal, state and local — as a result of three key factors: Increased capacity for tech talent in government jobs, digital delivery being written directly into policy, and government systems changing right before our eyes. The potential impact is enormous and will be felt in policies large and small — remaking the social safety net, transforming how we file taxes, modernizing infrastructure and beyond.
