Day in the Life of a TechCongress Fellow: Joel Burke

Ask a Congressional staffer what their day to day is like and you’ll never get the same answer twice. For many, that’s partially why working in Congress (or on “the Hill” as it’s colloquially known) is so fulfilling. One day may be dedicated to meeting with constituents and hearing about the issues most important to those your boss represents. Another day may be spent preparing for a congressional hearing by writing up a memo, providing background on witnesses, prepping potential questions for the Congressperson to ask, and elaborating on how the hearing fits into a broader legislative agenda both for the office and the caucus. No matter what the day entails, whether it be attending mundane meetings or developing novel policy ideas, Congressional staffers are in a privileged position to create real change and serve the American people.

As a staffer who worked in both the House and Senate, I’ve been fortunate enough to experience many different days and work on a wide array of tasks for my bosses. I have found that most of the work of a staffer falls into three distinct buckets: research and policymaking, meeting with constituents and relevant stakeholders, and member support.

The first bucket, research and policymaking, is probably what most people think of when they imagine working in Congress — finding legislative holes that need to be filled and coming up with the right law (or letter, or even just the right hearing question). However, unlike traditional staffers, as a TechCongress fellow you are in a unique position to use your expertise on technology matters to contribute to your job. In my case, having previously worked an at A.I. startup gave me tremendous insight as to how the office of Senator Rounds should approach A.I. legislation, and helped to inform my work in the A.I. Insight Forums and multiple National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) amendments.

The second bucket of constituent and stakeholder meetings is relatively straightforward, but incredibly underrated in its importance. Every meeting with a constituent is an opportunity to understand an issue directly affecting someone within your office’s district; which can then inform your offices, and sometimes your personal legislative priorities. When I served as a staffer, meeting with a university in the district hugely influence the legislative ideas I worked on, especially around high skill immigration and entrepreneurship, Meetings with other stakeholders are important too; lobbyists, especially those who are former Congressional staffers, can be a great source of information as to the priorities of businesses, and are also some of the most knowledgeable and experienced resources available on legislative processes. Critically as important is building your own trusted stakeholder network so that you have a “braintrust” to turn to when issues out of your immediate area of expertise come up — TechCongress is an incredible shortcut here, as you go into Congress already having your cohort and alumni who are always happy to help. (Although TechCongress is an amazing foundation, beginning to build your network should be one of your first priorities when you start out on the Hill.)

The final bucket, member support, is the most vaguely defined, partially because every member and every office is very different. You’ll frequently hear that Congress isn’t a unified body, but rather hundreds of small businesses — and that’s the truth. If you’re like me, you might start out by joining a House office alongside a new member who is still learning the ropes, In many instances, you may have colleagues younger than yourself who have never heard of things like OKRs or standups, or even had a job outside Congress. On the other hand, you might end up working for a committee with staffers who have been there for a decade or longer and are old hands with deep real-world experience, or even working for members who wrote some of the original legislation affecting the tech industry. How you provide support to the member (directly or through the chain of command) also varies widely, and will mostly be based on the member’s preference. Because of this, it is important to adapt. Some members are rigid and structured and have defined processes to follow, and some will text you on the fly to get your thoughts. What is important to remember is that it is their name on the door — they are who the voters chose to represent them — and it’s your job to make sure they’re best equipped to serve their constituents in the way that they are most effective.

An average day in the life of a Congressional staffer is impossible to describe because it is constantly changing. Instead, I’ll share a few of my favorite moments to provide a taste of what a Congressional staffer may be in for. Some treasured memories include: standing by the water cooler and talking with the senator about the emerging impact of drone warfare and its role in the Nagorno-Karabakh ; seeing amendments I had drafted included in the NDAA and eventually pass into law; introducing my first bill; writing a letter that ended up being covered in Wired; and so many small moments with colleagues and friends celebrating a win or lamenting a loss.

Of course, it’s not all glamor and wins — there were scores of times where I was told my idea was impossible or had been tried before (take this feedback with a big grain of salt), probably hundreds of hours spent in meetings that could have been emails and frustrating bureaucratic hoops to jump through, numerous angry or uncomfortable meetings with constituent, and even a day spent sheltering in the office during an active shoorter incident.

Despite this, I wouldn’t trade my experience for anything and consider my time in Congress as a highlight of my career and an honor to be able to give back to my country in some small way. If you’re still wondering what a day in the life of a TechCongress fellow is like, I urge you to apply and find out for yourself firsthand.

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Joel Burke

This piece was written by TechCongress alum, Joel Burke (Congressional Innovation Fellowship, January 2022). Joel is a technologist and Georgetown University alumnus based in Washington D.C., with experience working on four continents, advising startups and governments alike. Most notably, Joel led a team for the Republic of Estonia’s e-Residency program, and has advised members of Congress on tech and AI policy. During his time with TechCongress, Joel served with the office of Representative August Pfluger (R-TX-11) and worked on issues related to technology, defense, and energy. Now, Joel currently works for Mozilla, helping the company address urgent policy questions in A.I., privacy, and national security.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelburke1/

Twitter: @billyjoelburke

TechCongress Bio

TechCongress Planning to Place 120 Technologists in Congress by 2026

MeriTalk announces TechCongress’ grant from the Knight Foundation, and reports on our goal to place 20 technologists in Congress by 2026:

Congress is due to get a big influx of skilled technologists who will act as advisers to congressional offices courtesy of the TechCongress Congressional Innovation Fellowship.

The Knight Foundation invested $2.5 million in the TechCongress organization, which places early and mid-career technologists in congressional offices. The funding will allow TechCongress to place up to 120 technologists on the Hill through the fellowship program, the Knight Foundation announced.

To date, TechCongress has already placed 65 fellows in Congress, and 15 of them have had their positions converted to full-time roles. The organization’s goal with the new investment is to increase its annual fellowship class size to 24 members, with the hope of converting one-third of those fellows into full-time positions.

“Understanding the mechanics of current, new and emerging tech is critical for governing in the 21st century,” Lilian Coral, the Knight Foundation’s director for national strategy and technology innovation, said. “By increasing technical expertise in Congress, TechCongress fellows help our elected officials better assess how technology impacts Americans’ lives.”

The investment will also allow TechCongress to increase its recruitment efforts and boost the representation of groups that have traditionally been underrepresented in tech.

The fellowship brings in data scientists, computer scientists, and computer engineers and places them in an equal number of Democratic and Republican offices. The fellows are then able to advise members of Congress on issues like IT modernization and technology policy.

“Our fellows are forward-thinkers that not only bring critical knowledge to urgent tech policy challenges but also bring new and creative methods to problem-solving by centering users at the heart of the policymaking process,” Travis Moore, founder and executive director of TechCongress, said.

“Fellows are ensuring that lawmakers are at the forefront of cybersecurity and privacy challenges, while also supporting Congress to leverage new and emerging tech to make government officials more responsive to the needs of their constituents,” Moore continued.

The application for TechCongress’ 2023 Congressional Innovation Fellowship class opens June 7 and will run through August 10.

TechCongress to place 120 more technologists with lawmakers

FedScoop reports on TechCongress’ new grant from the Knight Foundation and the work our fellows have done:

TechCongress plans to place about 120 early and mid-career technologists in key congressional offices to advise lawmakers on technology decisions critical to the success of cities.

The Knight Foundation invested $2.5 million in TechCongress’ Congressional Innovation Fellowship to embed data science, computer engineering and web design experts with the goal of having about 40 become full-time positions.

TechCongress began the effort in 2015 and has seen the Knight Foundation provide $3.9 million total in grants that sent 65 fellows to Congress, about 20 of whom were retained.

The fellowship launched, in part, because only seven out of about 3,500 congressional staffers had formal tech training in 2015.

TechCongress hopes about 40 of the 120 new fellows become full-time, bringing the number up to 60 in key offices it’s identified dealing with cybersecurity, IT modernization, tech antitrust, health care, and website issues.

Because TechCongress wants consensus around the technology solutions lawmakers support, it places diverse fellows in Republican and Democratic offices equally.

TechCongress also created a Congressional Digital Service Fellowship to help Congress transition to remote work during the height of the pandemic, and the body opted to make a House Digital Service permanent in January.

The hope is with 60 full-time technologists in key congressional advisory positions, that will become the standard, and TechCongress might move on to expanding the tech capacity of other government institutions like the judiciary.

2022 Congressional Innovation Fellowship and Scholars Program - Recruitment Event Recordings

Over the 2022 Fellowship recruitment cycle, TechCongress will be hosting a series of informational calls about the 2022 Congressional Innovation Fellowship and Scholars Program!

If you’d like to listen to a prior call, you can listen below.