House subcommittee touts AI tools and deliberative forums as ways to reconnect constituents with Congress

The House Administration Subcommittee on Modernization and Innovation heard witnesses Tuesday about using artificial intelligence and structured public forums to improve constituent engagement.

Chairwoman Bice opened the hearing by noting recent CAO efforts to provide copilot licenses and training to House staff, saying "as of today, 150 member offices have licenses," and framing modernization as a way to help offices meet constituents where they are. Witnesses described international and state models and urged a combination of technology and process changes rather than automated public-facing chatbots.

Dr. Michael Neblo, director at the Ohio State University Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability (IDEA), said new approaches are urgent: "At best, only 1 in 5 contacted their member last year" and "only 13% trust Congress to do what's right." He recommended deliberative town halls that recruit a random sample of constituents, noting that 94% of participants in his studies rated such forums as "very valuable" and that these formats reduced partisan animosity in measurable ways.

Aubrey Wilson, director of global initiatives at PopVox Foundation, described international examples such as Estonia's parliamentary assistants and Brazil's Ulysses suite that let constituents submit detailed remarks and use AI to cluster input for policymakers. She urged the subcommittee to partner with the CAO to reform House IT procurement, create rapid pilot authorities, and establish cybersecurity review processes so offices can test low-risk tools quickly.

Dr. Beth Novak, chief AI strategist for New Jersey and founder of Innovate US, urged pairing AI with disciplined human processes. She described New Jersey pilots and an "Open Feedback" open-source tool that helps staff organize public comments and an "AI for Impact" training program. Novak said internal-facing tools trained on an office’s corpus reduce hallucination risk and that her state-level projects reduced average call handling time from about 40 minutes to roughly three minutes.

Ken Ward of House Digital Services described existing CAO products (FlagTrac, case compass, HouseCal, Quill) and proposed a secure, House-controlled constituent data lake that would let members authorize multiple vendor applications to work with their data while keeping member control over access. Ward said such a platform would require multiyear investment and strong governance but would enable interoperability without forcing offices to switch their current CMS.

Members pressed witnesses on verification, moderation, accessibility and safety in large-scale online engagement. Representative Torres stressed the need for tools to be accessible and to protect privacy, warning that a faster system that "still excludes people is in progress." Members also flagged the digital divide — Torres noted many working Americans lack digital skills — and asked about training and multilingual outreach. Novak pointed to a Civic AI WhatsApp training program designed for multilingual outreach and engagement.

The hearing did not produce any formal votes or committee actions. The record will remain open for five legislative days for members to submit materials, and the subcommittee adjourned with staff and members noting next steps: pilot sandboxes, closer CAO–subcommittee collaboration on procurement and governance, and further work on recommendations identified in witnesses’ testimony.

The witnesses who testified were Dr. Michael Neblo (Ohio State University IDEA), Aubrey Wilson (PopVox Foundation), Dr. Beth Novak (Innovate US), and Ken Ward (House Digital Services). The committee emphasized pilots, human-centered design, and governance as prerequisites for scaling AI-based tools for constituent engagement.