PROJECTS
What we’re building
Our work explores and documents the practice of legislative casework, elevates the public service and the subject-matter expertise of dedicated constituent service staff, supports offices and legislators in building outstanding constituent service programs, and builds bridges between casework and policy.
NEWSLETTER ★ COMING SOON
The Casework Mirror
A newsletter tailored to the agency news Congressional caseworkers need to keep up with casework. We round up reporting on agency policy and operations, agency communications, trends shaping casework, legislative activity on casework issue areas, local reporting on constituent services from across the country, and the occasional casework meme.
IN ★ DEVELOPMENT
CaseCompass policy map
The CaseCompass taxonomy developed by the House Digital Service is a groundbreaking project to capture and categorize the full spectrum of Congressional casework. The CaseCompass policy map captures the problems behind the tags and how constituents and casework teams experience and resolve them, and policy directions to address the root causes of these issues.
IN ★ DEVELOPMENT
CSI Casework Trainings
CSI Casework Trainings complement internal resources for House and Senate constituent service staff with opportunities for more in-depth discussions, workshops, and skill-building courses on advanced casework, casework agencies, and putting casework subject-matter expertise to work in other activities and fields.
IN ★ DEVELOPMENT
Electoral Resilience
Anecdotally, many long-serving legislators, especially heterodox Members, credit their longevity in office to a commitment to excellent casework operations — and conversely, neglecting casework can create damaging political vulnerabilities. But the direct relationship between casework and reelection has been little-studied. The Electoral Resilience project explores the relationship between casework and reelection: including giving Members a sense of efficacy and impact, building constituent trust, and delivering tangible, quantifiable benefits in an era of partisan gridlock.
IN ★ DEVELOPMENT
Casework Coverage Archive
Part of the challenge of understanding or advocating for casework is its distribution: casework happens across the country in field and local offices, often outside of major media markets — but that does not mean it goes locally unnoticed. The Casework Coverage Archive collects local media coverage of casework into a searchable research archive, demonstrating the role casework plays in local news coverage and how legislative offices use casework to position themselves in local communities.