Government spending package includes money for House modernization efforts

Funding earmarked for the House of Representatives’ Modernization Initiatives Account can be used to accelerate the development of innovative constituent-focused tools.

Tucked within one of the full-year appropriation bills attached to the recently passed continuing resolution that ended the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history is new modernization funding for Congress. 

The Modernization Initiatives Account — established in 2020 to improve the operations of the House of Representatives — received $4 million in appropriations. 

This money could be helpful in funding ongoing modernization projects in Congress and implementing recommendations made by the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, which ended in 2023 but lives on through a subcommittee on modernization within the House Administration Committee. 

“From providing closed captioning service in committees and the House gallery, to developing a first-of-its-kind legislative staff directory, to building a comprehensive constituent casework tracker, the MIA plays a critical role in bringing the ...