When I started as an intern on Capitol Hill in the summer of 1983, I plopped down in an uncomfortable chair in an office in the Rayburn House Office Building, shared a work desk with two other interns, and was shown my primary tool for the semester: an IBM Selectric typewriter. (For younger staff who’ve never seen one of these contraptions, you can find one in a Smithsonian museum.) 

Each intern had an identical binder, with dividers for every letter of the alphabet, separating pages that articulated the exact position on the issues of the day for the House member I worked for. Interns were expected to read constituent letters, identify the topic for response from the binder, and type them on congressional letterhead paper. Instead of a “delete” button on a computer, you used “white out” (a white liquid allowing you to cover up and correct mistakes).

Move ahead 41 years, to my last days as CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation in 2024. Some of my final meetings were with House staff discussing how to use AI in crafting replies to constituent messages. 

My journey in the world of constituent engagement also led me to write a book in 2010, “Citizen’s Handbook for Influencing Elected Officials.” The second edition was published last month and is twice the size of the original — in large part due to the extraordinary changes that have transformed how members of Congress and their constituents interact with one another.

Joe Schumacher, district director for Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., has seen this change first-hand. He started out working for Wittman’s predecessor, Rep. Jo Ann Davis, who died in office, and has been with Wittman since his election in 2007. 

“When I started working in Congress in 2001, the office used index cards and electric typewriters,” Schumacher said. “We were cataloging constituent contacts and messages for the member of Congress. You were dealing with someone who would call or write, versus someone now who fires off a quick email or text from their phone.”

As the delivery mechanisms for constituent communications have changed, so has the tone of the messages, he noted. 

“With hand-written letters the tone is different. You had to sit down and think about what you were going to write, whereas now you can be on X or Instagram and see a message from an advocacy group asking you to contact your member of Congress. It’s a quick process,” Schumacher said. “The difference is the speed, emotion and shareability.”

The growth of social media has also led to a shift in member office hiring and staff organizational charts. “Digital director” or “digital assistant” is now a position in most congressional offices. 

The list of changes goes on. Advocacy websites have proliferated that deliver messages directly to individual offices, sending the volume skyrocketing. As I reported in my book, Congress now receives upwards of 50 million emails a year, according to estimates, with some House offices getting more than 180,000 annually. And virtual meetings with staff remain popular after the pandemic. While usually shorter than in-person interactions, they come at no cost to constituents and eliminate the need for them to travel for face-to-face encounters.

Another significant shift has been the use of telephone town halls. First used sparingly in the early 2000s, now members of Congress routinely use this tool to interact with thousands of constituents. In 2021, when the pandemic limited in-person interactions, more than 3 million Americans participated in telephone town hall meetings, according to Broadnet, a leading technology company facilitating the meetings. “Telephone town halls allow Rep. Wittman to be intimate with his constituents because they hear his voice directly.  This increases trust and familiarity with constituents,” Schumacher said.

Yet Schumacher notes some things haven’t changed. “Meeting with constituents and listening to their concerns hasn’t changed. You have constituents’ desire to have a transparent government and to influence government or to lobby government throughout the years,” he said. “What’s stayed the same is citizen advocacy for issues and policies that they’re passionate about.”

Bradford Fitch is the former CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation, a former congressional staffer, and the author of “Citizen’s Handbook for Influencing Elected Officials.”