“There has not been a transparent digital process for constituents to know where their request is in the request portal,” said Swift, a policy adviser for the left-leaning advocacy group Demand Progress who worked for the House Democratic Caucus.
That’s one of the slate of hurdles lawmakers on the panel spearheading efforts to modernize Congress are hoping to topple.
The House select committee on the modernization of Congress on Thursday approved its latest batch of recommendations, focusing on constituent engagement. Among them, it called for creating a “more efficient process for tracking and managing constituent flag requests,” which lawmakers can grant individuals to commemorate events, holidays or birthdays. The result, Swift said, could look familiar to consumers.
“Basically, the idea is to create something similar to a Domino’s or Pizza Hut pizza tracker so that a constituent can go online or call the office and know exactly where that flag is in the delivery process,” said Swift, who worked with the panel as an aide.
