Report No.282:The First Amendment Promise of Deliberative Technology: Reviving Assembly and Petition to Modernize the US Congress

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This report examines a deep institutional problem exposed by the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol: Congress lacks modern capacity to hear, process, and act on authentic civic voice. Drawing on more than 100 interviews with congressional staff, this paper examines how deliberative technologies can help modernize Congress. Distinguishing civic tech from deliberative tech, it highlights models which structure public testimony into usable legislative insight. The paper argues that Congress’ unresponsiveness is less a failure of will than of infrastructure. When aligned with modernization efforts, deliberative technology offers a practical path to revive assembly and petition as meaningful inputs to representative governing.