Representative Cindy Axne (D-IA)

Named as one of the most accessible Members of Congress by the Town Hall Project, the office of Rep. Cindy Axne has made impressive strides in the area of transparency and accountability in their first term. Between January and April of 2019, Rep. Axne held 28 town halls. All of her town halls are posted on both Facebook and her website. Some had specific themes - such as a tele-town hall specific to flooding in the district, at which she also invited FEMA, SBA, HUD, USDA and both Republican and Democratic officials to participate. Additionally, when she learned federal relief funds may have been backed up for her district, she started a "Show Me the Money" flood tracker, highlighting how much funding was going to Iowa, collecting data on grants approved vs. pending vs. denied, and publishing resources on where Iowans could apply for grants. Each month, Rep. Axne travels hundreds of miles, ensuring she visits every county in her 16-county district. She's known to go anywhere she's invited, taking meetings at the airport, grocery store, or the YMCA. In 2019, the office received and responded to just under 100,000 pieces of mail, with no backlog heading into the end of December.

Representative Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA)

Hitting the ground running in their first year, the office of Rep. Chrissy Houlahan has made transparency and accountability an office priority. Every member of staff in the office answers the phones, including the Member. The office conducts in-person and telephone town halls at least once a month, advertises them widely (across email, social media platforms, and through robocalls), posts the schedule to the website, records the content, and posts recordings online after the events. Any constituent with unanswered questions receives a callback from the office. Rep. Houlahan also hosts "Coffee with Chrissy," which are smaller, informal get-togethers in the district. And, with a Hispanic-majority city in their district, the office ensures the website has a Spanish language page, materials are printed in Spanish, and Spanish speakers are located in every district office. The district offices all have evening office hours to make them more accessible to constituents, and the Member records a video at the end of most weeks in DC recapping significant votes and other work. Lastly, the office surveys constituents quarterly to assess their performance toward meeting office goals, and sends out bi-monthly e-newsletters to constituents which include upcoming events, legislative highlights, recent constituent meetings, constituent successes, and articles the Member recommends.

Representative Tom O'Halleran (D-AZ)

A 2019 Transparency and Accountability finalist, the office of Rep. Tom O'Halleran is a leader when it comes to openness and availability to constituents. The Member's meetings, both in Arizona and DC, are tracked and shared on his website, in addition to all of his votes and legislation (co-sponsored and sponsored.) Information regarding all of these activities are posted to his social media accounts, and the office sends constituents interactive newsletters inviting them to share their thoughts, stories, and opinions on issues affecting communities in the district. In the 116th Congress, Rep. O'Halleran has held 26 in-person town halls and six open office hours. He's driven over 12,300 miles during district work periods, visiting 50 individual communities to hold over 400 meetings with Arizonians. His office has a policy that every Arizonian who wants a meeting gets one, and as much as possible, staff ensure Rep. O'Halleran is included in as many constituent meetings as possible.

Representative Michael Burgess (R-TX)

As a physician for almost three decades prior to serving in Congress, Dr. Burgess incorporates Hippocratic Oath principles into the management of his office. They have established Statements of Ethical Conduct, Principles Guiding Legislative Decisions, and a Statement of Constituent Principles. His website is consistently updated with his voting record, as well as a weekly video that speaks to both the Member's thoughts on legislation as well as topics his constituents have asked him to address. Since 2009, his office has published Annual Year End Reports, which document a baseline of service to serve as a measure by which constituents can hold the office accountable- all of which are available publicly on his website. Rep. Burgess has held 106 in-person town halls over his 17 years in office, continues to hold three to four live-streamed town halls a year, and also hosts Facebook Live town halls and telephone town halls. Additionally, Rep. Burgess hosts two district based summits annually on Emergency Preparedness and Energy. For staff accountability, Rep. Burgess has DC and district staff provide daily, weekly, and monthly reports for ongoing management purposes. Other Members of Congress have noticed him reviewing these reports when traveling, have commented on their usefulness and inquired about how they can generate their own.

Representative Will Hurd (R-TX)

For the office of Rep. Will Hurd, transparency and accountability are the keys to providing gold standard service to their constituents. Rep. Hurd is active throughout his entire district engaging with constituents and seeking their input regularly. He's known as "Will" throughout the 23rd district because of the time he has spent visiting with his constituents. The office regularly solicits feedback from constituents through surveys, and monitors social media in order to generate a comprehensive analysis of how they're doing as an office, and how they can improve. Rep. Hurd is active across social media platforms, and the office has an e-newsletter and targeted outreach program. He uses geo-targeting to ensure the correct towns receive information about local opportunities to engage with the office. Also, across his years in office, he hosted over 100 town hall meetings and over 200 more public meetings. Through his "DC to DQ" tour (there's a Dairy Queen in almost every county in the district), he showed his commitment to availability and responsiveness to his constituents. His town halls are open-forum (no pre-screened questions), and those questions which are not answered due to time constraints later receive a response from the office.

Representative Van Taylor (R-TX)

One of the transparency hallmarks of the office of Rep. Van Taylor is his "100 Percent Constituent Meeting" policy, which guarantees he will meet one-on-one with any constituent who requests a meeting - regardless of policy topic, political views, or even how many times they have already met with him. Since January 2019, Rep. Taylor has held 459 meetings with 781 constituents. He's hosted 37 public forums and regularly conducts telephone town hall meetings, after which he personally calls constituents whose questions weren't answered. Rep. Taylor has participated in 68 school and business tours, as well as 49 public speaking events. He ensures that his meetings and work both in DC and Texas are posted to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, including concise (yet specific) one-page summary documents on legislation he has introduced. During staff meetings, the office discusses detailed reports on accountability measures such as constituent mail response status, casework status, and constituent engagement.