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Colin Raby

colinraby.com · On The Record · CR-2024-009

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For immediate release · September 19, 2024

Presents “From Hours to Minutes: Press Clips Generator” at the Congressional Hackathon

At the bipartisan Congressional Hackathon in the U.S. Capitol, demonstrates an AI tool that turns hours of press-clip work into minutes.

Colin Raby at the podium in the Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium beneath his title slide, “From Hours to Minutes: Press Clips Generator”
Fig. 1“From Hours to Minutes”: presenting at Congressional Hackathon 6.0, CVC Auditorium, U.S. Capitol.

WASHINGTON · Colin Raby presented at Congressional Hackathon 6.0, the bipartisan event held Sept. 19, 2024, in the Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium. Hosted by House Speaker Mike Johnson, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor, and organized by the House Digital Service, it brought staff from both parties together with civic technologists to explore how technology, artificial intelligence above all, can make Congress work better.

His presentation, "From Hours to Minutes: Press Clips Generator," used a real tool to make the case for modernizing congressional workflows. The Press Clips Generator automates one of the most repetitive daily jobs on any office's communications team: turning a list of news links into the formatted daily clips document. Staff paste in URLs; the tool pulls each story's title, date, source and a summary or first paragraph, and assembles the document. A task that takes hours, done in minutes. The prototype was already saving teams hours each week.

Afterward, Raby heard the talk had been voted among the audience's favorites. He closed with: "The future truly is ours to build, and I look forward to working with everyone … to build a good one together."

The House's official report on the Hackathon, published in May 2025, featured the Press Clips Generator, and several AI initiatives Raby had championed made its list of Top Recommended Action Items in artificial intelligence. FedScoop also covered the tools presented at the event.

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Colin Raby at the podium beneath a slide diagramming the Press Clips Generator's inputs, processing and outputs
Fig. 2How the Press Clips Generator works: links in, a formatted daily clips document out.
Colin Raby presenting beneath a “Next Steps” slide with a QR code to join the tool's waitlist
Fig. 3Next steps, and a waitlist for offices that wanted the tool.
The Congressional Hackathon stage in the Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium, with Colin Raby at the podium
Fig. 4Congressional Hackathon 6.0, Sept. 19, 2024.
The Congressional Hackathon poster on an easel in the U.S. Capitol
Fig. 5Hosted by Speaker Mike Johnson, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor.
The cover page and introduction of the official Congressional Hackathon Report
Fig. 6The official report, published by the House in May 2025.
The Congressional Hackathon Report's entry for the Press Clips Generator by Colin M. Raby, Office of Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi
Fig. 7The Press Clips Generator in the report.

Further reading

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