#StartupsEverywhere profile: Andrew Baluch, Co-Founder, Markup LLC
This profile is part of #StartupsEverywhere, an ongoing series highlighting startup leaders in ecosystems across the country. This interview has been edited for length, content, and clarity.
Developing Technology to Improve the Policymaking Process
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Markup LLC is reinventing the way lawmakers draft, record, and analyze public policy. We spoke with the Co-Founder of Markup LLC, Andrew Baluch, to learn about his startup’s work in the public policy space, how the pandemic has shifted Congress’s processes, and some of the ways that lawmakers can be more efficient through the use of technology.
What in your background led you to launch Markup?
I began my federal government career as a law clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and then went on to serve as a legal advisor to the Director of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). From there, I joined the White House Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC). During my time in these government positions, I experienced first-hand the challenges and inefficiencies inherent in the public policymaking process that relies on outdated systems. Drafting a bill or regulation requires communication among teams of congressional staffers, executive agency experts, outside stakeholders, lobbyists, and others. It is easy to lose track of the latest version of a draft bill and which team members are responsible for reviewing, commenting on, and implementing edits to different parts of the bill. And the way laws are written can be inaccessible; for example, where a bill uses language like “delete everything after the second comma,” it can take days to just figure out what a 50-page bill actually means or how a proposed amendment would affect internal and external stakeholders. The collaboration process itself gets cluttered with long email chains containing proposed edits, multiple versions, and numerous comments by team members. Then, after the law is enacted, the agency rulemaking process kicks in to implement the new law, and the process of connecting rules to authorizing statutes is also complicated and can reveal mistakes. As a result, nearly every major piece of legislation that Congress passes requires a technical corrections package to fix mistakes. Even after my government service, I’ve been approached by clients in the private sector asking for assistance to just understand what’s in a bill.
Looking at all of this, I thought there has to be a better way to do it. With my background in patent law helping clients with their inventions, I had wanted to become an inventor myself. And I was familiar with the sausage-making process of Washington. Together with my co-founder Peter Harter, who himself is an experienced government affairs professional who closely tracks technology policy, we saw the opportunity and need for technology that could take the text of a draft bill, show how it connects to existing statutes and regulations, convert it to an editable document format, and allow this information to be shared securely with your team members, the public, or other stakeholders. That’s the origin of Markup.
Can you tell us a little bit more about Markup and its two products: Markup ERVS and Markup Redline?
Markup offers a suite of tools that allows for more efficient legislative drafting, voting, and collaborations across groups. Currently, the company has two products: Markup ERVS® Remote Voting System and Markup Redline™, our collaborative legislative drafting tool.
Markup ERVS® is an electronic remote voting system that enables legislators and legislative committees to cast votes securely and electronically from any location with a reliable internet connection. Using device level security and digital signature authentication, Markup ERVS® records the votes, creates an auditable record, and has the option for manual printing of votes. Markup ERVS® supports remote voting on bills, resolutions, amendments, and parliamentary motions. Markup ERVS® was recently used successfully in late 2020 by the House Democratic Caucus to conduct its leadership elections for the 117th Congress.
Our other product, Markup Redline™, is a collaborative tool for legislative review and drafting that enables policymakers, regulators, staff, and public policy professionals to review, draft, and amend proposed laws or regulations, and to collaborate remotely using Microsoft Teams. Users can view side-by-side comparisons of bills to other versions, and can also view how proposed legislation connects to existing statutes and regulations. Using the Microsoft Teams app version of Markup Redline™, staff can work collectively within and across offices to securely share drafts and suggestions with each other. Markup Redline™ is authorized for use throughout the U.S. House of Representatives.
Recently, the House Democrats used Markup ERVS to cast votes for their party leadership. How did that partnership happen? What benefits did Markup ERVS provide?
We were already plugged in to the House thanks to Markup Redline™ and had been through the rigorous security review process there. When the pandemic started shutting everything down in the spring of 2020, we were in a good position to think about how remote voting would work inside the House’s IT infrastructure. We built Markup ERVS® and demoed it to Republican and Democratic leaders in the House as a way for lawmakers to work within the House’s existing Microsoft Teams’ environment to securely vote from the safety of their Washington or district offices, instead of being physically packed together on the House floor.
Although we were initially focused on an open voting solution for floor votes, we received an inquiry from the House Democratic Caucus to use Markup ERVS® to elect their party leadership. That process usually involves an in-person, multi-day conference to cast secret paper ballots for each leadership position. Given the pandemic, the Caucus wanted to hold their organizational meeting remotely.
So we built an anonymous voting functionality into Markup ERVS® in collaboration with Microsoft using their ElectionGuard technology, and offered it to both Republicans and Democrats for their respective leadership elections. The House Democrats, under the leadership of Caucus Chair Hakeem Jefferies (D-NY), licensed the technology for their Caucus elections. Markup worked closely with the Caucus and House IT teams to deploy the app on House-managed iPhones. In November and December 2020, all 230 House Democrats used ERVS safely, securely, and without incident for multiple rounds of voting, including for the positions of Assistant Speaker, Caucus Vice Chair, and various Committee chairs. We received very good feedback, including from Caucus Chair Jeffries, because every vote took only a few minutes to cast and count electronically, compared to the hours it usually takes with paper ballots. This was a major moment of innovation for the U.S. House of Representatives, and demonstrated that remote voting can be viable, safe, and secure. Even as the immediate crisis of the pandemic is easing, we are finding interest in how ERVS can support continuity of government and more efficient vote-tallying processes.
Have you seen other ways in which advancements in technology have impacted Congress in recent months?
Many of Congress’s basic processes for drafting legislation and voting have been the same for over 200 years. I will note that Congress has been aiming to combat this through the creation of the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress (ModCom). They have been looking at modernizing and improving all aspects of how Congress works—security, technology, procurement, training, and more.
Markup has been following this closely. It can be difficult for small businesses to maneuver federal procurement offices. Yet, Markup has been a success story as a startup working on implementing some of the recommendations that ModCom has suggested. These technological advancements together are helping to create a new standard for how governance is conducted. Especially after the pandemic, we are seeing in real time how certain processes are being reimagined and adjusted.
What is front of mind for you when developing products for such a unique and high profile client base?
Security and data ownership are especially important when Congress is your customer. Whether drafting legislation with Markup Redline™ or voting with Markup ERVS®, Congress needs to know that the platform is secure, reliable, and easy-to-use. All web services vendors to the House must meet stringent standards and pass a security audit. In addition, there is a heightened privacy consideration with Congress because of the Speech or Debate Clause. Basically, all the legislative work product that Congress generates in its legislative function are constitutionally protected.
Do you have other reflections on some of the startup-related policy issues confronting federal lawmakers?
When it comes to intellectual property, at Markup, we want to protect what is protectable. In addition to turning to copyright and trade secret protection to protect our source code, as appropriate, we use design patents to protect our products’ graphical user interface (GUI). Design patents on a software product’s GUI do not face the same subject matter eligibility problems that utility patents do for computer-implemented inventions.
What is your goal for Markup moving forward?
Our goal is to bring the process of lawmaking into the 21st century by providing the technology platform for 360 degrees of legislation and regulation, enabling public policy professionals to better understand how their work connects to existing laws and rules, and to bring greater efficiency and collaboration to the policy making process. Through our two products, Markup Redline™ and Markup ERVS®, we are working to create a seamless handoff for policymakers to do everything from drafting and redlining, to voting and implementing legislation via rulemaking. Lawmakers and their staff would be able to draft a bill and conduct research with Markup Redline™ and see how proposed language would amend the U.S. Code or impact regulations. After a bill is introduced, Markup Redline™ could provide a discussion forum, inside a collaboration and video platform like Teams, for stakeholder input on the bill. Then, when a committee holds votes on the bill, Markup ERVS® would be the tool for tallying the votes in committee. The same process would unfold as the bill goes to the floor for a vote by the full chamber. After the bill becomes law, the whole process could start again in the executive branch, allowing regulators to show how a proposed rule would change existing rules, and to receive input on the agency’s proposal.
All of the information in this profile was accurate at the date and time of publication.
Engine works to ensure that policymakers look for insight from the startup ecosystem when they are considering programs and legislation that affect entrepreneurs. Together, our voice is louder and more effective. Many of our lawmakers do not have first-hand experience with the country's thriving startup ecosystem, so it’s our job to amplify that perspective. To nominate a person, company, or organization to be featured in our #StartupsEverywhere series, email ian@engine.is.
