POPVOX Foundation Releases Initial Findings from Departure Dialogues Project, Launches Round 2 of Data Collection
POPVOX Foundation, in partnership with the Niskanen Center, Civil Service Strong, the Partnership for Public Service, and the Foundation for American Innovation, released findings from the first round of the Departure Dialogues Project. The nonpartisan project invited departing federal employees to answer nine questions in video, audio, or text format and used an innovative AI platform to aggregate and distill key themes and insights. Initial findings reveal critical insights from departing federal employees about how legislation, oversight, and agency operations intersect — and where they break down.
The data highlights consistent systemic barriers that impede effective government, while also identifying clear opportunities for Congressional and administrative reform.
Key Findings
The first round of Departure Dialogues captured reflections from federal employees across multiple agencies, revealing patterns that transcend individual departments:
Outdated laws are preventing modernization.
Employees consistently cited decades-old legislative requirements that no longer serve their drafters’ intended purpose. “We often saw a gap between what Congress intended and how the program was actually being implemented,” said Randy Hart of 18F.
The Paperwork Reduction Act is having the opposite effect.
Multiple respondents identified the PRA as a significant obstacle rather than a solution. “Despite its name, the Paperwork Reduction Act often imposes substantial constraints on our ability to collect useful information,” said Gabriel Levine of the National Science Foundation.
Congress and agencies are operating with misaligned information.
“The information given to Congress is highly filtered information that gives a distorted picture of reality,” said one employee from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Frontline expertise is missing from policy decisions.
“Frontline employees encounter issues daily that never make it to senior management,” said a Department of Homeland Security staffer, calling for more direct engagement and site visits from policymakers.
Oversight mechanisms are prioritizing compliance over impact.
Several respondents described systems like the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) and Medicaid Information Technology Architecture (MITA) as “box-checking exercises” that consume resources while slowing genuine innovation.
Why It Matters
POPVOX Foundation and its partners launched the Departure Dialogues Project not only to collect stories, but to prove that newly-emerging technologies make soliciting, managing, and analyzing direct constituent and stakeholder input more accessible than ever before.
The goal is to demonstrate to Congress that structured, qualitative feedback from the federal workforce can be gathered efficiently, analyzed with the help of AI, and used to shape smarter legislation, modernize outdated laws, and strengthen public trust in government institutions.
Round 2 Now Open
Building on the success of the initial round, POPVOX Foundation is now launching round 2 of Departure Dialogues data collection and invites departing federal employees from all agencies, no matter their GS level or length of service, to share their experiences and recommendations.
Interested participants can find out more here.
