Federal Modernization
The Federal Modernization report draws on submissions from federal employees and contractors spanning some of the most operationally complex corners of the Executive branch — from the Social Security Administration and FEMA to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the National Science Foundation, GSA's 18F technology team, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the Departments of Justice, Agriculture, and Homeland Security.
Participants ranged from early-career program officers to senior executives with three decades of federal service. What they shared in common was direct experience with the systems Congress has built to hire, pay, equip, and oversee the federal workforce.
The themes that emerged from this dataset are structural. Participants described a federal hiring system so layered with competing authorities that it costs roughly $20,000 per hire and takes six months on average to complete — and a procurement system where compliance requirements have accumulated to the point that they actively undermine their own goals. They raised the unintended consequences of well-intentioned technology legislation, the burden imposed by the Paperwork Reduction Act on agencies trying to collect their own program data, and the challenge of implementing statutory requirements with unrealistic timelines.
Across submissions, a consistent thread emerged: the gap between what Congress intends and what agencies can actually do is rarely about motivation or capacity. It is almost always about structure.
About this Report
This report was produced using Talk to the City (T3C), an open-source tool designed for public consultations, civic dialogue, and collaborative problem-solving. T3C is built around auditability: every theme it identifies is grounded directly in participant quotes, and every claim can be traced back to the person who made it. The report lets you explore broad themes, referred back to the exact statements behind them.
An important note: The recommendations compiled here reflect the individual views and experiences of interview participants. They are not endorsed by POPVOX Foundation, the Partnership for Public Service, the Niskanen Center, the Foundation for American Innovation, Civil Service Strong, or any other organization involved in the Departure Dialogues project.
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