Departure Dialogues Project

Stewarding federal knowledge for effective government

About the Project

You've seen how it really works. Now Congress wants to hear from you.

After years of dedicated federal service, you've witnessed firsthand how well-intentioned policies can create unintended barriers to effective program management. You've seen the gaps between what Congress writes and what actually works on the ground. And like many federal employees, you may not have had the freedom to share these insights, or seen them prioritized in the Legislative Affairs bottleneck.

POPVOX Foundation, the Niskanen Center, Civil Service Strong, the Partnership for Public Service and the Foundation for American Innovation invite departing federal employees to share your insights to help inform future Congressional action to strengthen federal programs. Whether it's a constructive suggestion, a frustrated observation, or a practical recommendation you've never been free to voice — this is your moment to be heard.

How it works:

We guide you through ten focused questions about program challenges, successes, and inefficiencies that could inform better Congressional oversight and policy, either as a video/audio recording or a written questionnaire. You choose how your insights are attributed, with options to remain anonymous if you prefer, and we review submissions to ensure appropriateness before archiving them in a public database for Congressional committees and researchers.

This isn't whistleblowing or partisan storytelling — it's a nonpartisan initiative focused solely on actionable information that can help Congress fix longstanding program gaps and frustrations that often span multiple administrations.

Who is this project for?

Departing Federal Employees and Contractors

The Departure Dialogues project provides the validation and respect of having their experiences acknowledged and their expertise valued. Many dedicated public servants were dismissed without an opportunity to share their stories and lessons learned. This platform offers them a voice, elevating their substantive expertise without being sidetracked by the politics of the moment.

Congress

Departure Dialogues creates a unique source of on-the-ground intelligence about government operations and program implementation that cuts across agencies and functions, and is outside of the rigid reporting structures that limit unfiltered policy feedback loops. Unlike formal testimony or agency self-reporting, the information contributed by these individuals may offer a candid look and detailed insights into what works, what doesn't, and what might be improved — formatted for maximum usability in legislation and oversight. This initiative also demonstrates a new model of evidence-based, outcomes-driven policymaking that closes the gap between legislative intent and practical implementation. By systematically capturing implementation challenges, Congress can begin fixing ineffective policies immediately.

The American People

This project represents an opportunity to reset perspectives on the commitment of civil servants, showcasing how even in a time of unforeseen transition, they are willing to share their valuable knowledge to aid in making government work better.

Sign Up to Participate

Sign up to be invited to submit a self-guided video interview or written questionnaire.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • This project focuses on insights about program headaches, successes, frustrations, inefficiencies, etc. that can help specifically inform Congress to conduct better oversight and create better policy in the future. For example, some insights may include:

    • Statutory language requiring that all medical information is faxed, not electronically transferred — creating massive workflow bottlenecks, high costs, and delays for constituents.

    • Congressionally-mandated reports add hundreds of hours to staff backlogs .

    Please note that allegations of fraud, criminal wrongdoing, and other malfeasance are outside the scope of this project and should be directed to agency Inspector Generals or Congressional committees with jurisdiction. This is not a whistleblowing platform.

  • Our platform walks participating former federal employees through nine questions:

    1. Tell me about your role(s) with the federal government. What agency did you work for, what programs were you working on, and what was the scope of your most recent role(s)?

    2. How frequently did Congressional or legislative intent/language come up in your work, and in what contexts?

    3. Can you describe a situation where conflicting, outdated, or overly-burdensome legislative requirements made your work/your program less efficient or less effective?

    4. If you could rebuild your program/agency from the ground up, without changing its overall scope and mission, how would it look different when you were done?

    5. How could Congress do a better job of learning about programs in your area of expertise, with the goal of legislating more effectively?

    6. If you had 5 minutes to brief a Congressional committee about fixing bureaucratic inefficiency in your area, what specific legislative change would you recommend?

    7. If you had 5 minutes to pitch agency leadership about changes they should make within the agency, what specific changes would you recommend?

    8. Is there anything else we haven't asked that you would like to share about your career with the federal government?

    9. What are your plans post government service?

  • This project is nonpartisan, and focused solely on information that can be used by Congress to fix gaps, frustrations, and inefficiencies in federal programs. This project does not aim to capture pure “oral history,” but focuses on actionable program-related information for policy and oversight.

    While we understand that partisan tensions are high, we encourage participating federal employees to remain as nonpartisan as possible in their responses — many of the longstanding program challenges have been the compounded product of both parties’ actions!

    We work closely with other federal oral history projects, and are happy to help refer departing employees to other projects, including Georgetown’s Civic Tech project, and the Volcker Alliance’s Federal oral history project.

  • Interviews and submitted testimony will be incorporated into a public interactive archive accessible to Congressional staff, researchers, civil society organizations, and the general public. POPVOX Foundation and partner organizations will also produce additional research, policy materials, and briefings based on this project for Congressional staff and committees.

    To make this information usable to stakeholders including Congress, we plan to create an interactive archive that groups statements by common themes. For an example of what this might look like, please see here.

  • No! We welcome insights, ideas, and comments from any and all departing federal civil service employees and contractors.

  • Entirely up to you: the TheirStory platform will walk you through our set of ten suggested questions to answer, but you can skip any question or share anything else on your mind. There is no minimum or maximum length for videos — and you’re welcome to submit multiple videos to share different elements of your federal career.

  • Yes! In fact, we encourage it: please feel free to share multiple videos focusing on different elements of your career, or submit a second (or third!) video if there’s something you forgot to mention in your original submission.

  • Email POPVOX Foundation Deputy Director Anne Meeker at anne@popvox.org