Casework Navigator: Changes Afoot
And tell me about your biggest hopes for casework for our final (!) paper
Hi caseworkers,
One thing that comes up in every single conversation I have with caseworkers is the pace of change in this profession: casework today looks different than it did when I was a caseworker pre-pandemic, which is different from casework after the ‘08 financial crisis, which is different from casework pre-9/11, which is different from casework back in the 1970s when it was last seriously studied by political science, which is different from the private bill era pre-Legislative Reorganization, which is different from the pre-Pendleton Act patronage era, and so on back to the American Revolution. The right to petition for the redress of grievances is enshrined in the First Amendment, and caseworkers continue to uphold that fundamental right for constituents across the country, no matter how the work changes.
In that spirit, some end-of-an-era news on our end: we’ll be closing down the Casework Navigator program at the end of June. Our resources, including casework manual chapters, research reports, back issues of the Navigator newsletter, and webinar videos will stay up on our website at popvox.org/casework.
We’ll have one more issue of this newsletter before the end of June, and are working on one final paper on the state of casework — so I’ll get sappy with you in a few weeks. But I have a question for you, and we’ll include responses in that final issue:
What is your biggest hope for how casework changes in the next ten years?
No wrong answers, and we won’t attribute anything to you or your office.
Your roundup of casework-relevant news from federal agencies and beyond below. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or just want to chat in the next few weeks, hit me up at anne@popvox.org.
Anne Meeker
Senior Advisor
POPVOX Foundation
Events
If you’ll be at the House Democratic District Directors fly-in next week (or your boss will), come say hi! I’ll be moderating a panel Wednesday on the role of district directors in managing casework operations with three rockstar DDs. (NB: POPVOX Foundation is a nonpartisan organization, but we’re happy to talk to anyone, anywhere, at any time about casework)
Save the date: we’ll be joining Lawyers for Good Government for a June 17 1 PM ET webinar for Congressional district staff on options to support constituents who have had federal grants terminated. I’ll send a separate email with registration next week.
Casework News
The House Legislative Branch Appropriations bill draft is out. If you’re not familiar with the appropriations process, the Legislative Branch bill is where Congress funds itself, and is a vehicle for efforts to modernize the institution and support staff. A few highlights:
Page 9: We also commend the great work of the CAO’s Coach team and the HDS team building the CaseCompass pilot — however, there is clearly plenty of room for additional support to help casework teams carry out their missions.
Page 25: The Congressional Research Service has been directed to augment the Agency Liaison List with the additional contacts necessary for casework teams to do casework for years; the Committee continues to direct CRS to work with stakeholders on this project.
Other casework news:
It’s a mobile district office in Guam!!
New CRS report on handling grants requests in a Congressional office highlights the challenges to Congressional teams of shifting agency guidance on grant eligibility.
House friends: If you know that your boss will be leaving at the end of the Congress, be sure to get in touch with the CAO’s transition team about the constituent data transfer preference survey — AND to make sure that your boss completes the required forms to decide how you want your data transferred.
Agency News
Immigration
USCIS issued new guidance for immigrants applying for permanent residency to apply from their home countries. People applying in the US are apparently being asked why they did not return to their home countries first.
The State Department will begin revoking passports of American citizens who owe more than $2,500 in back child support. Revocations will begin by focusing on citizens with more than $100,000 in unpaid payments.
DHS announced plans to ramp up prosecutions of immigration attorneys who file “false asylum claims” in court.
State is also redesigning the passports section of Travel.state.gov to improve the experience of applying for a passport or renewing a passport online, especially on mobile.
Speaking of passports, State also expanded its planned Special Passport Acceptance Fairs. If there’s one in your area, this is a great resource for constituents.
The battles this year over Members’ rights to conduct unannounced in-person oversight visits to ICE detention centers are never-ending.
Social Security
Surprise, surprise: a new SSA OIG report finds that it is frequently not cost-effective for SSA to pursue multiple collective actions on low-dollar overpayments.
SSA plans to close its National Hearing Centers, and plans to hire additional Administrative Law Judges to address its appeals backlog.
VA/DOD
Super interesting look under the hood at how claims are actually managed in the VA’s VBMS system: a VA OIG report examines system overrides, when staff bypass the VBMS system’s internal calculators on benefits.
Speaking of stories that go on forever: VHA announced new rollouts for the Federal Electronic Health system, although some employee groups are still noting concerns. If you’re in a rollout system, keep an eye out.
New VA OIG report spotlights systemic challenges with VA medical center security.
For districts and states with military installations, civilian staff shortages are contributing to backlogs in on-base housing maintenance and member support.
IRS
Short notice, but worth keeping an eye on: IRS is offering extended Saturday hours on May 30 at Taxpayer Assistance Centers for constituents who may not have filed their 2025 taxes yet.
Relatedly, TIGTA reports a spike in IRS staff overtime for this filing season, including some staff working 12+ hour days, amid rising backlogs in document scanning and other filing-related tasks.
Federal Employees
Have you checked out OPM’s new Congressional Liaison portal yet? We hear it’s pretty good! Nice to see agencies actually invest in streamlining communications with Congress.
OPM announced plans for a standard NDA for federal employees; agencies will be able to decide whether to require signing the NDA. There are exceptions for whistleblowing as well as reporting waste, fraud, and abuse to Congress — we hope someone is working on making casework exemptions clear as well.
If you’re getting casework about Medicare, Medicaid, or FEHB coverage for GLP-1 drugs — we’d LOVE to hear about it!
A judge ruled in favor of loosening requirements for Federal employees to qualify for disability benefits — for districts and states with large numbers of federal employees, this may trigger some casework.
Miscellaneous
IT’S THE GREAT GAO WASTE/DUPLICATION/FRAGMENTATION REPORT, CHARLIE BROWN. This is an annual report on where the federal government can save money by consolidating programs or de-duplicating programs that do the same thing. I know caseworkers have ideas of their own here…
The FEMA Review Council approved a series of recommendations ahead of its final report. If you’re in a district that regularly handles disasters, this is one to watch.
Separately, FEMA has been required to develop a public dashboard that tracks the status of disaster relief; this is also one to watch.
If you’re in a state where your team handles Medicaid casework directly, it’s worth keeping an eye on CMS’ current drive to address home health care and hospice fraud — multiple states have Medicaid reimbursements frozen while the agency investigates.
CFPB removed multiple consumer advisories from its website; if you regularly send constituents to CFPB resources or list them on your website, check if they’re still current and available first.
USPS announced restrictions on non-essential spending, including hiring, travel, and training, as the agency appeals to Congress for emergency funding.
Does anyone get casework on surprise medical billing and the No Surprises Act? CMS announced a new rule lowering the administrative filing cost for No Surprises disputes, and expanded the agency’s authority to batch resolve claims.
Caseworkers at state agencies have two new major partnerships to support their work: Code for America announced a partnership with Anthropic on Claude integrations to support their work, and Nava launched a suite of open-source AI tools to help caseworkers manage processes like referrals, eligibility questions, document management, and completing applications. To which we say: what about Congressional caseworkers??
Our friends at PolicyEngine are launching a new tool to look at benefit cliffs (places where an additional dollar in income causes a disproportionate loss in benefits) across the country.