Casework Navigator: Caseworkers always know the good stuff first
Plus casework-related news on immigration, IRS, SSA, and more!
Hi caseworkers,
There’s something weirdly satisfying about seeing an article or a report that describes something you’ve already seen in casework and that thrill never goes away.
Sometimes it’s frustrating — I could have told you this was a problem years ago! — but other times, it’s cool to see real journalism or a dedicated IG or a scholar break down the “why” behind what you originally saw. Not to mention: it’s always helpful for validating your casework insights for your DC-based colleagues.
So if you need a little bit of that thrill of validation, here are a few things worth spending some serious time with:
The 2025 Taxpayer Advocate Report to Congress: this is also a reminder of what a phenomenal model TAS is for turning constituent experiences into actionable policy recommendations.
VA OIG’s Major Management Challenges report: while somewhat less comprehensive, this is still a roadmap to addressing many of the challenges that show up in VA-related casework.
Last but not least, from friend-of-the-show UMichigan Assistant Professor Devin Judge-Lord (we will forgive this coming out of The State Up North): a new academic paper on “How shifting priorities and capacity affect policy work and constituency service.”
Last thing from me:
We are going to try a new as-needed feature in this newsletter, connecting casework teams who are interested in collaborating on legislative/oversight activities related to casework. While we know that this happens in the Casework Teams chats, we hope this might help connect folks bicamerally and in situations where the boss doesn’t want to be identified as connected to an issue yet :) Call it Craigslist for Casework, below.
If you have questions about our work or suggestions for how we can be helpful, please feel free to reply to this email, or reach out to me at anne@popvox.org.
Anne Meeker
Managing Director
POPVOX Foundation
Events
Fresh Start: Casework Notes and Data for 2026
Thursday, February 12 at 1 PM ET
Keeping good case notes is one of the most foundational skills for all caseworkers, but the easiest to overlook when things get busy. This workshop — hosted in partnership with the House Digital Services — will dive into standards and practices for case notes and tags, sustainable management practices for helping your team keep good notes, and making the most of the data from well-kept notes.
The Constitutional Basis for Casework with Dave Rapallo
Wednesday, March 18 at 1 PM ET
Safeguarding constituents’ right to petition the government for redress from grievances is what caseworkers do — but how much is casework actually enshrined in law, and what does that mean for how far caseworkers can push agency contacts? We’ll be joined by Dave Rapallo, Dave Rapallo, former Staff Director of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and current Federal Legislation Clinic Director at Georgetown, for a discussion of how oversight powers have evolved, practical strategies for dealing with unresponsive agencies, and how to work with committee staff to escalate casework trends to formal oversight.
Craigslist for Casework
House office looking for collaborators on:
Making SSA letters more readable (more plain language, less jargon)
Addressing federal benefits challenges from departing federal employees who took the DRP program, especially regarding retirement health insurance
Want to respond to this notice, or have a notice you’d like us to run in two weeks? Drop me a line at anne@popvox.org.
Casework News
It might be February but we’re not done counting 2025 casework yet!
Sen. Husted [R, OH]: $4.5 million returned
Rep. Morelle [D, NY]: 692 cases closed, $15.9 million returned
Sen. Coons [D, DE]: No exact numbers, but a nice way to display specific dollar amounts and concrete outcomes (e.g., $25,000 in Social Security backpay, $6,500 IRS penalty canceled).
Agency News
Immigration
ICE agents are using administrative warrants (signed only by ICE employees, not judges) to forcibly enter immigrants’ homes. For offices regularly hosting “know your rights” trainings/resources, it may be worth reviewing and updating your materials.
A Minnesota woman claims her Global Entry and TSA PreCheck were revoked three days after a federal agent used facial recognition to identify her while she was observing ICE vehicle activity. The agent stated that she was “impeding their work” and threatened arrest if it happened again.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s seven-day advance notice requirement for Congressional visits to immigrant detention facilities was struck down, allowing thirteen lawmakers to conduct immediate oversight visits.
Efforts to end temporary deportation protections for approximately 330,000 Haitians are currently on hold, protecting their legal status and work authorization while the case is appealed.
Secretary Noem announced body cameras will be deployed immediately to all immigration agents in Minneapolis (where two US citizens were fatally shot by federal agents) and expanded nationwide as funding becomes available.
An AI screening tool at ICE allegedly mistakenly routed applicants into shortened training by flagging resume keywords like “officer” (including titles like “compliance officer”) as prior law enforcement experience, resulting in undertrained hires being deployed to field offices before the error was caught and corrected.
After a Philadelphia retiree emailed a DHS attorney urging mercy for an asylum seeker, DHS used an administrative subpoena – which requires no judicial oversight – to demand his Google account information and sent investigators to question him at his home, even though he broke no law and was never charged with a crime.
FIFA World Cup 2026 ticket holders traveling to US matches can now access prioritized US visa appointments if they purchased tickets directly from FIFA.
VA
The VA is issuing a new $700 billion, ten-year contract to overhaul its community care program with better quality controls and cost management, replacing the current “unmanaged” system that was set up after the 2018 MISSION Act.
The VA Secretary testified in a hearing on “Building a 21st Century VA Health Care System,” about reorganizing the Veteran Health Administration’s (VHA) management structure to eliminate administrative layers and give local hospital directors more authority.
That same reorganization would shift health care staff from facilities with declining veteran populations to high-growth areas (like Tennessee, Arizona, and the Southeast) through attrition rather than layoffs, aiming to remove 30,000 positions by the end of FY2025.
IRS
The IRS is lowering its call-answering target to 70% and fell drastically short of hiring goals for this filing season due to government shutdown delays and new approval requirements, meaning casework teams should expect longer wait times and delays for constituents needing tax help.
As we enter tax season, here are some important resources to share: the IRS offers free tax filing assistance through VITA (for taxpayers earning $69,000 or less), TCE (for those 60+), Free File (a public-private partnership with tax software companies for AGI $89,000 or less), and in-person help at Taxpayer Assistance Centers by appointment at 844-545-5640; the Department of Defense separately provides MilTax for the military community with no income limits.
FEMA
A coalition of unions and local governments sued to block FEMA’s plan to cut over 10,000 employees (including CORE disaster responders whose contracts are not being renewed), arguing the reductions violate statutory requirements to maintain disaster response capacity under the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act.
Something to keep an eye on: the bipartisan Fixing Emergency Management for Americans Act, with 56 cosponsors (35 Republicans and 21 Democrats), would move FEMA out of the Department of Homeland Security and reform how the agency manages disaster assistance projects.
Social Security
A GAO report found that SSA’s elimination of telework has put the agency at risk of losing more staff, deepening existing skills gaps and worsening service delays for constituents seeking disability benefits and other services.
And, thanks to Danielle Leahy for pointing this out — SSA’s Field Office Locator now looks like it’s been updated with field office phone numbers, instead of the main 1-800 number. What great news to close out!