Fixing Congressional Oversight Starts With Caseworkers

Congress writes laws but rarely follows up on how they are implemented. When things inevitably go wrong, it passes the buck to agencies, which often hire consultants to investigate the problem at great expense. However, Congress could do the job itself for free. Congress already employs a cadre of staff that knows the gory details of government programs—namely, caseworkers.

Caseworkers are staff employed by members of Congress to help their constituents navigate the federal bureaucracy. When the public has problems with federal agencies—everything from mishandled disability applications to poor postal service—caseworkers are the go-between to sort things out. In helping the public, caseworkers learn how the implementation of government programs can go awry.

Congress invests heavily in casework; by our calculations, caseworkers are about 15 percent of Congressional office staff. But Congress does not tap into their knowledge, largely because caseworkers are based in their home districts, where they work with constituents in person. As caseworkers are far from the politics of the U.S. Capitol, the Washington establishment often wrongly thinks of them as merely entry-level customer service representatives.

Instead, Congress should recognize that they are subject-matter experts and put their knowledge to use. Congress could benefit from their expertise by turning caseworkers loose on three problems: identifying root causes of dysfunction, spotting emerging problems, and creating better-informed policy.

Caseworkers could help identify the source of longstanding problems. When they determine why the bureaucracy made a mistake for constituents, they often discover the underlying cause. For example, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) sometimes improperly continues paying dependent benefits to disabled soldiers even after their children become too old to be eligible. These veterans later discover that their disability checks have been cut off and the VA is demanding that they repay tens of thousands of dollars. Caseworkers who assist these veterans know the cause: the VA has no way for veterans to amend their listed dependents themselves. These changes must be made manually by bureaucrats, with only a handful of employees processing updates for the entire country.

To fix these longstanding problems, oversight staff should consult caseworkers for their insight. Congressional committees that oversee agencies providing social services could host a "staff day" at the beginning of each Congress, incorporating caseworkers' expertise into their oversight plans.

Casework could provide Congress with an early warning signal to spot emerging problems. For example, Rep. Loudermilk's staff (R-Ga.) had rarely received postal complaints until March 2024, when they began receiving tens and then hundreds of complaints about mail delays and missing items. His caseworkers soon uncovered that Georgia was the testing ground for a new U.S. Postal Service reorganization. After discovering this, lawmakers conducted oversight to ensure tax returns and primary ballots would be delivered promptly.

To help other offices replicate this success, Congress needs data management tools that summarize complaints heard by individual legislators. The House has already begun creating a dashboard of anonymized casework data, which could also be adopted by the Senate. Congressional committees should use these tools for oversight and invest in their success.

Congress could ask caseworkers to help write better laws in the future. Lawmakers may not understand implementation details but good caseworkers do. For example, the proposed TAS Act aims to address common taxpayer complaints about the IRS; it draws upon recommendations from the Taxpayer Advocate Service, which in turn drew upon Congressional casework inquiries.

Congress should prioritize incorporating such insight directly from caseworkers. Congressional committees might even borrow experienced caseworkers to provide input in strengthening draft bills, in addition to incorporating casework data into oversight plans.

In today's era of low trust in government, good casework matters more than ever. Caseworkers are the first line of defense for constituents, demonstrating that interactions with government can reflect trust, accountability, and dignity. More than that, caseworkers could rebuild trust in government by helping Congress hold the government accountable and write better laws. This requires that Congress take casework more seriously and view it as an integral part of oversight and legislation.

So, the next time Congress wants to sort out a thorny problem, it shouldn't send agencies running to consultants to find solutions. Instead, lawmakers should schedule a happy hour with their caseworkers.

Anne Meeker is a former Director of Constituent Services and Deputy Director of POPVOX Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit that helps democratic institutions keep pace with a rapidly changing world.

Kevin Hawickhorst is a Policy Analyst at the Foundation for American Innovation, a think tank that develops technology, talent, and ideas that support a better, freer, and more abundant future.