About the Event
As legislative staffers, getting a bill signed into law is only half the battle. The real challenge? Ensuring that law achieves your Member's intended impact when implemented in the real world.
To tackle this timely policymaker challenge, we’re inviting you to a discussion that is the first in a series focused on going beyond traditional legislative training to address the critical but often overlooked issues with implementation across the Executive branch.
Join former Executive branch experts for a conversation during which they will share real-life examples and first-hand accounts to help you:
Identify and avoid common policy design pitfalls that can derail your Member's objectives
Learn techniques for crafting legislation that translates effectively from paper to practice
Reduce future constituent casework by anticipating implementation challenges
Learn insider perspectives on how the Executive branch interprets and implements legislation
Constituents are often on the front lines of experiencing the frustration of well-intentioned legislation falling short during implementation. Oftentimes, the public servants administering these programs see where they are missing the mark, but don't have the authority to communicate this feedback to Congress. This discussion will explore practical solutions to help you and your boss draft more effective policies that deliver real results for your constituents and advance your Member's goals. It will build off of policy solutions proposed in the recently published paper, "The HOW We Need Now: A Capacity Agenda for 2025."
This is the first in a series of events focused on improving government efficiency and effectiveness. We will design upcoming talks based on feedback at the first event. For more information on this series, please email Amanda Patarino at apatarino@niskanencenter.org.
Speakers
Marci Harris is the co-founder and CEO of POPVOX and Executive Director of the nonprofit POPVOX Foundation. Marci is passionate about using technology for good and developed the idea for the POPVOX civic technology platform while working as a Congressional staffer with the Ways and Means Health subcommittee from 2008-2010. Marci has rich experience unifying communities, including leading redevelopment in Jackson, Tennessee after a 2003 tornado and advising FEMA and Puerto Rico's government on recovery strategies following the 2018 hurricanes. Marci makes regular contributions to Congressional modernization, testifying before the House Select Committee on Modernization and co-writing tech recommendations for the American Political Science Association's Presidential Task Force. During the pandemic, she guided Congress' adoption of remote technologies and workflows. In 2023, she initiated the first staff level information-sharing sessions around the use of AI in the legislative branch and has become an internationally recognized expert on AI for parliaments. Marci is a lecturer in political science at San Jose State University and adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco. She holds a B.A. from Franklin University Lugano, Switzerland, a J.D. from the University of Memphis, an LL.M. from American University, and has held fellowships at New America and the Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.
Marci is a lecturer in political science at San Jose State University and adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco. She holds a B.A. from Franklin University Lugano, Switzerland, a J.D. from the University of Memphis, and an LL.M. from American University.
Jennifer Pahlka is the author of Recoding America, and a pioneer in making government work for people in the digital age. She founded Code for America in 2010 and led the organization for ten years. In 2013, she took a leave of absence to serve as U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer under President Obama and helped found the United States Digital Service. She served on the Defense Innovation Board, started by the late Ash Carter, under Presidents Obama and Trump.
At the start of the pandemic, she also co-founded United States Digital Response, which helps government meet the needs of the public with volunteer tech support. She has received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and was named by Wired as one of the 25 people who has most shaped the past 25 years. Jennifer is a graduate of Yale University and lives in California with her husband, Tim O’Reilly.
Andrew Greenway is one of Public Digital's Founders. He was Public Digital's first Managing Director from 2022 to 2024. A former senior civil servant, Andrew is passionate about public service reform. His writing on this subject has been published widely in the national and specialist press in the UK and beyond. In 2018, he wrote Public Digital’s book. This has become the recognised reference text for digital government, selling more than ten thousand copies. Andrew has been invited to speak as a noted thinker and communicator on government reform at conferences around the world.
Andrew is an expert in strategy and statecraft. He led the UK Government’s work to create new digital guidelines and standards, a model of institutional change now used in many governments worldwide. He also wrote the influential Radical How report on mission-driven government, published in 2024.
Andrew is highly experienced in carrying out reviews of major government programmes to assess the efficient and cost-effective delivery of public services. He has provided strategic advice on digital transformation to ministers and senior government leaders in public administrations as diverse as Canada, Peru, Australia and Japan.
He has also worked with senior government leaders in Canada for several years, helping them turn around technology programmes, deliver crucial services during the pandemic, and scale the digital team from a small innovation unit to an 800-person and $200m budget department.
Andrew is a non-executive director at the University of Exeter, a global top 150 university.
About POPVOX Foundation
POPVOX Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization with a mission to help democratic institutions keep pace with a rapidly changing world. Through publications, events, prototypes, and technical assistance, the organization helps public servants and elected officials better serve their constituents and make better policy.
About the Niskanen Center
Named “The Most Interesting Think Tank in American Politics” by TIME Magazine in 2023, the Niskanen Center promotes policies that advance prosperity, opportunity, and human flourishing, guided by the belief that a free market and an effective government are mutually dependent