ABOUT THE TRAINING

Caseworkers' authority to help constituents comes from Congress's oversight responsibility. But what does that mean beyond writing bills and letters? This crash course will help caseworkers understand and be an asset to their teams' legislative work, from appropriations to NDAA.

SPEAKER

Tim Stretton is the director of the Congressional Oversight Initiative at the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) where he helps train congressional staff on how to conduct better oversight and investigations. He joined POGO in 2019, having worked on POGO’s policy team developing reform recommendations on various issues ranging from financial services and appropriations to public lands and the Food and Drug Administration. Tim has testified several times before Congress on improving oversight and transparency of the nation's oil and gas royalty system as well as improving congressional oversight capacity.

Tim is an expert on financial services, public lands, and oil and gas royalty payments, and has been quoted in Politico, Business Insider, Roll Call, Government Executive, NPR, NBC News, and various other media outlets.

Before coming to POGO, Tim worked for six years for U.S. Senator Susan Collins and the Senate Aging Committee. While in the Senate, Tim worked on policy issues that included telecommunications, postal, financial services, government oversight and reform, federal employees, elder justice, and consumer protection. Tim helped develop several pieces of legislation that became law to prevent seniors from becoming victims of fraud and financial exploitation and to better protect taxpayers from falling victim to tax identity theft. A direct referral Tim made from the Committee’s Fraud Hotline led to the arrest of 15 criminals accused of posing as government agents and defrauding more than 8,000 victims out of $9 million. He also helped lead a bipartisan investigation into prescription drug pricing.

Tim is passionate about international affairs and has spoken before the United Nations on human rights violations. Tim earned his M.A. in Diplomacy at Norwich University. He earned his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Southern Maine, where his thesis on the cohesion of EU foreign policy was selected for publication by the European Union Center of California at Scripps College, one of the most prestigious centers of EU studies in the United States.

MODERATOR

Anne Meeker is a civic process and democratic engagement nerd, and a former House district staffer. She was a founding member of the POPVOX Foundation team as Director of Special Initiatives and now serves as Deputy Director. She previously served as Director of Constituent Services for Congressman Seth Moulton, where she worked to use data and technology to deliver smarter casework services to residents of the MA06. Anne holds a bachelor's degree in Anthropology from the University of Oxford (St. Hugh's College), and an MSc in History from the London School of Economics, where she wrote her thesis on presidential memoir. She is also a proud native Clevelander, and will take any opportunity to cheerlead for the 'Land.