The Lawfare Podcast – Lawfare Archive: How Congressional Staffers Helped Our Afghan Allies

Date: December 6, 2025 (original interview from April 5, 2024)
Host: Natalie Orpet (Executive Editor, Lawfare)
Guest: Ann Meeker (Popvox Foundation, author of a new report on congressional staffers and the Afghan evacuation)

Overview

This episode revisits a pivotal moment in recent congressional history: the role congressional staffers played in helping Afghan allies escape during the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Drawing on a detailed report authored by Ann Meeker, the discussion highlights the personal and structural challenges staffers faced, the patchwork of responses across congressional offices, the emotional toll of the crisis, and emerging policy recommendations to improve congressional capacity in humanitarian emergencies.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Personal Motivation and Genesis of the Study

• Ann Meeker’s Perspective (04:46)
  • Meeker, a former congressional caseworker, was struck by how the Afghanistan crisis defined modern congressional constituent work.
  • Her advocacy helped create Popvox’s “Casework Navigator” program aimed at strengthening congressional casework capacity.

“Caseworkers who had been doing casework since the summer of 2021—this was the thing that just defined congressional casework today for them.”
—Ann Meeker (05:31)

The Nature of Congressional Casework during the Evacuation

• Types of Inquiries Staff Received (06:07)

  • Early calls: Veterans asking for help with translators and families needing expedited SIV/visa processing.
  • Calls became increasingly urgent: People at risk, afraid for their lives, seeking any possible avenue of escape.

• Challenges in Navigating the SIV Program (08:57)

  • The Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program was so specialized that many caseworkers felt lost.
  • Disparity between offices with existing immigration expertise versus others facing these issues for the first time.

“Some offices knew... what was going on, and then other offices... were really just kind of stuck saying, where do I go? What do I do with these cases?”
—Ann Meeker (09:19)

Triaging, Emotional Burden & Hard Choices

• Uneven Workload and Triaging Needs (10:51)
  • Some offices faced thousands of desperate calls, forcing rapid-fire, life-and-death triage decisions.
  • Prioritization sometimes meant choosing between pregnant women, children, and other extremely vulnerable populations.
  • These choices have had a lasting emotional impact on staffers.

“That’s not a decision you think you’re going to sign up to have to make when you take a job as a congressional staffer.”
—Ann Meeker (11:29)

Office Resources, Coordination, and Inequity

• Disparities Across Offices (12:08, 13:26)

  • Casework is structured by individual congressional offices with huge variations in commitment, knowledge, and resources.
  • Some members personally intervened, even texting Marines at the Kabul airport or calling the State Department directly.

• Numbers and Scale (14:47)

  • Data is largely self-reported and not transparently shared.
  • Secretary Blinken reported 26,000 congressional inquiries just weeks after the Kabul withdrawal, evidencing mass coordination and overload.

Stories from the Field: Successes and Losses

• The Duality of Casework Outcomes (19:08)
  • Offices proudly display photos of successful Afghan evacuees, but staffers also carry the weight of unknown fates—those who went silent after the bombing or never made it out.

“She has a few photos of Afghans who made it... but she kind of contrasted that wall with... a hidden mental wall where she thinks about the Afghans who weren’t able to make it out.”
—Ann Meeker (19:11)

The Toll of Trauma, and Congressional Response

• Recognition and Mental Health Support (20:50)
  • House and Senate Employee Assistance Programs responded to urgent needs by setting up group support and continuing mental health resources for caseworkers.
  • External support networks (e.g., Afghan evacuation groups) provided camaraderie and validation.

Improvised Networks & Cross-Office Coordination

• Staffer Ingenuity and Teams Chats (28:55)
  • Staffers started grassroots communications channels to share State Department updates, vet resources, and crowdsource best practices.
  • This collaboration was not pre-existing—creative navigation became essential.
  • Importance of bipartisan, nonpartisan cooperation—the party affiliation often didn't even come up.

“If you give them an obstacle, they’re going to find a way under it, around it, over it...”
—Ann Meeker (28:59)

Systemic, Technological, and Bureaucratic Failures

• Agency Bottlenecks & Lack of Standards (30:56, 33:19)
  • The flood of inquiries overloaded State and other agencies, exposing weaknesses in information systems and a lack of mandated response standards.
  • Every agency responds to Congress differently; new staff must learn each system from scratch.

“There are so few places in law or regulation or statute where Congress has told an agency how it wants them to respond to constituent inquiries.”
—Ann Meeker (33:25)

• Data Infrastructure Shortcomings (32:30, 35:30)
  • Calls for GAO studies and improved dashboards to track trends and improve responses.

Recommendations and Forward-Looking Solutions

• Develop Data-Sharing Tools (37:52)

  • House Digital Services is piloting a project to collect anonymized, top-line casework data to identify systemic trends—could help offices benchmark and organize legislative responses.

• Create a DC-Based Casework Liaison Office (38:50)

  • Would support caseworkers, ensure timely communication between agencies and offices, and elevate the profession’s skill and needs.

• Improve Information-Sharing Protocols with Security in Mind (41:04)

  • Ongoing tension between necessary secrecy and the need for actionable information; caseworkers need better training and coordination with committee staff to overcome “sensitive” stonewalling.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “One of the things that unites every member of Congress... they all have dedicated staff... to pick up the phone when a constituent is having problems.”
  —Ann Meeker (15:53)

• “A caseworker does... talk to both agencies and understand the disconnect there. So yeah, that cross agency expertise on Congress’s side is really, really important.”
  —Ann Meeker (35:54)

• On emotional costs:
  “Some caseworkers talked about... after the suicide bomb at the airport... They went silent. And I don’t know if... their phone died... or if they were killed.”
  —Ann Meeker (19:32)

• “Casework is genuinely how Congress comes face to face with the impact of the policy decisions it makes.... Congress could be so much more effective... if it had a better way to tap into, recognize and tap into that expertise from caseworkers.”
  —Ann Meeker (43:54)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Personal Motivation & Study Genesis: 04:46
• Nature & Scale of Inquiries: 06:07, 10:05
• Triaging Life-and-Death Decisions: 10:51, 11:53
• Resource & Coordination Inequity: 12:08, 13:26
• Volume & Impact Data: 14:47
• Who Are Caseworkers?: 15:53
• Stories of Success & Loss: 19:08
• Trauma & Mental Health: 20:50
• Ingenuity & Teams Chats: 28:55
• Agency Bottlenecks: 30:56, 32:30, 33:19
• Future Recommendations: 37:52, 38:50, 41:04
• Main Takeaways: 43:54

Final Takeaways & Reflections

Ann Meeker ended by stressing the essential—yet underappreciated—role congressional caseworkers play not just in crisis, but as bridges between policy and reality. She called for Congress to formally recognize, leverage, and support the expertise caseworkers represent, using their experiences not only for constituent service but as a feedback loop for smarter legislation and oversight.

For listeners seeking further context, the episode connects to Lawfare's “Allies” series on U.S. failures toward Afghan partners, and offers a rare inside view on the unsung frontline of congressional public service.