About this project

Introduction

To compile this list of the most important federal failures of the past eight years, a team of 13 reporters sifted through hundreds of inspectors general reports, Government Accountability Office assessments, congressional oversight investigations, and news stories. The team interviewed dozens of experts, congressional staffers, and leaders of government watchdog organizations and sent e-mails to more than 4,800 federal government employees to solicit nominations for inclusion in this project. Some 250 failures were nominated, from which editors selected more than 125 — those that elicited some level of bipartisan criticism, but also had a discernible impact on ordinary people.

The Team

Editorial Team:
Bill Buzenberg, executive director
David E. Kaplan, editorial director
Gordon Witkin, managing editor
Josh Israel, project coordinator
Tom Stites, consulting editor
Michael Zuckerman, consulting editor

Reporting Team:
Katherine Aaron, Sara Bularzik, Te-Ping Chen, Caitlin Ginley, Andrew Green, M. Asif Ismail, Josh Israel, Sarah Laskow, Marianne Lavelle, Matt Lewis, Aaron Mehta, Nick Schwellenbach, Kate Willson

Fact-checking:
Laura Cheek, Joe Eaton, Caitlin Ginley, Aaron Mehta, Peter Smith

Copy-editing:
Sara Bularzik, Andrew Green, Ariel Olson Surowidjojo

Web Design:
Stephen Rountree, www.rountreegraphics.com
Top Dead Center Design, www.tdcdesign.com

Technical Team:
David Donald
Andrew Green
Tuan Lee
Jeremy Lewis
Ariel Olson Surowidjojo

Media Team:
Steve Carpinelli
The Hatcher Group, www.thehatchergroup.com

Additional Thanks:
Bridget Gallagher
Carolyn Jarboe
Ellen McPeake
Michael Pell
Regina Russell
Marina Walker Guevara

Support for this and other Center for Public Integrity projects is provided by Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the JEHT Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Park Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and numerous other generous institutional and individual donors.