The Oscars for the Deep State

Please do not picture polyester and pocket protectors. The dress code for the Sammies is black tie or military uniform, and, when I arrived at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, last Wednesday evening, the atmosphere was Jackie-level glamorous. This was something of a feat, given that, in deference to ethics laws, the cocktails, food, and party favors were estimated to be worth less than seventy dollars per person—a fact that was widely advertised, to make Hill staffers and civil servants feel comfortable attending. Doors opened at five and the event started at six, no doubt so that many of the five hundred attendees could return to the office that night or bright and early the next morning. “I have to get home,” I heard one State Department employee say around nine o’clock, “I like to be at my desk by 6:30 to be as close as possible to Burkina Faso time.”

You can stream the Sammies online, but—with all due respect to the Emmys—they should air this thing on prime-time television. It’s the closest thing to a democratic revival you’ll find, a patriotic telethon where, instead of asking for more of your money, they just show you all the wonderful things that they’ve already done with it. Consider Amira Boland, who won the Sammy for Management Excellence. Boland, the daughter of a Lebanese immigrant, was the first-ever customer-experience lead at the Office of Management and Budget; in that role, she spent six years trying to increase the public’s trust in the government, working across federal agencies to streamline the Medicare-enrollment process, pilot a program for online passport renewal, and simplify disaster-assistance applications.

When accepting her Sammy, Boland thanked “Team O.M.B. that’s rolling deep tonight,” then shared the story she said was the North Star of her federal career. At a meeting with Customs and Border Protection, she spoke with an officer who told her that, during one of his patrols on the U.S.-Mexico border, “he heard a woman yell and a commotion as people ran to hold her up.” He ran toward the woman, too, and realized when he saw her that she was about to give birth. The officer knew she needed a doctor, but there wasn’t enough time. He picked her up in his arms and ran with her—across the border, where he helped deliver her baby in the United States of America. “She’s beautiful, she’s perfect,” Boland said, of the child. “And she’s loving middle school.” In a split second, she continued, that officer changed the course of someone’s life. When Boland asked what made him do it, he told her, “I did what any human who believed in this country would do.”