help with a federal agency

If you are having issues with federal programs or a federal agency, my staff and I can often help you answer questions, find resources, or resolve problems. While I cannot ask an agency to circumvent its rules, force it to make a certain determination or revisit a decision that is considered final, we can make inquiries about the status of your situation and review the steps taken thus far to ensure your case is being handled properly.

To submit a request for assistance, please complete the intake form below. If necessary, the form will also serve as a privacy release, as I am required by The Privacy Act of 1974 to provide written proof of your consent to federal agencies.

Members of Congress generally have access to the same congressional resources and work with the same designated liaisons within federal agencies. While each congressional office has its own casework practices, contacting multiple congressional offices about the same matter does not provide additional influence with an agency or necessarily result in a faster or different outcome.

Submitting the same request to multiple congressional offices at the same time may actually delay the initial inquiry process. Because congressional offices generally work with the same agency liaisons, agencies may pause action on duplicative inquiries while the congressional offices coordinate and establish a single point of contact for the case.

Similarly, if you have recently worked with another congressional office on the same matter and that office has already received a response from the agency, submitting the same inquiry through a different congressional office is unlikely to produce a different response. When appropriate, it may be more effective to continue working with the office already familiar with your case, particularly if the matter remains active.

Our goal is to make the congressional inquiry process as effective and efficient as possible. If another congressional office has previously assisted you with the matter, please let us know when submitting your request and provide any relevant correspondence or agency responses you have received.

Congressional offices strive to provide constituents with accurate, case-specific guidance based on current federal agency policies, procedures, and operational realities. While large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini, may provide general information, their responses are not always accurate, current, or tailored to the unique circumstances of an individual case. Congressional casework is highly dependent on evolving agency guidance, current events, legal and policy considerations, office protocols, and agency-specific processes. For this reason, information generated by AI tools should not be relied upon as an authoritative source regarding how congressional casework is conducted, evaluated, or prioritized.

If you have any questions, you may call my office at 301-545-1500.