In typical August fashion, the news cycle has slowed down a good bit. Not much is happening in the policy world right now. The President is out of town for a couple of weeks and most of us are back in our home states visiting with the good people we represent. That has certainly been the case for me. It’s been wall-to-wall meetings the last couple of weeks – everybody from our local realtors and continuing care health professionals to individuals and families who needed to talk about casework issues and policy concerns.
For many of my colleagues and definitely for me, this is an extremely important time of the year. As most of you know, I really try to make a point to answer every piece of correspondence I get and I do my best to take every meeting possible with constituents when they ask. The weeks frequently get busy flying back and forth to DC, so August is a really important chance to catch up and spend a few straight weeks back home.
In any case, I don’t have a whole lot else to report at the moment. I really just wanted to take this opportunity to remind everybody that if you or someone you know is having an issue with a federal agency, please don’t hesitate to call. Whenever people get jammed up and lost in the bureaucratic maze that is the federal government, we’ve got some very knowledgeable and dedicated people on staff who can help get things moving again. The rules are the rules and we can’t always change the outcome of a dispute with the government, but we can absolutely make sure that your government is being responsive to you. That is truly one of the most rewarding aspects of being your representative. Instead of getting pushed around by the bureaucracy, we finally get to push back and restore some accountability.
U.S. Rep. Rich Nugent represents The Villages in Congress.
