[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 171 (Thursday, October 1, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H5110-H5111]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           RECOGNIZING CASEWORKERS IN ILLINOIS' 15TH DISTRICT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to continue to thank my staff 
for excellent service to the constituents of my district and sometimes 
to those even outside my district.
  In our organization, caseworkers live and work in Illinois. They work 
out of my district offices, which I have historically spread out 
throughout my large, mainly rural district. During this Congress, my 
offices have been in Maryville, Effingham, Harrisburg, and Danville.
  My caseworkers are my representatives to that region. They also 
welcome visitors and forward legislative concerns to my legislative 
assistant, but their primary job is that of casework.
  What is a case? A case is a concern, request, or correction by my 
constituents who feel that they are not receiving due benefits or 
having trouble just getting answers from the Federal Government. Our 
job is to get them an answer. I was always careful never to promise 
that I could solve their problem; I only promise that we would try. My 
caseworkers did all the work.
  Mr. Speaker, those district caseworkers are:
  Ballard, Mary; Buettner, Ruth; Bugger, Doug; Carlson, Brad; Davis, 
Rodney; Detmers, Deb (Fansler); Dillman, Jen; Flanigan, Matt; Graham, 
Donna; Hall, Mike; Hamilton, Daniel; Hanson, John; Hantz, Chuck; Healy, 
Holly (Linder); Hoffman, Doug.
  Jamison, Reno; Madigan Andrea; Maxwell, Mary Ellen/Maria (Madonia); 
Merriman, Angie; Nelson, Jed; Newcomb, Nate; Holloway, Kay D.; Pickett, 
Matt; Pruitt, Jen; Rice, Matt; Rohan, Dora; Shull, Kristen; 
Tomaszewski, Steve; Von Burg, Peggy; Weber, Amy.
  Mr. Speaker, over the years, my office has been able to assist 
literally thousands of people with their problems with the Federal 
Government. Here are just a few examples of things that they have been 
able to accomplish.
  One of my constituents was born in Mississippi in the 1930s at home 
with a midwife. In her seventies, she tried to get a passport for a 
once-in-a-lifetime trip to Spain, but her birth was never recorded, and 
her parents were deceased.
  My office assisted her in obtaining school records, baptismal 
certificates, marriage license, children's birth certificates, and 
certified letters from old friends. These documents, combined with a 
Census search showing her living with her grandmother in Mississippi in 
the 1940s, finally was ample information for her to obtain a passport.
  Mr. Speaker, I have been able to present medals to deserving veterans 
across my district. Often the veterans

[[Page H5111]]

do not want to talk about their experience, but their awards are 
important to their children and their grandchildren. One of these 
veterans was the uncle of my veterans affairs caseworker, Doug Bugger. 
Another is a veteran from Robinson, Illinois, who had been shot and 
taken prisoner by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. After 
receiving the awards, he gave an interview to the Robinson Daily News 
and used a photograph of him with his medals, including his Purple 
Heart. Helping in the recovery of these military awards helps these 
veterans relay their experiences to family and friends.
  Social Security disability is a long and frustrating process. One 
gentleman had been approved but had waited nearly a year for his 
backpay when he came to my Harrisburg office. It turned out it was 
coded incorrectly in the Social Security system. Within 2 weeks, my 
office got the situation corrected, and he received his backpay.
  Some of our happiest casework is to help families with overseas 
adoptions, like the family that was in the process of adopting a child 
from Haiti just as the pandemic was shutting everything down. My office 
was able to work with the Embassy to get child humanitarian parole to 
come to the United States of America.

                              {time}  0915

  Mr. Speaker, I can go on and on like most offices could talking about 
the work that their caseworkers do. I don't have time to do that, so I 
will include these additional stories in the Record.
  A veteran came to one of my Traveling Help Desks. He had recently 
undergone a partial amputation of his foot. The VA doctor missed the 
diagnosis, so a private doctor performed the procedure. The VA was 
refusing to pay for the surgery, but after our inquiry, the VA agreed 
the surgery was necessary and it was their mistake in missing the 
diagnosis and paid the bill for $1,712.76.
   A veteran had fallen off a crane during his time in the military. 
This resulted in a 3-inch gash to the head and subsequent severe 
seizures. He had been trying to get disability from the VA for 10 
years. After our inquiry, he was granted a 100% service-connected 
disability and approved retroactively for 10 years (estimated $227,440) 
and now receives $1,940 per month.
  A veteran requested our assistance in obtaining his father's silver 
star from WWI. We were able to obtain this, as well as his other medals 
and I presented them to the family at a family reunion. The family made 
a box for the medals and gave them to the American Legion to display. 
The family was very happy.
  A constituent contacted our office on behalf of her husband. Medicare 
was denying his claims because there was an error in the paperwork that 
showed her husband had employer-provided insurance, when in fact he had 
been retired since 1986. Her husband was terminally ill, and she was 
spending a lot of time trying to resolve this situation. She had called 
more than 50 places before she called our office. After contacting our 
office, we were able to have the problem fixed and have the claims 
reprocessed and paid.
  A union contacted our office on the issue of wage differentiation 
concerning government employees in Illinois. After our inquiry, it was 
determined there was an error when the wage differentiation was made, 
and a salary adjustment was made.
  The local FSA was not allowing some constituents to mow their 
property that was enrolled in the CRP program. Not mowing the land 
would result in trees growing on the property, which would defeat the 
purpose of having the land in CRP. After an inquiry from our office, 
the state revised their rules.
  A constituent came to us because Social Security was showing him as 
deceased, when in fact it was his wife who had passed away on May 20 of 
this year. We were able to expedite a correction of his records and 
have his retirement benefits reinstated. This was a Social Security 
Administration error.
  A constituent received a notice from the IRS that after paying her 
debt of $2,400 from her quarterly taxes of 9/87 and 12/87 on her 
previous business, she now owed $3,184 in interest and penalties. She 
was never aware of the interest and penalties as she had repeatedly 
asked for a statement from the IRS for her $100.00 payments and federal 
tax returns they had also been keeping. Also, she had never received 
the original bills because her business closed in 1990, and they had 
been sending these notices to that address. We ended up going with her 
to an IRS problem solving day and staying with her through several 
hours of negotiations. Eventually, her balance was zeroed. She was very 
grateful and ended up testifying at our IRS hearings.
  A constituent was applying for a teaching position at one of the 
local schools. He needed transcripts from his alma mater in Oklahoma to 
obtain his provisional teaching certificate. The school was telling him 
they could not provide this because they did not keep records prior to 
1985. We were able to intervene with the school, and obtain a letter 
verifying his completion of a 72-hour course from a former instructor. 
This worked for the teaching certificate and he received the job.
  A constituent contacted our office regarding his request to help him 
obtain an answer from AT&T Broadband Services concerning the free 
internet service for schools that they have advertised. He contacted 
AT&T several times but never felt he got a straight answer as to when 
the service was going to be available to the school. I met with AT&T 
representatives and told them of this situation. AT&T got in touch with 
him and the school was hooked up. I was able to visit the school and 
see the technology area. The kids all sent me a thank you note.
  A constituent worked at a small local newspaper. She had contacted us 
for assistance with child support enforcement. Her ex was in the Navy 
and then became a pilot. According to the law, he could lose his 
passport for being over $5,000 in arrears. He owed $10,330 and we were 
able to work with the appropriate enforcement agencies and he ended up 
paying $5,500 of his debt and his monthly payment increased from $200 a 
month to $1,000 a month. She was very grateful to our office.
  The Edwards County Coroner informed my office that the remains of a 
Sgt. Kenneth Cunningham of Albion had been identified 45 years after 
his plane went down over the Kon Tum Province in Vietnam. The coroner 
and family were working to bring the remains home for a burial and were 
having some difficulty with the bureaucracy. We were able to talk to 
the Defense Department and help with the arrangements the family 
wanted. The family was able to be at the airport in Louisville, 
Kentucky when he arrived, and the Patriot Guard accompanied Sgt. 
Cunningham back to Albion where citizens lined up along the route to 
pay their respects. The VFW distributed 500 flags along the route and 
more than 200 local volunteers lined the route from the town to the 
cemetery with over 2,400 flags.
  A constituent sought my help in March of this year during the COVID-
19 pandemic to bring his daughter and his grandson back to the United 
States on the repatriation flights the Department of State offered. 
Working with the father and the State Department they both made it back 
to the United States two and half weeks after contacting us.
  Also, in March we assisted 5 constituents stranded in Honduras after 
the border had been closed. They had problems receiving their transit 
letters from the U.S. Embassy so they could travel to the airport. We 
were able to assist, and they were able to get seats on a plane 
chartered by a church out of Lincoln, Nebraska.
  The Sny Island Levee Drainage District protects 110,000 acres of 
prime farmland in west central Illinois. Due to the change in flow of 
the Mississippi, this privately owned and maintained levee was 
threatened with failing. We helped coordinate emergency repairs by the 
Corp of Engineers to protect the navigation channel at that location. 
This also protected the farmland.
  ``Lights On for Route 20'' was a movement for a four-lane road 
between Springfield and Taylorville. Lobbied intensely by the local 
communities and concerned parents we were able to designate one million 
dollars for engineering. This was a small investment versus the total 
costs. This investment did get the attention of the state 
representative and the state senator who requested that this project be 
included in the governor's Build Illinois project list. We now have a 
four-lane road between Springfield and Taylorville.
  Mr. Speaker, some cases resolve quickly. Many cases take months and 
even years to resolve. My caseworkers always show compassion and 
concern to my constituents. They answer their calls; they return their 
calls; and for that, I say thanks. I am very proud of the service that 
they have given to the people of southern Illinois.

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