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Comment by devoutsalsa | Hacker News Reader

I contact my congressional representative when I need help with the IRS. Have done it twice now. Works great.

Hard to believe they actually get back to you and help. Any correspondence I've had with representatives is basically met with a form letter that doesn't even address the actual content of my concern.

If you send details about a particular case (rather than a general political issue) to their constitutent services department, they will often get back to you in a day.

In my case, they sent back a form letter about a similar issue, but it didn't address my specific issue.

Out of curiosity, was your correspondence in reference to navigating the federal government’s services, or were you corresponding to share your concerns about political matters?

It seems like the congressional offices can be useful for bringing exceptional cases to the attention of the various federal bureaucracies, from taxes to passports to capital tours.

Both, on different occasions.

Having a single representative as a point of contact is an underrated advantage of the FPTP system the UK and US use.

As a European, the need or desire for such an indirect system is mindbogglingly weird. Just fix the broken machinery, instead of this world where "your party" provides you with government services.

This also works with other government agencies, such as the ATF.

How will the ATF help me with my taxes?

</sarcasm>

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