Representative Don Bacon (R-NE)

Representative Cheri Bustos (D-IL)

Representative Don Bacon (R-NE)

The office of Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) begins each year crafting a strategic plan for exceptional constituent service through a culture of teamwork, compassion, community collaboration, and servant leadership.

Training programs for new staff and interns include an extensive review of the strategic plan and all expectations, policies, and procedures. A vital expectation among staff is that the office will respond quickly to constituent requests, follow-up, and attempt to use every available resource to resolve their concerns.

Congressman Bacon's office uses both traditional media and social media to inform and communicate with constituents. Social media often acts the same as phone calls, emails, or visits to the office, the success of which is seen in the number of constituents who request assistance in comment sections, resulting in many constituent cases.

In 2020, the office logged more than 54,714 interactions and opinions from constituents on a multitude of issue areas and topics of interest. The district staff worked more than 1,053 cases and requests for assistance and held 6 virtual telephone town hall meetings with an average attendance of 3,182 constituents. Three of those telephone town halls were COVID-19 focused, featuring health experts to keep constituents updated including one to provide resources and relief to small businesses.

Furthermore, the office hosted and participated in a number of live, online webinars on topics such as the Holocaust, sex trafficking, combatting sexual assault, and recreational drone safety in partnership with government agencies and civic leaders, organizations, victims, and experts. The webinars are recorded and made available to the public afterward via Rep. Bacon's YouTube page and social media.

Rep. Bacon is passionate about engaging young people in the democratic process, so he launched the Congressional Youth Advisory Academy (CYAA) as a non-partisan youth program designed to educate students on how Congress operates and the process by which public policies are formed. The goal of the CYAA is to foster civic engagement and community service. This academy provides student members with the unique opportunity to participate in legislative simulations, community service events, lectures with community leaders, and policy debates.

Representative Cheri Bustos (D-IL)

For Rep. Cheri Bustos' (D-IL) office, outstanding constituent service is more than a routine practice – it is a daily expectation. With an open door policy, the office strives to make it easy for constituents to meet, speak, or correspond with their caseworkers.

The constituent services staff have regularly scheduled team meetings to discuss issues and share best practices. The Director of Constituent Services has an open dialogue with all casework staff and regularly speaks with them one-on-one to identify emerging needs or trends in casework.

Constituent services are highlighted and celebrated throughout the office, as the team is invited to share stories and lift up successful casework on their weekly all-staff call. This helps legislative staff identify and develop legislation in response to constituent concerns, and communications staff identify impactful stories to share with press and digital audiences. The office tracks success stories and even features them on their website, with consent, to encourage others to reach out for assistance.

For example, after meeting the widow of a fallen soldier, Congresswoman Bustos learned the young mother wanted to move back to Illinois to be near family while in mourning, but her landlord would not allow her to break her lease without costly cancellation fees. Congresswoman Bustos worked across the aisle to sponsor the Gold Star Families Leasing Act, which passed Congress and was signed into law. The legislation extends residential leasing protections to surviving spouses of service members killed in the line of duty.

Additionally, after hosting a series of economic round tables and learning that many small towns were losing critical services based on the retirement of small business owners with no succession plan, the office authored the bipartisan Small Business Succession Planning Act to provide resources to local owners and incentivize succession planning. Similarly, when the agricultural community voiced concerns about climate change and economic development, the office created the Rural Green Partnership, a legislative framework that includes rural America as a partner for addressing climate change and enhancing economic development opportunities in the region.

During the 116th Congress, the office recovered nearly $1,000,000 for constituents, opened 1,786 cases to assist constituents with federal agencies, hosted 177 constituent meetings/calls, held 3 telephone town halls, and hosted 29 large teleconferences/webinars to connect constituents and stakeholders with disaster resources.