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Weekly Columns

Serving Arkansans

Feb 13 2015

For many Arkansans, their earned benefits from Social Security, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Medicare and other federal agencies are critical to their daily lives. When information is mishandled, incorrectly entered into a database or left off of a form, it can cause serious problems. Every day I hear from Arkansans who are having trouble resolving problems with federal agencies. More than 3,000 Arkansans reached out to my office for this reason last year alone. I’m proud of what my staff and I have accomplished to resolve issues involving the federal government on behalf of hardworking Arkansas families.

My office has assisted thousands of people with a wide range of matters involving the federal government, including the IRS, Social Security, Medicare, VA, international adoption, visas and many other issues.

We were able to help Harold in Decatur with a problem he had getting an income tax refund because of a clerical error by the IRS. We helped a Jonesboro chiropractor get her payments from Medicare. After nearly four decades of working on his VA claim, Michael in Sebastian County, reached out to my office and soon after received an approval for service-connected disability. These are just three of the thousands of people we helped. We want to help you too.

Hearing the problems citizens have with federal agencies is a reminder of the impact that we can make in the lives of Arkansans. While I cannot override the decisions made by federal agencies, I can intervene to answer questions, find solutions, or just cut through the red tape.  

My staff working for you to resolve these problems has more than 61 combined years of experience navigating our complex bureaucracy and getting answers Arkansans are waiting for.  

Our goal is for you to have access to the help you need. That’s why we have offices in El Dorado, Jonesboro, Fort Smith, Lowell, Little Rock, Mountain Home and Stuttgart. The locations of these seven offices are designed to make it more convenient for you to reach us. We understand that driving is not always an option, so we also take our offices on the road for mobile office events.

During the second week of February, my staff will host mobile office events in Fairfield Bay, Alma, Helena, Walnut Ridge, Harrison, Siloam Springs and Magnolia to make it more accessible for Arkansans to get help. Last year my staff hosted 23 successful mobile office events and our goal is to do even more in 2015.

Helping Arkansans is one of my most important duties as a Senator. I’m proud of the assistance we’ve been able to offer. Can I help you? I encourage you to contact one of my state offices if you need to discuss a problem. While constituent service work often gets little attention, it makes a real difference in the lives of Arkansans. Our door is always open and we’re ready to offer our assistance.