Lincoln, Washington – You remember the story of the Little Red Hen. In the role of the noisy yellow duck, who doesn't help sow the wheat, grind the flour, or bake the bread, but who is eager to eat it, I recognize my local congressman, Mr. Fortenberry.
This week he was quick to take credit for delaying furloughs of USCIS employees, which the Lincoln newspaper reported:
"We have some good news. We have secured a delay in the furlough order for @USCIS until the end of August," Fortenberry Tweeted. "This gives Congress time to fully fix the problem, and I hope partly relieves the anxiety this problem caused for the good people at @USCIS."
But numerous other news sources attributed the delay to the sowing, grinding, and baking of Senators Pat Leahy and Jon Tester, with no mention of Mr. Fortenberry.
The previous week the congressman said he made sure a local loan servicer had a chance to make its case to retain a contract from the U.S. Department of Education. This was also reported in the Lincoln newspaper.
I know something about servicer issues, based on several years of successful litigation experience. Recently I wrote two blog posts on servicer contracting, both widely read in the Department and the industry, and spoke to the office of Wisconsin congressman Mark Pocan, who was prepared to stop the award of the servicing contract in question to a Pennsylvania-based servicer that I consider corrupt. It was the imminent Pocan amendment in House Appropriations markup that caused the Department to cancel the bid solicitation and start over, according to several knowledgeable sources.
If my congressman, Mr. Fortenberry, wants to be helpful, instead of playing the role of the noisy duck he can start draining the swamp of the Trump Administration, which has actually caused these and countless other troubles for Nebraska's First District. I would welcome a congressperson to work shoulder-to-shoulder with me, a First District constituent, in cleaning up the nation's student loan mess, including, especially, the systematic defrauding of veterans by Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Mr. Fortenberry had a chance actually to do something constructive (and bipartisan) recently by supporting dozens of veterans' groups, including the American Legion, in an effort to overturn a punitive DeVos decision against veterans. He chose instead to support the Trump Administration, which put the interests of its political contributors ahead of those who served our country. As a veteran myself, with knowledge of how veterans are defrauded by predatory schools, I was hugely offended by Mr. Fortenberry's vote, if not surprised by it.
Meanwhile, be prepared for more in the local newspapers from the noisy duck.
