On February 21st, almost one month ago, I first heard the news of potential layoffs at Goodfellow Air Force Base. I immediately reached out to Congressman Pfluger’s office in my capacity as editor of this publication.
Local staff confirmed that Rep. Pfluger was aware, and they would have someone from the Washington office get back to me. I left my phone number and email address.
I received no timely response from Washington, so I called the Congressman’s local office the following week. Again, I was told that someone from the Rep. Pfluger’s office in Washington who deals with the media would be in touch. Despite providing my phone number and email address again, I never received a response.
Around the same time, I sent a contact request through the Congressman’s website. I sent a detailed explanation of who I was, who I represented, and what I wanted to know.
The Congressman Responds
This afternoon I received this canned email reply.
Dear Mr. Hogg,
Thank you for contacting my office to share your views. As your representative in Congress, it is extremely important for me to hear your questions, concerns, and ideas, and I will always welcome your thoughts.
It is an incredible, humbling honor to swear an oath before God to defend the Constitution of the United States and serve the people of the 11th District of Texas in Congress.
Our district is home to the most decent, honest, and hard-working men and women who fuel, feed, and clothe this Nation. I appreciate the trust you have placed in me, and I will continue championing the values of this district and standing up for our Texas way of life. Rest assured, as new measures come before the U.S. House of Representatives for a vote, I will keep your views in mind.
Again, thank you for contacting me. For help, or to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, please visit our website: pfluger.house.gov. To stay updated with the work I am doing for TX-11, follow me on Twitter or TruthSocial @RepPfluger, or Facebook and Instagram @RepAugustPfluger. I look forward to staying in touch.
Sincerely,
Rep. August Pfluger
Member of Congress
I have seen this same canned reply sent to many others in San Angelo.
The only conclusion I can draw is that he is too important to be bothered with a question about the only military base in his district. He also is either unable, or afraid, to say anything about it. This despite the fact that Goodfellow is a cornerstone of his hometown’s economy.
And it took twenty-one days to send that response. When LBJ was in Congress he was famous for making his staff respond to every constituent inquiry the same day it was received. August Pfluger is no LBJ.
His email said it is “important for me to hear your questions, concerns, and ideas.”
I have a hard time believing that any question his constituents might have is important to him. This is the sort of response one would expect from an oligarch.
If the only person you have to worry about is your wealthy patrons, you can ignore the people. This is not the type of response we should accept from our elected representatives in a democracy.
If this is how the Congressman’s office responds to a media request on an important local issue, I would hate to see his response to a retiree needing help with social security or veterans benefits.
Do better Congressman.
5 Comments
I emailed Rep. Pfluger this morning, complimenting US Sen. Cornyn (Tx. R) and US Rep. McCaul (Tx.- Austin R) for their (finally) defending Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act, providing encouragement and funding for America’s semiconductors and microchips manufacturing, which benefits national security and creates jobs in that niche market.
I received that same reply when I requested that Representative Pfluger come home and host a townhall meeting.
The Texas-11 office is the gold standard of constituent services and has been in constant communication with Goodfellow, providing support where requested and helping the incredible men and women who work there. The office continually strives to perform better each day, and a response is required due to the gross mischaracterization of Jon Mark Hogg’s blog post. Not only is it disrespectful to the TX-11 public service professionals (in San Angelo and elsewhere) who tirelessly work to improve the lives of every constituent, but it is also disrespectful to every legitimate journalist in TX-11 who all follow the same procedures when requesting a comment from Rep. Pfluger. Jon Mark never once contacted Rep. Pfluger’s Communications Director, an email easily accessible, and instead went through improper lines of communications for media requests to then claim he did not receive a response. This was a shameless partisan stunt and the servant leaders in the San Angelo office deserve better than to be slandered with falsehoods suggesting that they, or Congressman Pfluger, somehow don’t care about Goodfellow AFB.
Rep. Pfluger is a combat-tested veteran, who stands up for Goodfellow every single day and will continue to do so no matter what personnel decisions are made by the Executive Branch. It is ironic, however, that Democrats suddenly started “caring” about our service members when President Trump took office after spending the last four years caring more about what bathroom people used and advancing woke DEI policies than they did about places like Goodfellow. Texas-11, thank you for the thousands of positive comments about how our office helps so many constituents. We won’t let one falsely painted narrative distract from the great work being done, nor will we stop trying to do better each day!
Pingback: Congressman's Office Responds to Criticism - The Concho Observer
I got the same canned response here in response to my request via his web page and visit to his San Angelo office. I would appreciate info on the correct way we are to contact him if this was inappropriate.