Making laws
casework
A congressional office helping an individual constituent deal with a federal agency: a delayed passport, a veterans' claim, a lost Social Security check.
In full
Casework is the least visible and most used service Congress provides. Staff act as an intermediary with the agency, which cannot be ordered to decide differently but can be asked to explain, expedite, or correct. Offices handle thousands of cases a year, and the pattern of them is itself oversight information: repeated failures at one agency show up in a member's mail long before they show up in a report.
Where to go next
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Browse every term in the glossary, or see the vocabulary in motion in the How government works walkthroughs.
A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.