HAVING TROUBLE CONNECTING TO OR FINDING YOUR FEDERAL AGENCY CONTACT?

One of the most common complaints I receive and hear of daily is that common people, employees, disabled persons, etc., are unable to reach or contact responsible persons within federal agencies, and even if contacted, the federal agency personnel are unable to understand or comprehend their problem.

This is not an isolated or rare event. In fact as recently reported by CNN news on March 19, 2007, one-third of the people living in Washington, DC (the home base of most if not all federal agencies) are functionally illiterate. This compares to about one-fifth nationally. Adults are considered functionally illiterate if they have trouble doing such things as comprehending bus schedules, reading maps or filling out simple job applications. Based on these actual statistics any person who contacts federal agencies located in Washington, DC should be aware that one out of every three people they deal with will very likely be unable to comprehend or understand their questions and problems. I myself have come across personnel working for the United States Department of Labor who for all intents and purposes could not read nor understand simple e-mail correspondence. Yet those same personnel are responsible for the payment of hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in federal benefits to hundreds if not thousands of disabled and injured American workers.

If you are attempting to deal with, or are actually dealing with, federal agency personnel who appear to be unable to understand and comprehend your situation you should without reservation inquire as to that person’s capacity to read and write. It would not be unusual at all to find that person as functionally illiterate. If that is the case you should move up the line and contact other superiors who can handle your case properly.

Additionally when dealing with federal agencies, it is the norm for the federal agencies to send out notices that require a immediate response within a day or two; much too short of time to respond by regular US mail. The fastest response will thus be by email, but how do you email a federal agency? For your benefit then in order to contact a public servant employee by e-mail it really is very simple.

If you're dealing with the United States Department of Labor is very common for claims examiners to refuse to provide their contact information, such as their e-mail address. However, most often the claims examiner e-mail is in the following format:
lastname.firstname@dol.gov As an example, the current director of the US Department of Labor is Mr. Shelby Hallmark whose direct e-mail is hallmark.shelby@dol.gov.

For those of you who are dealing with the Social Security Administration (a federal agency which strongly loathes any attempt by "outsiders" to contact them by e-mail) most SSA claims examiners e-mail addresses are set up the same way: e.g., lastname.firstname@ssa.gov

Finally when dealing with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM: a federal agency that vigorously hides itself against any and all attempts by common people to contact them) their email addresses are slightly different. Their email addresses tend to be in the format of firstnameinitiallastname@opm.gov. For example John Doe would be jdoe@opm.gov

One should note that sometimes the federal agencies will make unannounced slight changes to throw off or deter attempts to contact them by email. The agencies will change the email syntax and switch the name order, etc. If you fail on the first attempt, try flipping the name order, you will eventually come across the proper email address and find your proper federal agency contact person.