Congresswoman Hageman Cares about Constituents

Congresswoman Harriet Hageman understands the complexities of Carbon County because she is no stranger to the area. In her earlier years, she once lived in Carbon County. 

“I actually lived at Walcott Junction one summer when I was paving the highway at I-80 to Hanna,” Hageman said. “Also, for a period of time that summer, I lived on the third floor of the Hotel Wolf.” 

She got to know all parts of Carbon County. 

“I spent a lot of time over in Riverside and Encampment,” Hageman said. “Now this was 40 years ago when I was in college and I was working highway construction. Still, I recognize there is a difference between all the communities in Carbon County.” 

Her connection to Carbon County is strong because she discovered it years ago. She visited Saratoga about a month ago for Teense Willford’s reception. 

“I enjoyed visiting with Teense and other people who came to that beautiful reception that evening,” Hageman said. “I have options and opportunities where I am in communities as I travel in Wyoming.” 

She tries to attend events that connect her with the people. 

When she was elected in 2022 and started in 2023, a priority was to send field representatives to the different counties. The field rep would make appointments with people who lived where they were visiting and do their best to solve any issues a person might be having with the federal government. 

“I think this outreach has been highly successful,” Hageman said. “It gives that direct interaction between my staff and the citizens of Wyoming, so they can address primarily federal agency issues.” 

This means her staff deals with the IRS, passports, Social Security and federal agencies that seem remote and uncaring based in D.C. 

“One of the things I have found, some of these people have been waiting months, if not years for relief,” Hageman said. “And they were never able to open a case, get involved and get things resolved pretty quickly. I feel like we have been very successful with this program and I hope it continues and that people engage with us.” 

The Wyoming Congresswoman said appointments can fill up quickly for this outreach program, but sometimes, people will just drop by because they heard her reps would be there and the staff does its best to accommodate as many folks as they can. 

“When we go to a location in a county, we are going to that location for the day,” Hageman said. “But we rotate. If we go to Rawlins for example, we will go to another community at another time like Saratoga or Baggs. We think this is just good policy.” 

Hageman splits her time between D.C. and Wyoming close to 50/50 but it can change. 

“Sometimes it is 55/45 one way and 45/55 another time,” Hageman said. “It just depends on what is going on.” 

Hageman goes to town halls personally. They are important to attend, she said. The congresswoman looks to be as effective as possible and one-on-one contact is important. 

“Every situation where we try to help is unique,” Hageman said. “I have people coming up to me on the street, and telling me of issues they have had. One person came up and said he had been having a banking issue that had been going on for months and months and when we got involved, the problem was taken care of in 48 hours.” 

She said 2 million dollars have been returned to Wyoming citizens the first year she was in office. 

“We had a gentleman who had settled a lawsuit with a federal agency and then they refused to proffer the settlement funds, and it went on month after month, after month,” Hageman said. “We opened a case file and we were able to get it resolved in a matter of days.” 

Hageman has learned about the agencies and what they do. 

“What I have found is, the agencies recognize that we do have oversight authority over them,” Hageman said. “We are the ones that give the budget for what they are able to do and spend; we are the ones that pass the statutes and laws that they are supposed to comply with.” 

She said all agencies are not the same. 

“I think some agencies are better than others, and some are more responsive than others,” Hageman said. “But there is a certain amount of authority when you have a congressional representative saying we want an answer to these questions and you need to answer them.” 

Hageman said if a resident is having trouble with a federal agency, the person needs to get in touch with her office, so they can see if they can help resolve the issue. She said people can go to the website Hageman.House.Gov, call her office in Cheyenne (307) 829-3299, and call her office in Casper (307) 261-6595. 

“I have five staffers in Wyoming and their job is only constituent service,” Hageman said. “We want to help.” 

The Congresswoman said there are basically two aspects to her job. 

“One is the legislative side and the other is the constituent services side,” Hageman said. “What we are talking about is the constituent services side. We take that very seriously and we work very hard. We can’t always fix everything, but we fix an awful lot and I am proud of my staff for doing that.” 

Hageman said she has the best staff in the world. 

“They are extremely dedicated, and I encourage residents that have issues with the federal government to get in touch with my office to see if we can do something,” Hageman said. “We will do our best.” 

Hageman expressed her desire for greater decentralization of power by shifting authority from D.C. to the individual states. 

“I would like to take more power out of Washington D.C. and return it to the State,” Hageman said. “I would like to get to the point where we can do block grants to the States instead of federal agencies dictating everything that our local and State government do; like education.” 

She believes each State knows what is best for their residents versus the federal government. 

“I think most of the issues that are dealt with in this country, should be dealt with more at the State level and locally,” Hageman said. “We have federalized far too much of our lives, so I am very careful that I focus on the federal side of things and State issues need to be resolved there.” 

The Wyoming Congresswoman makes it clear to residents in Carbon County and Wyoming, that she and her staff will do their best to help constituents with their issues. 

All we need to do is ask.