Constituent services
Definition
Constituent services are the help a legislator's office provides to individual residents, such as resolving a problem with a government agency, tracking down a missing benefit payment, or answering questions about a bill. Casework is the most common form.
Why it matters
Constituent services build a legislator's local reputation independent of policy positions, often making them the most visible and least controversial part of the job. That can insulate incumbents from accountability on votes that matter more to organized interests, and because casework is largely invisible to the public and rarely tracked in aggregate, it is hard to compare how well different offices actually serve their districts.
Seen in the wild
The Congressional Research Service documents that congressional offices routinely help constituents with Social Security, veterans' benefits, and immigration matters, assigning each request to a caseworker who contacts the relevant federal agency directly on the constituent's behalf.