Will a congressional inquiry benefit me or bring negative attention?

It is unlikely your Congressman is going to ask for your packet to accelerated. The normal procedure for Congressional inquiries is for the Congressman (or more likely his staff) to send your request to the Congressional Liaison Office at HQDA. For active duty installations the Liaison Office will contact the Congressional POC with your letter and a request for status. The POC will make answering the the inquiry a priority, since it typically comes with a 24 hour suspense, but that doesn't necessarily equate to expediting your request. For AG related requests, we would provide the status of the request, the projected completion date of the request, the normal processing time, and any reason for the request being delayed, especially, if it was past the normal processing time. The information is then sent back up to the Liaison Office that sends a written response to the Congressman's Office. I have seen cases where the Army's response was we messed up and we are fixing the problem, but honestly, I don't recall ever receiving an inquiry where the Congressman asked for the Soldier to receive special treatment. That being said, sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so even though the Congressman may not directly request preferential treatment, the paperwork might get expedited just to make the answer back the action has been completed.

I agree with your friend the E6. Call your local congressman’s office. Ask them to facilitate and expedite your application. Pour on the patriotism and that you want to serve your country on active duty. They can push things a bit.