Sodrel closes 9th District office

12:18 PM EST on Monday, December 18, 2006

Baron Hill Press Release

SEYMOUR - Congressman Mike Sodrel has shut down his 9th District offices. Sodrel's term in office does not end until January 4, 2007, when Congressman-Elect Baron Hill will be officially sworn-in.

Hill's staff made attempts to contact Sodrel's offices in order to transfer important casework and constituent requests, but no one ever returned the calls. Now, calls to all five of Sodrel's 9th District offices -- Jeffersonville, Bloomington, Jasper, Seymour, and Versailles -- cannot go through at all because the phone lines have been disconnected.

Administrative rules in the House of Representatives dictate when an outgoing Member of Congress must vacate his Washington office, and Sodrel and his staff were instructed to leave their Capitol Hill office earlier this month. District offices, however, are not subject to the same rules and may remain open as long as possible in order to meet constituent requests.

"Unfortunately for the people of the 9th District, all pending casework and issues were not transitioned to our staff so we cannot work on the problems," said Ryan Guthrie, Congressman-Elect Hill's Chief of Staff. "Congressman Hill asks that anyone who has an open issue please resubmit it on January 4 and we'll immediately get to work on it."

As soon as such information is available, Hill will announce the location and contact information for his official offices in the 9th District and Washington, where all constituent requests should be submitted.

For more on Baron Hill, visit his campaign website at http://www.baron2006.com/