Tone Deaf Senators

This blog is part of my ongoing effort to maintain a record of my written communication expressing concern about the actions of the current presidential administration that lead to unnecessary (and in some cases cruel) harm to others, to the U.S., or to the global community. 

I try to be understanding of how busy my U.S. Senators and Representatives (and their respective staffs) must be, especially with the chaos in the current administration. But my patience has run thin with form letter responses that completely miss the mark and send the message that the people who are supposed to be representing me in the U.S. Congress are preoccupied with other agendas that have little to do with their constituents.  

Call me an idealist, but in the U.S. as it should be, what greater priority is there for a U.S. Senator or Representative than the voices of their constituents?   

How to reach your U.S. Senators:

https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

How to reach your U.S. Representative:

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

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Senator Ashley Moody's response to my letter regarding the release of personal data to unelected and unvetted officials is copied below my response to her response at the end of this blog.   

Dear Senator Moody,

In mid-February 2025, I wrote you a letter protesting the inappropriate access to and use of my personal data and that of millions of Americans by DOGE.  In that letter, I ask you specifically to take clear and urgent steps to ensure that the extensive personal information we are required to provide the American government remain ... personal and confidential, to be accessed only by those who have been vetted and who fully and humbly understand their obligations to protect that information.  I simply ask that my personal data be protected as it has historically been protected, that is until the current administration took office.

In my letter, I did not argue against reducing fraud and waste in the U.S. government. However, in April of 2025, I received a response from you and your office that focused instead on the reduction of fraud and waste by DOGE and lauded your accomplishments as attorney general of Florida, but did not at all touch on my concerns regarding the release of my personal information  by the recent hasty and extensive acts of the federal government via DOGE.  I am writing this letter to say that I am deeply offended and concerned by the tone-deaf response I received.  

The release of my personal information (and that of millions of other Americans) in a manner that is wholly inconsistent with the trust we are asked to put in the federal government is unacceptable. This is not a trivial issue to be swept to the side by other agendas. 

I ask you, as part of your duty to provide effective, honest, and relevant oversight to the federal government, to take the protection of personal data much more seriously and make it more central to the future actions of DOGE and other government agencies.   

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Senator Moody's letter to me, sent electronically to my email on April 17, 2025

Dear Denise,

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts regarding the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Understanding your views helps me to better represent Florida in the United States Senate, and I appreciate the opportunity to respond.

For too long, our nation has been rife with waste, fraud and abuse at various levels of our government. The Government Accountability Office has found the federal government loses between $230 billion and $500 billion to fraud annually. Since 2003, it is estimated that the federal government has made over $2.3 trillion in incorrect payments without a way to track, mitigate, or recover those finances. As a hard-working taxpayer, it is unconscionable to believe how much of our money has been lost in recent years.

As the former Attorney General of Florida, I led multiple investigations that exposed the bad actors and their abuse of government finances. Most notably, I uncovered over $10 million in back payments targeting Medicaid that shortchanged the state’s program. These actions led to us recouping all the nearly lost funds. With the help of DOGE, we are working on eliminating those risks and putting your taxes to better use.

Most recently, I proudly cosponsored the Recover Fraudulent COVID Funds Act (S. 121), which was introduced by Senator Lankford (R-OK). This legislation would extend the statute of limitations for prosecuting and recovering stolen and fraudulently-obtained COVID funds and payments. Last year, the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation unit released a report detailing nearly $9 billion in fraudulent COVID payments, totaling over 1,600 cases – most of which were uncovered over the last year. This legislation will allow us to recover fraudulent payments and hold bad actors accountable.

President Trump and all leaders in Washington understand the dangers to our nation if we do not get federal spending under control. Our debt has skyrocketed, and this leaves our children and grandchildren exposed to an unstable fiscal reality. We must ensure taxpayer funds are working as effectively as possible. Wasteful government practices have contributed to our enormous debt, which is one of the most pressing challenges we face as a nation. Cost-saving measures are required if we are going to ensure the long-term financial stability of the U.S.

My goal is to reduce the national debt, shrink the federal bureaucracy, and ensure that taxpayers actually benefit from any services paid for with their tax dollars.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me. If you would like to stay up to date on how I am serving Florida in the Senate, I encourage you to visit https://www.moody.senate.gov/ or https://x.com/SenAshleyMoody for more information.

Sincerely,

Ashley Moody

United States Senator

Where is my Voice going?

This blog is part of my ongoing effort to maintain a record of my written communication expressing concern about the actions of the current presidential administration that lead to unnecessary (and in some cases cruel) harm to others, to the U.S., or to the global community. 

I am deeply concerned that because of automated electronic contact forms used by most if not all offices of U.S. Senators and Representatives that there is a lack of widespread understanding of who is ignoring their constituents.  As a registered voter in Florida, I am unsure if the lack of town halls, the lack of response from my U.S. Representative (Anna Luna), and the tone-deaf responses from my U.S. Senators (Moody and Scott) are communicating that my voice is ignored, minimized, or something else.  

But I am certain that this is not the way it's supposed to go. My voice and that of other Americans is supposed to be top priority for those who represent me.  My concern prompted this letter, sent to multiple senators in other states, attempting to raise awareness of what is going on in other districts and U.S. States. It was sent via snail mail because it would have been automatically rejected had I tried to send it via electronic contact or email.   

How to reach your U.S. Senators:

https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

How to reach your U.S. Representative:

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

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Dear Senator, 

I am deeply concerned that I am neither being represented by my representative in the U.S. House nor by my senators in the U.S. Senate.  I am a constituent in one of the many districts in the country represented by a Republican representative (Representative Anna Luna in Congressional District #13 in the state of Florida) who will not hold town halls, who will not respond to my appeals, who is not communicating with her constituency, and who overall, via her silence, has sent a clear message that in my district, democracy has gone dark.   My senators are similarly troubling.  Senator Ashely Moody (FL) does not respond to me at all and my other senator (Senator Rick Scott, FL) brags at length to me in his weekly emails about many actions he is taking that are blatantly contrary to my opinions on legislation as well as my appeals for a more balanced and functional democratic government.

Unfortunately, the digital age has ensured that contact with a senator outside my state or with a representative outside of my district is rejected outright.  Electronic contact forms simply do not allow communication from "outside" constituents to pass. Although I am not entirely certain of this, I believe this has created disturbing silos of representation, where senators from other states and representatives from other districts remain largely unaware of the sheer volume of voices that are being ignored, not tallied, and therefore not considered in Congress and in American government.   

I regret that I have no clear solutions to this problem.   I am sure, however, that our silenced voices combined with the disturbing actions of the current presidential administration are a clear and present danger to the continuation of democracy in this country.  When constituents are ignored or bombarded with tone-deaf messages, many give up, and some become unproductively hostile.  Only a few continue fighting via appropriate channels, but in the end, we, the American people, become less and less a force in the government of the U.S. as the days go by.  

I beg you not to simply toss my letter in the circular file (digital or otherwise) because I am not a constituent in your state or district.  While I continue to write letters to my representative and senators as a registered voter in Congressional District 13 in Florida, I ask you, on behalf of the many who are also writing letters and making calls, to help us understand how we can reclaim our voice.  

In an age where protests seem to fall on deaf ears and our representatives in Congress are turning away from us, what can we do as "ordinary" Americans to be heard and respected?  More importantly, what can we do to ensure that our collective voices are considered and acted upon?

Please help us to understand how our voices can be restored, and what we can do to support America returning to being America again.