MILITARY DEBRIEF: Here’s everything I’ve uncovered so far about Congress’s Office of the Attending Physician (OAP), based on information provided by multiple sources with knowledge of the office’s operations spanning the past decade.
In my discussions with D.C. Fire and EMS, I’ve also learned that they overwhelmingly handle emergency medical responses on Capitol Hill, not the OAP. That raises a fundamental question about whether the office’s modern-day operations have strayed from the purpose behind Congress’s original 1928 request for Navy medical personnel to provide emergency care.
Today, sources describe an operation increasingly centered on concierge-style primary care for Members of Congress, while active-duty sailors assigned to the office can reportedly work weeks approaching 80 hours. Rather than staffing separate civilian shifts to cover those hours, the office relies in part on active-duty military personnel who do not receive civilian-style overtime compensation.
And then there’s the legal question. After reviewing the relevant congressional resolutions, appropriations measures, and other authorities I’ve been able to identify, I have not found a statute that clearly requires the Navy to maintain these personnel at the OAP indefinitely. That raises a significant unresolved question: Could the Navy withdraw these billets and reassign its sailors?
Based on the authorities I’ve reviewed so far, I believe there is a serious legal argument that it could. Whether a federal court would ultimately uphold such a decision, however, would depend on the specific legal authority asserted by the Navy and any competing authority Congress could establish.