Fair Government Matters as Much as Fair Pay

For most working and middle-class families, government isn’t something they experience through floor speeches in Congress or cable news debates. They experience it through agencies—when they apply for unemployment insurance after a layoff, file a workplace discrimination claim, appeal a denied benefit, or wait for a decision that determines whether they can stay afloat another month.

In those moments, fairness in government isn’t abstract. It’s the difference between stability and crisis.

I’m running for Congress because too often, our systems fail people precisely when they are most vulnerable. Not because the problems are unsolvable, but because Congress has allowed complexity, delay, and silence to become normalized. After more than three decades in office, Rep. Bobby Scott’s record reflects that stagnation. Longevity alone is not leadership. Results matter—especially for families living paycheck to paycheck.

I was born in 1993, the year Rep. Scott first entered Congress. In the 32 years since, working families in Virginia have faced rising costs, more complex bureaucracies, and agencies that exercise enormous power with too little accountability. Yet Congress has too often stepped back from its responsibility to ensure that those systems are predictable, fair, and humane.

When government delays a decision, families pay the price. When agencies fail to explain rights clearly, people lose time they don’t have. When enforcement is uneven or opaque, trust erodes—and economic insecurity deepens.

That’s why one of my core priorities is administrative fairness.

In my first 100 days in office, I will introduce the Administrative Fairness and Early Resolution Act, legislation designed to ensure that federal agencies serve people—not trap them in endless process. The bill would require early notice of investigations, clear timelines when delay threatens someone’s health or livelihood, stronger protections against retaliation, and plain-language explanations of rights and options—especially in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cases.

This isn’t about weakening enforcement. It’s about strengthening legitimacy.

For working families, fairness in enforcement and access matters as much as wages. A raise doesn’t help if an agency delay causes you to lose your home. Labor protections don’t matter if the complaint process takes years. Benefits don’t provide security if the appeals process is incomprehensible.

Congress sets the standards under which agencies operate. When Congress hesitates, ordinary people absorb the consequences.

After decades in office, the incumbent has overseen a system where administrative burden has quietly grown while accountability has faded. Too many families encounter government only at moments of disruption—job loss, illness, discrimination—and find delay instead of clarity.

That’s not a healthy democracy. It’s a warning sign.

My campaign is grounded in a simple principle: good government should stabilize people in moments of disruption. Government should be predictable, fair, and present—whether someone is facing a medical emergency, a housing shock, a workplace injustice, or sudden economic upheaval.

I didn’t come through a traditional political pipeline. I came through lived experience inside the systems people rely on when things go wrong. That perspective shapes how I approach policy—not ideologically, but practically.

The question before voters isn’t whether experience matters. It does. The question is whether decades in office have produced systems that work for the people who depend on them most.

Working and middle-class families don’t need louder politics. They need effective governance. They need a Congress that takes responsibility for how power is exercised—not just when things are calm, but when people are under pressure.

That’s the kind of leadership I’m running to provide.

Justin Garvin Maffett is a candidate for Congress in Virginia’s 3rd District.