Sailors in Congress’s medical office reassigned after alleging controlling bosses, unsuitable tasks

Multiple U.S. sailors assigned to Congress’s medical office were recently reassigned amid a Pentagon inspector general investigation into how staff performed their duties — which at least one sailor alleged included clipping lawmakers’ toenails. The inspector general’s office opened its investigation in September 2025, and it has not publicly released its findings. The IG did not respond Thursday about the timeline for its evaluation, which covers the medical office, called the Office of the Attending Physician, as well as the Defense Health Agency and Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. Sailors recently assigned to the Office of the Attending Physician, or OAP, told Military Times that civilian supervisors pushed them to stay in their roles beyond the expected three-year tours while working 70- to 80-hour weeks. The sailors faced pressure over leave requests, were threatened with the loss of monthly bonuses when they pushed back against management and were assigned tasks that didn’t fit their positions, four people who worked in the office told Military Times. The four people with experience in the office described the workplace on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal. They said unfair treatment toward sailors has been commonplace over the past decade. The Navy and OAP did not respond to multiple requests for comment over the past month. The Office of the Attending Physician is Congress’ in-house medical operation, providing health care and emergency medical support to members of Congress and the Supreme Court. The small office, which up until recently was staffed in part by active-duty Navy personnel, operates around the clock. “The men and women serving in this office are being asked to perform duties beyond those normally associated with their position,” a civilian medical professional working in the OAP said before the recent reassignments. “Colleagues have been bringing up issues about this office for more than 10 years.” One active-duty sailor said some of their duties included tasks “no one else wants to do,” elaborating, “like cutting a congressman’s toenails or bringing their medication to their private residence at 3 a.m.” Sailors were assigned to provide medical standby support at congressional birthday parties, dinners and other VIP events, the people who worked in the office said. Sailors often worked through late-night congressional votes and then reported back early the next morning. “We usually worked 12-hour shifts, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., with duty every other day,” a former Navy hospital corpsman once assigned to the office said. “On duty days, if Congress stayed in session late, the duty crew stayed, too, sometimes until about 4 a.m. We still had to be back for a regular 6 a.m. shift.” Rear Adm. Brian Monahan, the attending physician of the United States Congress, goes to his desk after giving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Dec. 18, 2020. (Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Getty Images) The civilian medical professional also acknowledged the long hours, saying, “Sleep is critical to the machinery of military readiness.” Multiple sailors described pressure regarding leave requests, including requests involving spouses, children or partners in the hospital. Civilian managers encouraged them not to take leave at all. Leave was “denied and discouraged,” said the former hospital corpsman. “The reason I was given was that I’d be ‘leaving my shipmates out to dry.’” Civilian managers also threatened to deny monthly bonuses, multiple sailors said. For fiscal 2026, Congress authorized a $3,500 monthly allowance for the office’s attending physician, $2,500 for the senior medical officer, $900 each for three medical officers and $900 for two medical assistants and up to 11 additional medical assistants. “I am constantly reminded that I could, or could not, get a bonus this month, and it depends on me,” one sailor told Military Times. The OAP assignment is generally intended to last three years, but sailors who completed that tour could be extended without an option to leave, three people who worked in the office said. Civilian personnel could stop reassignment requests before they reached senior Navy leadership, they added. “I complained to leadership more than once, and about halfway through my three-year orders, I asked to leave OAP. That was treated as a very big deal,” the former hospital corpsman said, adding that a supervisor “threatened me with orders to deploy to the Middle East and told me that leaving would hold my Navy career back.” The former corpsman was released but given a negative evaluation — the only one of their career, they said. Sailors were discouraged from speaking directly to Navy medical leadership, including officials at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, or BUMED, said two people who worked in the office. It remains unclear who controlled the assignments, schedules, leave and monthly payments of bonuses for active-duty personnel working inside the congressional medical operation, and how those practices were overseen by the Navy and the OAP. Congress authorized $3.4 million to reimburse the Navy for expenses associated with bonuses and equipment assigned to the office.