U.S. Sen. Patty Murray is said to have been infuriated recently when representatives of the Department of Veterans Affairs failed to let her know about a serious incident that happened the night before she toured the VA hospital in Seattle.

She should be infuriated.

So should her constituents.

Murray was at the facility in the first place because of reports that there were problems in the psychiatric wards there and in Tacoma. VA officials already had been sluggish about responding to her request for information about the situation, including a pertinent report. Then, during her information-gathering visit to the hospital – less than 24 hours after a violent patient smashed a pane of safety glass, generating a police response and a hospital visit – the tour guides said nothing of the clearly relevant matter.

The first the senator heard of it was when a reporter asked her. She was, as Queen Victoria would have put it, “not amused.”

The concern here is not about partisanship, it’s about accountability. This could have been any agency. It could have been a Republican like Spokane Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers or Idaho Sen. Larry Craig. It could have happened if a Democrat were in the White House.

It happened to Democrat Murray during a visit to a VA hospital under Republican George Bush’s administration, but the issue is the same: An agency of government withheld pertinent information from an elected representative of the people. That’s unacceptable.

Federal lawmakers get most of their attention when they are legislating. But when they’re not marking up energy bills or debating immigration, elected federal lawmakers are often applying their resources on behalf of constituents concerned with passports, adoptions, Social Security checks and, yes, VA services.

They go to bat for constituents back home hundreds and in some cases thousands of times a year. They are the citizens’ link with the government, and when agencies distort, dissemble or withhold information, it amounts to an attempt to deceive the people.

On Wednesday, to cite one example, Murray met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid – and with a Kent couple showing their grandson the capital for the first time. She met with representatives of a major airline and the Port of Pasco.

McMorris Rodgers’ office handled roughly 650 constituent matters, known as “casework,” last year. Experience suggests the workload will grow with seniority.

At first glance, Murray’s experience at the VA hospital might seem like routine political game-playing, which may explain why a spokeswoman for the senator commented that Murray can’t help the VA if she doesn’t get cooperation.

Whether the VA or other agencies have champions in Congress is not as important as whether individual citizens have them.