Bruce Braley is a persistent fellow.

In 2007, the U.S. 1st District representative repeatedly demanded to know why members of the Iowa Army National Guard's Waterloo-headquartered 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry were among the last to know their deployment in Iraq was to be extended as part of President Bush's troop surge initiative.

On Wednesday, he called a press conference at the Iowa National Guard Armory in Waterloo "to present the findings of a House Oversight Committee investigation into the denial of GI Bill benefits" to members of the 1/133rd. Braley took up that cause as the battalion returned from duty last year, and helped get the matter resolved in March. Wednesday's press conference, five months after the matter was resolved, indicates Braley doesn't let go of an issue easily.

"One thing that Iowa's Rep. Bruce Braley has proven during his freshman year in Congress is that he's not afraid to take on the entrenched powers of Washington, D.C.," T.M. Lindsey wrote in December in an article on the Web site of The Iowa Independent.

In addition to the GI Bill issue, Braley argued against furloughing federal employees at the Rock Island Arsenal in the Quad Cities.

Also, the Waterloo Democrat cut against the conventional grain and irked a federal employees union when he supported the CBE Group of Waterloo's federal contract for delinquent federal tax collections, and the jobs it brought to the Cedar Valley.

Of course, all of these moves make good political sense. He's working for his district. That's particularly important to members of Congress, who are up for election every two years and constantly on the stump.

That's probably part of the reason why he tagged along when a state advisory commission surveyed flood and tornado damage in the area this week.

Braley said he's been trying to allocate as much money as possible to the federal buyout programs because of the scale of this year's flooding.

Braley said Congress is still working on getting residents help. A $2.65 billion disaster aid package has been approved, and Braley hopes a second bill will be approved in September after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visits Iowa.

With all due respect to Braley, we need a little more than hope from the congressman.

That second bill was requested in August by Gov. Chet Culver, but Congress failed to act on it before recess.

Iowa state officials like Democrat Lt. Gov. Patty Judge, said the federal government should act on the package just as rapidly as they did with Hurricane Katrina. But Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Robert Byrd said the Senate was far too busy to take up the matter before recess -- even though Byrd had secured disaster relief assistance for his own tornado-damaged state of West Virginia in July.

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, who lives just outside flood- and tornado-devastated New Hartford, railed against the congressional inaction on the Senate floor.

He could have used a little more vocal assistance from Braley -- even if it meant Braley would have had to take on his own Democratic leadership.

If Braley wants to maintain his image as an independent, Grassley-like crusader unafraid to take on the powers that be, he would be well served to stand with the senator when it counts, in response to what Gov. Culver has said may be the 10th worst natural disaster in U.S. history.

Perhaps Braley has been working discreetly behind the scenes to try to secure that funding.

If and when it comes through -- more than likely, we would guess, before the Nov. 4 general election -- Braley, rather than taking credit for something which should have been done in August, would be perfectly justified in expressing outrage at the way disaster-ravaged families and businesses in his district were left in the lurch by congressional inaction -- even if his own party is responsible for it.