It took an LA Times story, this blog along with many others, and social media to generate needed attention to soldiers being forced into bankruptcy because of the Pentagon’s unconscionable demand that they repay their reenlistment bonuses.

Due to the outcry, lawmakers finally started paying attention.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy called the Pentagon demands “disgraceful.” McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, said the House will demand answers from the National Guard Bureau, the Pentagon agency that oversees the California branch of the Guard.

McCarthy was joined in outrage by fellow Golden State Republican congressmen Darrell Issa and Duncan Hunter, and Mark Takano, a Democrat.

“I find it hard to believe either you or your leadership team was aware that such a boneheaded decision was made to demand repayment,” Hunter wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in which he asked Carter to put his weight behind a quick remedy.

Prior to the LA Times story and afterwards, the Pentagon’s only response was to state the soldiers can appeal the decision, and repayment would be waived on a case by case basis. Some already were and their appeals, Robert D’Andrea’s in particular had been in process for several years with no end in sight.