WASHINGTON, D.C. — Before he was a congressman, Brad Wenstrup was a podiatrist—a background that has often drawn requests from fellow lawmakers to examine their feet.

“I saw two members yesterday, as a matter of fact,” the Cincinnati native noted during an interview in his Capitol Hill office.

Over the last 12 years Wenstrup has embraced such encounters as opportunities to build up relationships with colleagues.

“It's a relationship business,” he said. “And the relationships for me have grown across the aisle and certainly within the conference.”

Since arriving in Washington in 2013, Wenstrup has served when Republicans were in the minority and the majority. He has sponsored or co-sponsored 78 bills that became law.

Soon, though, he will join 44 other House members who have decided to leave Congress at the end of the current term in December.

Wenstrup said he was leaving for personal reasons: his 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter.

“When you're leaving on a Monday, which happened to be one time about a year ago, and, I said, ‘I'll be back Thursday night, but I'll call you tonight. We'll do FaceTime,’” Wenstrup said. “And my son said, ‘Okay, but I'll still miss you.’”

As a combat surgeon in Iraq and later Army Reserve officer, Wenstrup has worked extensively on veterans’ issues, particularly with fellow veterans and other members of the Doctors Caucus.

“As both a, a soldier veteran and, and a physician, those are two groups of people that are mission oriented and, and tend to get things done,” he said.

Wenstrup said the law he was most proud of was the Mission Act, which allows some veterans to get community healthcare when VA health services are difficult to access. The Mission Act was signed into law in 2019.

He said his greatest moment in Congress, though, followed one of the lowest moments: when Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., was shot at a Congressional baseball team practice in 2017 and Wenstrup had to give medical aid on the field.

“People ask me a lot, what has been your greatest moment here in Congress? And without a doubt, it's the day Steve Scalise walked back on the floor,” Wenstrup said.

With four months left to go, there’s still work to be done.

In addition to sitting on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and the Select Intelligence Committee, Wenstrup chairs the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which is tasked with investigating the origins of COVID-19 and the U.S. government’s handling of the crisis.

“This is probably the most important thing I've been asked to do since I've been here,” Wenstrup said.

But even after 27 hearings, more than 1 million pages of documents and 31 transcribed interviews—including with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former White House chief medical advisor—the origins of the virus remain murky.

Wenstrup said the goal was never to definitively prove the virus’ origins, since the Chinese government did not allow investigators access to the lab from which Wenstrup believes the virus was accidentally leaked.

The committee will release a final report by the end of the year. The report will include recommendations to be better prepared for the next pandemic, such as a reserve of medical professionals who could be called up in an emergency, similar to the Army Reserve.

Wenstrup said he wasn’t sure what he would do next, but that it would draw on the lessons he has learned on the Hill and involve health, national security or supply chain issues.

Wenstrup admitted he will be leaving Congress at a chaotic time. But he remained optimistic.

“Government has never been pretty, per se. The notion is beautiful. The notion of what our founders set up is beautiful. And I think it works better than any form of government that ever existed.”

He offered some parting advice to the lawmakers who will come after him:

“Come in knowing you don't know everything, because that's a fact. But most of this place is an open book test, and so it doesn't mean you can't study the issues and learn about them, and inform your policies as you think they are best for the country.”