Only on Capitol Hill could the search for office supplies cause an aide to fear for his job.

Daniel Bucheli, a staff assistant to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), sent a frantic e-mail Tuesday afternoon to colleagues in other Congressional offices seeking help finding a blue felt-tip pen.

“Does anyone know/have any blue pens that are used for signatures they can give to me?? My jobs depends on it,” he wrote. “Let me know, thanks!!”

Thankfully, HOH hears Bucheli is still employed. In fact, Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella describes Bucheli as “an enterprising staff assistant hot on the trail of the office’s favorite blue felt tip pen.”

That pen — the Eberhard Faber Felt Tip Pen, 0.85 mm Bold Point, Blue Barrel, Blue Ink — is widely available in black and red, but in short supply in blue, Bardella says. The office can’t get the pen from its usual vendor, either. “It produces a nice, bold signature,” Bardella says.

And Issa, the presumed incoming chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform panel, signs a lot of documents. So the pen search came down to what Bucheli could uncover, or looking for blue crayons, Bardella jokes.

“And yes, an unnamed good Samaritan in another office did offer up some of the prized pens,” he adds.