Contacting a Congressional Office 101:

Contacting your representative in Congress is one of the most simple steps you can take to make your opinion known.  Yet unfortunately most of the general public has no idea how a Congressional office operates and so they contact their representative in a way that may diminish the effectiveness of their effort. Let's talk about how a Congressional office operates and then we'll go over a list of tips to observe when calling to voice your opinion.

All Members of Congress have a Washington D.C. office and most have one or more offices in the district they represent. The district offices primarily handle casework helping people who need something from government.  For example, if a senior citizen isn't getting their Social Security check a Congressman's district office will be tasked with calling up the bureaucrats and sorting out the problem.  If you want to inquire about a Congressman's position on a legislative issue or leave your opinion about a legislative issue then you want to contact the Congressman's Washington D.C. office.

A Congressional office has a number of different ways for constituents to contact it and a number of staff that are partially or completely dedicated to handling constituent inquiries.  The easiest and best way to contact a Congressional office is usually e-mail, for several reasons that we'll discuss below.  You can also contact through the phone, or direct mail, but the latter method should be avoided whenever possible. 

Before you start, make sure you know the district you're located in.  This may seem like something that goes without saying, but the reality is that if you call a Member of Congress that doesn't represent you, he or she will likely disregard your contact completely.  At best, they may pass it on to your actual representative.

If you contact by e-mail you'll likely use an online form at your Congressman's website.  You can find your Congressman's website and contact information using this handy website: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/  If you're looking for your Senator go here: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Your e-mail will go into a central database that your representative maintains specifically for constituent mail.  This database will record whatever contact information that you provide and the contents of your message.  If you want your Congressman to pay attention to your letter it is important to at least leave your name and zip code so it will be clear that you are a constituent.  If you want a response letter then you must leave a method of contact, preferably an e-mail.  Some offices will call you back or send you a physical letter if you do not leave an e-mail address, but not all will.  Leaving an e-mail address is the best way to ensure that you get a response.  A Congressional office typically receives around 25,000 pieces of mail per year, a Senate office can receive many times more, so the harder you make it for your representative's staff to answer your contact the less likely it is they will be able to respond to you.

Your e-mail will then be sorted by a Legislative Correspondent, who is a staffer completely dedicated to handling constituent mail.  If your contact expresses an opinion on an issue before Congress, for or against, that information will be noted and your contact will be assigned a form letter.  Some offices will give you a substantive response that explains your representative's opinion on the issue that you wrote in about.  Other offices will give a more generic response.  The quality of the response you receive will depend on your representative.

Congressional offices generate the form letters used in responses in a number of ways.  I will describe the most typical process.  The Legislative Correspondent will draft a letter to cover an incoming batch (Members of Congress usually receive dozens of contacts on the same issue, especially if its a "hot" issue in the news) of constituent letters.  The Legislative Aide that handles the issue in the contact may review the letter, or if the issue is particularly difficult the Aide may draft the letter.  A Legislative Director, the person who oversees all legislative issues in a Congressional office, will then review the letter again and approve the letter.  Some Members of Congress will also review and approve all letters that their office sends out, but most will only review the difficult or controversial letters.  Once the letter is approved, it is available to send out to all constituents who contact the Member of Congress on that particular issue.  If you don't know what a Legislative Aide or a Legislative Director is, don't worry.  We'll talk about Congressional staffers in another post.

If you decide to call your Congressional office to voice your opinion you should almost always contact your representative's Washington D.C. office.  Remember, it is the Washington D.C. office that handles legislative issues.  The person that answers your call will probably be an intern, a Staff Assistant, or a Legislative Correspondent.  These staffers will most likely not have detailed knowledge of the issue that you're calling in about.  If you're calling about a "hot" topic in the news they may have a script, but they will not have the knowledge or the authority to discuss the issue with you or sometimes even to tell you what the Congressman's position is.  They will dutifully take down your contact information and put your message into the constituent contact database for a response.

At this point you may be tempted to ask for a higher level staffer who can answer your question more definitively and discuss your representative's position.  This is not usually advisable for several reasons.  If Congress is in session senior legislative staff will be busy assisting the Congressman with committee assignments, floor debates, votes, meetings, and other similar duties.  Remember, the average office receives around 25,000 contacts per year.  That works out to nearly 70 contacts for everyone one of the 365 days in the year, including Sundays, a staffer's birthday, their kid's little league championship, and everything else.  If 70 people per day asked for a personal phone call and a lengthy discussion a Congressional office literally would be unable to handle the volume without massive increases in staffing.  It also isn't necessary; more on that later.

The third major way to contact a Congressional office is through standard postal mail.  This is the least desirable way to contact a Member of Congress because it is very slow.  Due to concerns over explosive, chemical or biological attack, all physical items that are mailed to a Congressional office must go through a rigorous scanning process prior to delivery.  This adds several days on to an already slow process.  If you send your representative a physical piece of mail it will likely be over 2 weeks before your Member of Congress receives your mail and then an additional period of time before it can be processed and answered.  It goes without saying that if the object of your contact is urgent or time sensitive in any way you should e-mail or call instead.  This same delay also applies to packages and overnight mail.

Now that we know something about how the process works the question I suspect many people have is, "Why bother?"  If my representative isn't even going to see my message then why send it to him?  The answer is that even though your representative won't see your specific message he will hear your opinion and in an amplified way.  Your Congressman's staff will tally up all the contacts that are received and let him know how many people were for or against a particular issue.  That may not sound like much, but think about it this way.  Let's say 500 people write in about one bill, 200 are in favor and 300 oppose.  In the mind of the Congressman this is fairly compelling and he will probably draw generalizations about the feelings of his district based on this information.  One of 500 seems insignificant until you remember that each Congressional district has over 700,000 constituents in it.  You just went from being one in 700,000 to being one in 500.  Not bad.

Finally, some people want to meet their Member of Congress in person.  This usually isn't necessary, but it can be desirable and it is typically very possible because relatively few people want to meet their Member of Congress in person.  The easiest way to meet your representative is to contact his district office and see if he keeps regular office hours when Congress is not in session.  If so, his Scheduler will likely be able to work with you to set up a time for a face to face meeting.  Additionally, most Members of Congress have dozens of events in their district throughout the year, many of which are open to the general public.  The Congressman's district Scheduler will again be able to help you find a time to attend one of these events.

Other tips:

1. Be polite.  Congressional staff are routinely abused by constituents who are angry, incoherent, and demanding.  They're not in charge of anything; indeed, if they're interns, they're likely not even getting paid.  They're just someone's granddaughter who is trying to learn about our system of government and get some office experience over their summer break or through a college program.  Be nice to them.

2.  Know what you're talking about.  Constituents waste large amounts of their own time and Congressional staff time by submitting inquiries about issues that a person should be able to reasonably research on their own.  Chain e-mails, disreputable "news" websites, and plain old rumors can and should be dispelled by doing some background research before calling your Congressman.  Visit Thomas.loc.gov to find out about legislation, including its status in the legislative process.  We'll go into more detail in a future post, but there are thousands of bills introduced in Congress each year.  99% of them are never passed into law or even considered by the full House.  Learn to figure out which bills should worry you and which are dead on arrival.  If you know what you're talking about you will have much more credibility and respect with your representative and his staff.

3. Don't believe everything you hear.  This goes hand in hand with #2.  The world of politics is filled with people who are trying to get what they want and they need your help.  They'll try to enlist you in their cause in any way possible, including with false information.  Make sure that you really support their cause before you call your Congressman or donate money on their behalf.

Please keep in mind that this guide is not comprehensive.  Each Congressional office and Congressman is different.  If you have knowledge of your Member of Congress or his office that you trust then you should tailor your contact based on that information.  This guide is meant to outline how things typically work.

If you have any questions or comments please leave them in the feedback.  I will do my best to be responsive.