[
Note: Originally written about a year ago, there have been a few requests to repost this piece. Thanks to Dickday and LisB for bringing me to the tipping point. I hope the knowledge within is useful in helping get your thoughts across to your elected representatives.]
So, there you are. You have a special rant about the US Government you
need to get off your chest. Perhaps it has to do with taking away your
privacy. Perhaps it has to do with bailing out banks. Perhaps it has
to do with undocumented aliens -- the kind that landed in Area 51.
Rather
than bug your co-workers in a needless political discussion -- besides
you already know you are correct, don't you? -- why not spread your
love to the people who might actually be able to do something about it?
Yes,
this is a blog designed to help send your special missive to your
elected officials in a way to generate the maximum amount of attention
as possible (short of a death threat, which isn't advisable, of
course). These tips were gleaned from personal experience with
members of Congress (both sides of the aisle) and their staffers.
For
starters, phone calls as a way of influencing the opinion of your
elected official are pointless unless they (or the staffer who picks
up) know you personally or you represent a powerful lobby. Or work in
Hollywood. Well, working in Hollywood isn't enough -- you actually
have to be a celebrity. Reality shows don't count. So save the phone
calls for when you know the staff personally and you are working on a
specific issue with them.
I wouldn't even know how to send a
telegram to Congress, although if you figure it out, the sheer novelty
may get it passed around the staff -- for the wrong reasons:
"Look! A cool letter WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS STOP"
What does that leave us? Snail mail, email, and faxes. There are some common elements, several are addressed in this
generic primer.
Pay particular attention to the proper form when addressing your
elected official. Sometimes it hurts to address them as "The
Honorable"... but do it! Also recognize that the term
"Congressman/woman" is not preferred. In writing, use the gender
neutral "Representative", save the Congressman/woman for when you are
talking to them in person. (It can happen!)
Writing to Congress
via snail mail is not only so 20th century, since 9/11, it is
debilitating. Mail can take 3-4 weeks to get Congress because of
anthrax monitoring. Longer if it is a package. Much longer. Even
Congress moves faster than the US Postal Service + screening. Your
issue may be resolved or dead by the time the staffer even sees the
letter. If it makes you feel better, by all means, write your heart
out in this manner. But use a quill to remind yourself how effective
this technique will be in the 21st century.
Which brings us to
that most ubiquitous form of 21st century communication. No, not text
messages. Unless you happen to know your elected official's personal
cell phone. In which case, you probably have better access anyway.
Assuming that the elected official even knows how to text.
I speak, instead, of email.
Here's
the fact: Congress doesn't take emails from the public. Their
staffers do and, if you are very lucky, you might find out the
staffers' email addresses because they write to you. If this happens
consider yourself lucky that you got someone's attention to the point
of their typing a reply.
No, in today's digital world,
electronic communication for Congress consists of text box fill-in
forms on elected official's website. In other words, you are limited
to a certain number of characters, you don't end up with a record of
what was sent (how convenient!), and you don't get an editor (or,
often, even a preview panel).
In other words, it's something like submitting a comment to TPM.
Only worse.
Because
in addition to the letter, you are given a Chinese menu of "topics"
that the letter falls under (e.g. Homeland Security, Iraq War, Energy,
How-to-Waste-My-Taxes, etc.) In other words, it's sort of like the
"Muckraker" or "TPMDC" boxes on TPM.
So maybe it
is like submitting something to TPM after all.
How unfortunate!
Why
the Chinese menu? Because you are sending the letter to the specific
staffer on that particular topic. And that staffer will handle the
letter.
But what happens if your letter doesn't fit into one of the pre-defined bins?I
think you know the answer to this one. You hit the "other" box. Which
means your special rant ends up who-knows-where. Which probably means
it will be read after all the other web emails where people were kind
enough to limit their issue to ones the elected official thought were
important.
Is that any way to treat your special rant?
In
addition, Congress tends to look at these web emails from an unknown
like you just as a phone call from an unknown like you. And we know
how they feel about phone calls from unknowns. Why do they compare web
emails to phone calls? Who knows? Perhaps because it comes over the
phone lines. But email, despite the fact you actually had to type it,
doesn't have the same weight of written correspondence. After all,
email is sent via the ether which has no weight at all.
So, how
to combine written correspondence with modern communication? Go back
to the 80s with that new fangled technology: the fax.
This is the communication form you want to use. Trees had to die for you to get that note to Congress -- and so the elected official takes notice.
Please understand that this rule applies to
all
members of Congress -- even the environmentally conscience ones. They
love paper. That's what they push in Washington. Even the
environmentally conscience ones. Give'em what they want. They might
just return the favor.
So: a fax is the best way of getting the
staff's attention, and it's therefore the best way of getting the
elected official's attention. Of course, the staffer will dutifully log
the fax and they will figure out what staffer to route it to.
And
because all faxes have to be given thought when going through the
routing process, you know your letter won't end up in the dreaded
"other" pile.Clever, isn't it?
Okay. So, you will go fax Congress. Promise me. I'll wait.
Have you promised? Good, let's continue.
Next step: whom to fax?
Strictly
speaking, you have only 3 choices: your two Senators and your
Representative. Go for all of them. A dead tree will certainly
produce 3 sheets of paper.
Suppose a bill has already gone
through the House and is now in the Senate for approval? Fax to all
three of them anyway. Why write a letter to your Representative after
the House has voted? Well, at least you can register which way they
should think about something in the future. Besides, you already wrote
a nice little rant. Wouldn't you like to share it with a 50% bigger
audience?
Note to self: make sure to stay ahead of the issues, however. Try to write
before the votes rather than after. It's a more effective strategy.
Why
limit yourself to 3 members of Congress? Why not just hit that print
button a few hundred times, generate a mountain of letters, and blanket
all of Washington DC with your opinions? Well, if you are not a
constituent, the elected official won't care about you. Nothing
personal, but let's be honest: They don't care about you anyway --
except to get your vote on the next go around. And for that, you need
to be in their district. So they will make exceptions for their
constituents, pesky individuals though they be.
If you send a letter to a member of Congress who doesn't represent you, it
will
be tossed. Well, except if it has a death threat, but we already ruled
out that as a possible topic of the letter. So don't waste your time.
Don't make trees die for no reason at all.
Now there is an
exception to this rule (isn't there always?): you can write to any
member of Congress who is playing a certain role in what you are
bringing to their attention. For example, suppose you have an issue
with -- oh, I don't know -- a health care bill being looked at in the
Senate. So in addition to writing to your elected officials, you
might also write the leaders and ranking members of the Senate Health Committee (in this case Ted Kennedy who is the
Democrat and Michael Enzi who is the Republican).
Here's a
special inside tip: If the Bill were in the House, not only would you
write the ranking members of the appropriate House Committee but also
any Representatives of the Committee from your state.
I have known this trick to work -- you might think they toss it out,
but occasionally, they assume you are dumb and didn't know who your
Representative was and will pass it onto your own Representative (
"Hey, your dumb constituent sent me this letter, but I think it's meant for you")
and now you have your Representative's Office looking at a piece of
paper handed to them by another Representative. How much more
attention do you think that will give that piece of paper?
Almost worth a tree's life at that point.
Hey, did you notice something? I told you to send your special rant to
both parties.
That's right. You may hate your elected official, but guess what? You
are stuck with him or her until the next election. At least make'em work for
you. You can even pretend you will vote for him. Why not? Not only
will you get a good feeling that you got this person -- whom you detest
-- to do your bidding, you will secretly try to take away their job the
first chance you get! That's two good feelings for the price of one!
Of course, if you like your elected official, you can still make it look like you will vote for them in the future.
In
other words, make promises that you may or may not keep. People in
Congress are used to this type of behavior. They invented it.
Okay, so now you know what to send (a fax) and who to send it to.
What about content?
This is even more important.
Never, ever send more than about 1 page of written material.That's an important point. Let me repeat so it looks important:
Never, ever send more than about 1 page of written material.Nice. It looks really important now.
What
do I mean by written material? I mean the actual guts of the letter,
after you get done with all the 'Honorable' stuff that made you lose
your lunch when you wrote it.
The very first sentence should state
a)
why you are writing to them ("... because you are my Senator..." or
"... I am writing to you as chair of the House Financial Services
Committee..."
and
b) what you are writing about
That's
all in the first sentence. Do you know why? Unless you are a
brilliant writer (and you aren't), no one will read the whole letter to
figure out what you are writing about.
In Washington, the trick
is to get the piece of paper away from you as quickly as possible. So
tell them which staffer to give the piece of paper to. In the first
sentence. Because if you don't tell them, the waste basket may get too
close to the fax machine and ... whoops!
Okay, sentence number 1
down. What next? Why, sentence number 2! And here is the subject of
Sentence 2: write the summary point. How do you stand on the issue?
This
letter to Congress isn't great literature. Don't make it a mystery
novel where they have to get to the end to understand the beginning.
It's a thumbs up or thumbs down issue from the beginning.
Make it easy for them to figure out what side you are on. Because they may get confused with all your justification -- and decide you feel differently about the issue than you do!
Now
for the middle bit. Throw in some clever arguments. Maybe even a
precedent. How about something historical? Hey, the more educated you
look, the more you look like you can give large dollars to their next
campaign. They like that! But don't get cute and sarcastic. Let your
elected official be the ones that tell the jokes -- like when they
recite their record during the next election campaign. You want your
rant to be taken seriously, right? How can it be taken seriously if
it's wrapped in humor? Besides, you aren't that funny anyway. If you
were, you'd be a paid comedian and then you'd be a celebrity and be
able to call the elected official directly. (See above.)
Also,
remember to check your special rant for spelling and grammar. "I am
having quite a time..." has a very different meaning than "I am having
a quiet time..." Besides, if your fax is riddled with errors, it might
remind your elected official to go back to work on that education bill
and that pushes your issue back in line!
Finally, remember to include your name, phone number, and email address on the letter. (Add your snail mail as well: prove to them they have to worry about your vote in the next election.)
Make it easy for them to get in contact with you.
If you get a call from a staffer or a field officer, congratulations!
You are now talking to the most important person in the elected
official's office. Because the dirty secret is that the staffers do
nearly all the work, the elected official is more like the front man.
Think of it this way: if you had a problem with your computer, would
you rather a call back from the CEO or the engineer sitting in the
basement who spends his life writing the code?
Each letter that
Congress gets is assumed to represent some number of like-minded
constituents. Because when you actually have to make this kind of
Herculean effort, you are feeling pretty strongly about something.
And Congress does take these letters seriously. (Did I say letters? I
meant
faxes... always send faxes!)
Lastly, do not expect
a response from your fax, you almost never get one. But if you have
done your job correctly, the correspondence will at least be in the
right place with an appropriate weight. It just may influence your
elected official. And doesn't it feel good to know that you are
exercising your political voice? At least until the next election,
when that same official may just need you to help keep their job!
A quick Google search produced this website with recent fax number info on Congress. And don't forget that the White House works the same way. After all, Obama was a Senator only a few short months ago and habits -- especially in Washington DC -- are slow to change.
