How to influence Congress

This is an article from the Newsvine:

It seems that very few American citizens understand that Congress works for us, not the other way around. They are our employees and should be treated as such. They represent you and I and so they darn well better understand that.

Here is the post that I did that explains how your communication with them is handled. This comes from several years of citizen lobbying that I did while in college. I got to know a lot of staffers and met with a few congress critters while doing this and learned how they consider and rank communications from their constituents.

There is a hierarchy based upon the amount of work that a constituent puts into the letter.

From lowest to highest. Divide by 10 if it comes from out of the district (house) or state (senate)

5) Mass emailing: Lowest form and is immediately deleted if it is the same email sent by hundreds of people.

4) Single Personalized Email: Looked at by staffers and if it is a subject of immediate interest and if multiple emails that are clearly not copies or near copies, then they are considered, depending on how many received.

3) Fax: A fax, if it is not a spam (meaning the same text sent by many people) are considered at about the same level as a single personalized email. They are recorded and if enough come in that are clearly not copies or near copies, then they might make it to the congress person.

2) Letter: Clearly recorded and considered by staffers. Again the rules for personalized versus copies applies (your own words, no matter how angry, illegible, or good) meaning that if you took the time to write it, it probably means that you would vote with the item in mind next time. Multiply by 2x if hand written. Use a live stamp!

1) Express Mail, Fedex, etc: Highest consideration. Means that you really care/pissed but means that you really are engaged on the subject. They consider you an influencer and that you will probably talk ten people into your position, and that means votes for or against.

(Note: the article doesn’t mention it, but picking up a phone and calling is certainly effective as well!)

Another Rule

Multiply negative mail by a factor of ten (usually if one person is pissed, that ten others are as well). Multiply positive mail by factor of 100. People usually don't go out of their way to write positive stuff unless it is really good.

These are generalized rules to use with communicating with your congress person.

If you follow up any of these with a phone call, then they are really taken seriously, especially if you ask if they received it and what the staffer thinks.

Another general note - Almost none of your mail goes directly to the target without first going through the staff. The staff is a filter and many of them will formulate the reply from the congressperson, if not a form letter. Depending on the issue, you MIGHT get a response from the congress person, the more junior the member, the higher the likelihood of a response.

At the very top of the list is a personal visit. I encourage each and every one of you to visit your congress person and senator's office at least once in your life. They are YOUR EMPLOYEES and you have a right to check up on them. You might even remind them of this when you visit. Tell them that you are there for a performance review and that your vote is contingent upon a passing grade. Do it respectfully, but with sincerity as this is exactly what it should be.

There’s some additional great advice in this power point presentation:

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/uploaded_files/Arnold_Slides.pdf


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