Editor's Note: This piece originally published on The Independent Center's website. It has been republished on IVN with permission from the organization.

The Big Picture

It’s February and Washington is still in the, “new year, new you” phase. We are a month and a half into a new Congress and a few weeks shorter than that into a new (ish) presidency. And like most of us with a New Year's resolution, Congress and the administration are still in the “haven’t given up on the diet” phase.  

President Trump is certainly the “doer of things” (see footnote) right now, and Congress has been content to sit back and watch. Whether these are good things to do could be discussed and debated until the cows come home and is outside the scope of this explainer. While Congress as an institution may be content to sit back and see what happens, the members' constituents are definitely not. The New York Times has published how the Members’ offices can’t keep up with the volume of phone calls. I even saw an interesting LinkedIn post about talking to Members. Which, for the most part, is good advice; as a former staffer, I chimed in in the comments.

Zooming In

Let’s zoom in and discuss the nitty-gritty of effectively reaching your members. First and foremost, you can reach out to three members of Congress: one of the 435 Representatives and two of the 100 Senators. If you are in Washington, D.C., or one of the territories, I’m sorry, but you only have a non-voting delegate. They are active in the process of legislating, except for the voting part. Depending on who is in charge, they might be able to vote in committee, but they have no right to vote on the floor for final passage. Washington and the territories also have no Senators. I’m sorry.  

First Rule: Reach out to your members. If you aren’t a constituent, I hate to break it to you, but your concerns are not going to be taken seriously. You might even get the line “Congressional courtesy dictates that we are unable to help other members’ constituents.” You can use a tool like OpenStates (now owned by Plural) or Congress.Gov to find your member. The advantage of OpenStates is that it gives you all Federal and State Legislative Offices (example). Any tool that relies on zip codes may cause difficulty as it is not uncommon for zip codes to be split between legislative districts.

Second Rule: BE POLITE AND RESPECTFUL. Human decency goes a long way. While some offices are known to be more prickly than others, you are still going to get more flies with honey than with vinegar. Remember, they are human, and they put their pants on one leg at a time just like you do. I get it; you may think the member is the architect of the final solution (no lie, a lady told me that about my boss one time) or the spawn of Satan. Please don’t tell that to the poor intern on the other end of the phone. Please also don’t start yelling like the salty Master Chief trying to train the new Ensign. On the other end of the phone is most likely a college sophomore who’s going to go cry about it in the bathroom later. That doesn’t make you effective, that makes you a jerk.

Third rule: The order of precedence. Not all methods of reaching out to your members are equal. Short (500 – 600 words-ish) handwritten letters are king. Those make it to the to read pile/binder/office chair. They take longer, but like a good soufflé, it’s worth it. The next best are direct phone calls or emails to specific staff or the member’s non-public email/phone number. You get these by having relationships with the office. Regular interactions at events or in the office that follow Rule #2 unlock the business card with the direct contact info. Tools like Legistorm, Plural, and Quorum also have this information, but they are priced for lobbying firms, not individuals. Plus, a warm introduction is always better than a cold call. Third in this list is a phone call to the district or state office. These are general numbers and like the fourth best option, being the general line to the Washington office, are often staffed by interns. This is not always the case, but it’s far more common than the one number that rings everyone's phone. Tools like 5Calls can easily help you call the offices and even help you with a script to use when you call, just to make you feel a little more comfortable.

Finally, there is the general email on the House/Senate website. This gets triaged daily, and some offices, like one I worked in, require every constituent contact to get a letter back. That is rare, that was also before ChatGPT. Like phone calls to the general numbers, emails here will get counted and sorted based on the issue area and stance on the issue. This data is usually provided weekly or, in some offices, daily to the member, chief of staff, and anyone else who needs it. It’s a quick and dirty barometer of where the district is on any given issue. Exact? No. Useful? Yes.

Finally, if you want to get your correspondence thrown in the trash (literally or digitally) and ignored? Use online petitions, chain letters, or anything that automatically generates a form letter and slaps your name on it. The staff can spot that from a mile away, like a seasoned English teacher reading for ChatGPT. You might be asking why. It’s because, from a staff perspective, these things are annoying as hell, not seen as genuine, and only get in the way of actual constituent work. Seriously, don’t use these. I once had to go through 150-ish form letters to find the single one that was in the district.  The letter backed a bill the boss already liked, but we were all annoyed by the time wasted processing the stack.

Fourth Rule: Make it personal. You are a human being with thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Share these. Sure, you might call and say you oppose H.R. Thingamajig, and that opposition will get logged. However, a more effective approach is to explain that you oppose H.R. Thingamajig because, as a foster parent, you already have to struggle against a large bureaucracy to secure what’s best for your foster child, and H.R. Thingamajig will add extra hurdles to your efforts to ensure the children you care for can thrive. Or that, as a home builder, you oppose H.R. Thingamajig because it will increase the price of lumber, making the homes you build cost $30,000 to $50,000 more while housing is already expensive enough. See the difference? Not only are you talking about an issue, but you are making it real.

Fifth rule: Please don’t use the “You work for me” line. Staff support the member, and by extension, yes, they do indirectly work for the constituents. But saying this is only going to get them to tune you out. It goes back to rule number two: be polite and respectful.

DOs

Only reach out to your members

BE POLITE AND RESPECTFUL.  

The order of precedence

1. Handwritten notes are hands down the best but write legibly. No Perfume, it’s weird. It might also set off something at the sorting facility in Maryland.

2. Direct emails/phone calls to individual staff and the member's nonpublic email are second best.

3. Phone calls to the general line in state/congressional district office

4. Phone calls to the Washington DC office

Be succinct and make the issue personal. You are a real human being, not ChatGPT.

Independent Lens

As an independent, you have a unique voice. You decide elections, not the partisans. Get involved, get to know the staff that work for your members and get to know the members. This works both at the Federal and State level. It’s even more effective at the state level because state representatives and state senators all have MUCH smaller districts. Except Texas. The Texas State Senate districts are actually larger than US House districts because, well, everything is bigger in Texas.

Footnote

Thank you to George Chidi of The Atlanta Objective for the “Doer of Things” line. While he originally used it to describe former Atlanta Mayor and sometimes interest of the FBI Kassim Reed, it is too good of a line not to use with Donald Trump.