Contacting your Senator/Congressman

[OldGreyEagle 5]

I have tried since Monday, Frb 2nd to call my home state's Senator's Office in Dc without success. I get a recording that says the offices are experiencing a large volume of calls and to leave a message. Then the recording says the voice mail box is full and the line goes dead. I was able to contact my Congressman's Office

 

Anyone else experiencing this? I wanted to talk about the Economic Stimulus package but my position on it is not this thread's topic. How do you make your thoughts known when you can't talk to them? I did send an EMail from their web sites, but I have done that in the past and have received an obvious generic electronic answer that doesnt give me the feeling anyone read my initial thoughts.

 

What has been your experience about contacting your COngressman or senators on the Federal level?

 

OH, and to make it scouting related, Citizenship is one of the three aims of scouting

[TheScout 10]

The best experience I ever had in this regard was when as a young Scout I sent a letter to my representative for Citizenship in the Nation. I got a nice letter back and a large packet regarding the bill I wrote about.

[Apache Bob 10]

In this day of emails and cheap cell phone calls the one thing that get though to them is an old fashioned letter.

They can't see it on their computer. They can't just listen to your voice. They have to pick it up and read it. I think they take more notice of a hand written letter than any thing else you could sent them.

 

[OldGreyEagle 5]

AB, I hear you on the hand written mail thing, but check this

 

http://casey.senate.gov/contact/

 

its from my home state senators website, note that it says and quoting from the website:

 

"For security reasons, mail delivery to United States Capitol offices is very slow. The best way to contact me or my Washington, DC staff is via the contact form on this page, or either by fax at (202) 228-0604 or phone at (202) 224-6324."

 

So, if I want to make a point on a topic that could be moot by the time my hand written leter get to DC I can call, but that is of no use if no one answers and the voice mail box is full or send an email which gets a generic thank you for calling reponse or a Fax, I may have to try that one, but if they can't keep up on voice mails, will a fax get any notice?

Will try the Fax, after all, its a shot I have not as yet taken

[Eagle92 110]

Funny and very appropriate inthta I sent an email to my senators about tax frauds being nominated for cabinet level positions. I got a very nice letter in the mail today from one of them about the issue i wrote about.

[John-in-KC 311]

http://www.house.gov/writerep

 

http://www.senate.gov (find your senator, he/she has an e-form to use)

 

I've been doing this for a decade now. Since 9/11, my Congresscritter has advocated email over snailmail.

 

Another option is not to call your Senator/Congresscritters in DC, but rather their local offices.

 

(I teach this to Scouts doing Cit in Nation )

[OldGreyEagle 5]

John, I called the local office and got a women who clearly did not want to talk to me or anyone. When I started talking to her about the Economic Stimulus Bill she said she didnt knw anything about it and I should call the DC office and talk to the Legislative people, when I said I couldnt because the voice mail box was full, she said I shoud document it and write the senator. All very nice, but the senator already says snail mail isnt his preferred way of communicaton a nd if I wirte something I wait for the reply they want to give and I have to question them back and the time for discussion will be gone. Very irritating

[Hal_Crawford 15]

The web forms on the Senate web site

 

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

 

are the best way to contact your senator.

 

 

[SR540Beaver 116]

It is my firm belief that a junior staffer working for peanuts culls any and all communications and sends out the appropriate form letter. It is also my firm belief that any time a Congress critter actually sees something a constituent wrote, it is an accident on the part of his staff who is supposed to cull the communication and send form letters. The exception to these rules is during election time when they need touching stories about how they are looking out for their homies.

[Hal_Crawford 15]

There is truth to what you say about junior staffers. If you contact them through the web forms there is at least a track of which issues are getting a lot of correspondence. When that happens the staff takes notice.

 

I did write Senator George Allen (former R from VA) asking him NOT to vote YES on a particular bill. About two weeks later I received an form e-mail from him assuring me that I did not need to worry, he was voting YES on that the bill. I was glad to vote against him in the next election and glad to see him go.

 

Senator John Warner ® on the other hand wrote back that he opposed the bill but for different reasons than I had stated. Seemed that someone had actually read my e-mail and responded accordingly. He had a really good reputation for responding to scouts who wrote for cit/community MB. Sorry to see him go but I know our new Senator, Mark Warner (D-no relation to John) is a good man. I met him a couple of times when he was governor and I am glad to see him in the Senate. Haven't written to either Webb or the new Warner yet so I don't know the quality of their (staff's) response.

 

Good luck.

[Lisabob 13]

Beaver is right that in most cases, the actual elected official doesn't see the letters that are written. That's a large part of what they have a staff for. I used to be one of those *very* junior staffers (though not at the national congressional level!). My job? Basically to answer phone calls and letters, to provide summaries of the contacts we had with constituents, and to draft letters of congratulations anytime any of our constituents did anything at all noteworthy. There are exceptions of course, but probably the majority of elected legislative officials works like this.

 

Still, contacting your member of gov't in writing is worth it. Most elected officials do pay attention to the volume and trend of contacts. So if an issue is important to you, let 'em know! When they start getting more than a couple of contacts on the same issue and in the same direction, they tend to perk up and listen.

 

 

[Eagle92 110]

Well I guess I've been fortunate in that when I wrote my letter for cit nation, I got a reply with a signature, not a stamp. A few years later, instead of sending a letter to my COH, he actually attended the ECOH and presented me a certificate.