How to Contact Your Congressman

The United States government consists of three branches: the Executive branch, which includes the Presidency; the Legislative branch, or Congress, which consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate; and the Judicial branch, which includes the Supreme Court. Whether you are a liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, or somewhere in between, it is important to let your congressmen and women know how you feel on current topics. Most congressmen are well aware that their job depends on staying attuned to their constituents' opinions.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Internet access
• Phone
• Pen, paper, envelopes and stamps (unless hand delivered)

1. The first step that you should take is to identify your U.S. House of Representatives member (your "congressman"). The following is the official website for the House - http://www.house.gov. You will be able to enter your ZIP code to determine your Representative. Generally, your member will have a website with contact information for offices both in Washington, D.C. and in their home district. I would recommend that you utilize all means available to make your opinion known. These include, but may not be limited to: calling, e-mailing, faxing, and especially, hand-written letters to both their home and D.C offices. I have heard that hand-written/delivered messages get the most notice!

2. Next, you should find out who represents you in the other house of Congress - the U.S. Senate. You will have two Senators, as each state gets two of them and they are elected by the entire state's voters. You can go to the Senate's website at http://www.senate.gov. A drop-down menu allows you to select your state, which will list your Senators. Each Senator will have a website with contact information. And, again, I would recommend utilizing all means available to make your opinions known.

3. While the first two steps cover contacting your Congressmen, often times the battle begins within the political parties themselves long before they reach official government status. Therefore, I would highly recommend contacting both political parties and making your thoughts on subjects known. I say both parties because there are no restrictions to contacting a party that you don't belong to. The two parties in power today are the Democrats at http://www.democrats.org, and the Republicans at http://www.gop.com.

4. Finally, once a bill has passed both the House and Senate, it is forwarded to the President. This is the last step before a bill becomes a law. Although rare, bills occasionally are vetoed by Presidents, or simply ignored until time expires, thereby killing the bill. It is potentially worth the effort to contact the President at http://www.whitehouse.gov. There you will find a contact link with many ways to make your opinion heard.

Tips & Warnings

• Be well informed of current issues.
• Make sure that your letters are well written.
• Use proper phone etiquette when calling offices.
• Refrain from threats when contacting members of Congress or the White House.

[writedesign]

on 10/27/2009 Great info on how to contact your congressman. If more folks did, laws may actually work for the people!