The First Amendment protects the right to petition the government, and contacting your representatives is one of the most direct ways to use it. Members of Congress and their staff track constituent calls and messages, and research on congressional offices finds that individual constituent contact can influence undecided members.
This guide explains how to reach your representatives and how to make your message count. You can also contact state legislators and local officials in similar ways.
Phone calls are one of the quickest ways to register a view. Call the member's Washington office directly or use the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. A staff assistant or intern will usually answer, ask for your name and address to confirm you are a constituent, and log your position. Be brief: say who you are, where you live, the bill number or issue, and what you want the member to do. District offices, listed on each member's website, are often easier to reach.
Caseworkers, usually based in district offices, help constituents with problems involving federal agencies, such as passports, visas and immigration cases, veterans benefits, Social Security and Medicare, tax refunds, and military records. You fill out a privacy release form allowing the agency to share your information with the office, which then makes an inquiry. Offices cannot override an agency's decision or intervene in court cases, but an inquiry often speeds up a stalled case.
Surveys of congressional staff by the Congressional Management Foundation have found that in-person visits from constituents and individualized messages have more influence than mass form emails. Contact matters most on issues where a member is undecided and before key votes. Offices generally do not count messages from people outside their district or state. Some argue that organized campaigns and lobbyists drown out ordinary citizens, while others note that a steady stream of thoughtful constituent contact remains one of the few tools available to every voter.
You have one representative in the House, elected by your congressional district, and two senators elected by your whole state. Enter your ZIP code or full address at house.gov to find your House member, since some ZIP codes span more than one district, and use senate.gov to find your senators. Residents of Washington, D.C. and the territories have a nonvoting delegate or resident commissioner instead of voting members. Your state legislators and city officials are listed on your state legislature and local government websites.
You can request a meeting in Washington or at a district office through the member's scheduler, usually by an online form. Many meetings are with a legislative assistant who handles your issue, which can be just as useful. Members also hold town halls, telephone town halls, and office hours, especially during recesses, and these are announced on their websites and social media. Groups of constituents with a clear request and local stories tend to make the strongest impression.
Most offices accept email only through a contact form on their website, which checks that you live in the district or state. Since the anthrax attacks of 2001, paper mail to Capitol Hill has been screened off site, delaying it by weeks, so letters are better sent to district offices. A personal message explaining how an issue affects you, your family, or your business is more persuasive than a copied template. Legislative correspondents sort messages by topic, and many offices send a reply letter stating the member's position.
Learn what staff do with your message in what congressional staff do, follow legislation you care about in how to track a bill, or see how laws are made in how a bill becomes law.