Government Affairs/Licensure

HOW TO LOBBY CONGRESS

Communicating with your member of Congress doesn't need to be an intimidating or otherwise unpleasant experience -- if you know how to be an effective advocate. That includes understanding what to ask, who to ask, how to ask, and how to follow up.

WHO TO ASK

Believe it or not, constituents are the most important and relevant people that members of Congress deal with on a day-to-day basis. One of the most common questions you'll hear in an elected official's office in reference to letters, phone calls, or meeting requests is "Are they from the district?" If the answer is yes, your questions, comments, or concerns must be dealt with in some way.

That's why it is vitally important that you communicate with your own elected officials -- those who represent you directly or who represent your employees. They are the individuals over whom you have the most influence.

Who are My Elected Officials?

Every American, with the exception of residents of the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, has one House Representative and two Senators. You can find out who these people are by going to www.congress.org, and typing in your zip code. Or, you can go to www.house.gov to identify your House Representatives, and www.senate.gov to identify your Senators

Congressional Staff

Knowing your elected official also means knowing the staff. In fact, having a positive relationship with the staff person can be more important than your relationship with the elected official! The staff person is usually the one who carries out any activities on your behalf.

Following is an overview of the kinds of people you may run into in a Congressional office.

Members of Congress have staff in at least two offices, one in Washington, DC, and one or more in their congressional district or state. In general, district office staff work on local issues, and DC office staff handle the national policy issues.

District / State Staff

Washington, DC Staff

The Staff Assistant handles traditional front desk duties, such as answering phones.

The DC Staff Assistant has similar responsibilities.

The District/State Scheduler schedules the member's time in the district or state.

The DC Scheduler/Executive Assistant schedules the Congressperson's time in Washington, DC.

Caseworkers assist constituents in resolving problems with federal agencies.

Legislative Correspondents (LCs) draft letters in response to constituents' comments and questions, also generally handle a few legislative issues.

The Field Representative handles local policy issues and is the principal liaison between the Congressional office and local businesses, organizations, and citizens.

Legislative Assistants (LAs) handle the bulk of the policy work in a congressional office.

The Deputy District / State Director assists the Office Director in overseeing the district staff.

The Legislative Director (LD) handles policy issues and oversees the legislative staff.

Some offices have district or state-based Press Secretaries. These individuals focus more on local press than national.

The Press Secretary/Communications Director fields all calls from the media, writes press releases, and is often the spokesperson for the office.

The District/State Office Director oversees the operations of the district or state staff and is often the point person in the district office for highly sensitive local political issues.

The Chief of Staff (CoS)/Administrative Assistant (AA) oversees the entire operation. The chief of staff may sometimes handle a few policy issues, but generally his or her time is spent managing the office.

Tips for Communicating with Staff

• Talk to The Right Person: Ask who handles your issues, and build a relationship with that person - whether they are a senior person or at the bottom of the totem pole.
  

• Remember that You're the Expert: Many staff handle up to 10 policy issues, from environment to energy to health care. They can't know everything about everything. Fortunately, you're there to help them out on your issues!
  

• Staff Contact Has Advantages over Member Contact: Although they are busy, staff almost always have more time to delve into an issue than their principals.
  

• Expect and Appreciate Youth: Most staff are notoriously young. Don't let that worry you though - they are also capable individuals who will respond appropriately to your requests.

What is their legislative record and general philosophy? What issues are they passionate about?

Understanding your audience is one of the keys to effective communication in any context. It is especially important when dealing with elected officials because of the wide-range and volume of messages they receive.

Find out what the people who represent you really care about, and then frame your message in those terms. Here's an example: Congressman Earl Blumenauer, who represents Portland, OR, cares deeply about building more "Livable Communities." If you walk into his office and talk about how you help build more livable communities, he will listen to you.

How do you find out what elected officials care about? One great resource is their own webpage. Webpages for House members can be accessed through www.house.gov. For Senators, go to www.senate.gov

What committees are my elected officials on?

House Representatives and Senators serve on Committees that have jurisdiction over specific issues. The Committee a member is assigned to is a measure of his or her interest in a particular topic, as well as the ability to be an advocate or to sponsor relevant legislation.

Note that an elected official can help you even if he or she does not serve on the appropriate committee. They can write letters, testify at hearings, or engage in one-on-one conversations with the Committee leadership. Always be prepared to suggest these options to your representatives. In most cases they will not propose these ideas on their own.

You can find out about House committee assignments through the clerkweb site at clerkweb.house.gov, and Senate Committee assignments through www.senate.gov

WHAT TO ASK FOR

Always "Make the Ask"

One of best ways to attract a member of Congress' attention is to force him or her to make a decision on something you've asked for. Frankly, it ensures that someone in the office has to think about you and your issues for longer than five minutes. Updates and general information about what you're working on is fine, but the truly effective advocate will always "Make the Ask". Don't worry about the impression that you're "always asking for something". Elected officials expect it, and are often disappointed if they can't help you out in some concrete, meaningful way. After all, that's what they're there for!

The very first call you should make is to the ASLA Public and Gov. Affairs Dept.. They have a legislative agenda they could really use your help on, or can simply offer general advice.

Things to Ask of Your Congressional Office

• Sponsor, Cosponsor, or Vote for or Against Federal Legislation: On a daily basis, your congressional representative makes important decisions on national policy issues, and you should let him or her know when you strongly support or oppose a certain piece of legislation. To find out more about legislative proposals generally, see the Thomas website at Thomas.loc.gov.
  

• Site Visits: Ask your elected officials or their staff to visit your program or facility next time they are in the district.
  

• Congressional Record Statements: Both Representatives and Senators can put statements in the "Congressional Record", a compilation of daily floor debates that includes written statements from Members in a section called "Extension of Remarks". Congressional offices use this space to, among other things, refer to a valuable program in their community.
  

• One Minutes, Five-Minutes or Morning Hour Statements: Representatives and Senators also have opportunities to offer verbal statements on the floor during certain periods of the day (the text of which is also included in the Congressional Record). These types of statements are more time-consuming, and should be requested only if you have something particularly exciting going on. Be prepared to draft talking points for the member.
  

• Newsletter Articles or Op-Eds: If your program has a newsletter, ask your elected officials to submit an article, or ask them to write an op-ed for the local newspaper. Members do it all the time.
  

• Letters of Support: Whenever you make a grant request for funds from a federal agency, contact your Congressional office and ask for a letter of support. Congressional offices receive these types of requests much of the time, and if there are no conflicts with other constituents, are usually happy to oblige. If you want to find out about available grants and loans from the federal government, check out www.cfda.gov
  

• Research and Reference Information: Your Congressional office has access to a wide-range of research materials from the Library of Congress' Congressional Research Service (CRS), which you can ask for by topic. .
  

• Tours: Many members of Congress offer tours of the Capitol, including the Capitol dome. They also have access to special tickets for tour of the White House, Library of Congress, and other federal buildings. Call to ask what kinds of tours your Representatives offer.

HOW SHOULD YOU ASK?

Members of Congress and their staffs are not mind readers. They won't know how you feel about an issue unless you tell them. But you have to be sure to deliver you message in the right way. Otherwise, your communication will be lost in the flood of mail, e-mail, phone calls, and faxes that come in to a Congressional office everyday. Following are some tips and techniques that will help ensure that your voice is heard above the fray.

Method of Communication

The methods of communication you chose should depend on the type of message. A simple request to vote for a particular bill can easily be relayed over the phone, while a more complicated message might better be put in writing. Think also about what works best for you in terms of time, energy, personal preference, and money.

Volume Does Not Necessarily Equal Effectiveness

Highly controversial issues can result in a flood of communications to a congressional office. Many offices consider the numbers when making a decision, but only to a point. Sometimes ten thoughtful and well-argued letters can have an equal impact to that of hundreds of calls or postcards.

Always Identify Yourself

It is a waste of time to communicate with your congressional office without identifying yourself. Unidentified information will generally be ignored and thrown away. Because the main duty of a congressional office is to represent the people who live in the congressional district, they need to know who is trying to communicate with them.

Be Specific

If ASLA is endorsing a particular bill, ask your representatives to cosponsor. If your concern is with a federal agency action, ask him or her to send a letter. Whatever it is, the best way to ensure that the office pays attention to your issue is to force a decision.

Prioritize Your Requests

If you ask for too many things without making it clear what your top priorities are, the congressional office may feel overwhelmed. Let the office know what actions need the most attention or time your requests so that you are not asking for more than a few things at once.

Offer To Be a Resource

Congressional staff usually are not experts in the issue areas they cover and often turn to trusted outside experts. Knowing that there's someone in the district who really understands landscape architecture and how it relates to communities can be very useful to staff. If you are an expert in your field, let your congressional office know that you can answer any questions they may have.

Be Polite

Treat the staff and the office with the same respect you expect. If you are disagreeable, it will make the staff far less likely to want to work with you in the future. You can be forceful about your views and opinions without being rude.

Always Tell the Truth

Congressional staff turn to outside individuals for advice and assistance on important policy issues all the time. They must feel that they can trust the individuals with whom they are dealing. If you don't know the answer to a question, tell them that and let them know you will get back to them.

Don't Vilify Your Opponents

At the very least, you should refrain from labeling those who disagree with you as unenlightened idiots. In fact, you can go even further by fairly presenting the other side's argument and then explaining why you have the stronger counter-argument. It's a great way to build credibility, especially since the staff person you are dealing with most likely will hear from the other side. He or she will realize that you have developed your position based on a careful evaluation of the facts.

Don't Talk About the Campaign with Staff

Many congressional staff get very nervous or even offended when people they are meeting with mention the member's campaign. The laws against staff involvement in their member's campaign are very strict. . In particular, any suggestion that the staff person's help on a legislative issue may translate into a campaign contribution is strictly forbidden. Such a suggestion may, in fact, make a staff person avoid helping you because they are worried it would look bad for their boss.

Persistence Pays

Perhaps the most important thing to remember in dealing with Members of Congress and their staff's is that persistence pays. In many cases, you may have to ask two, three, or even a dozen times before your congressional office is able to respond to your request.

HOW TO ASK: EFFECTIVE MEETINGS

In order to have an effective meeting, you must consider the context. Elected officials and their staff often have meetings all day long on a variety of topics. One minute it may be landscape architects, the next minute it may be people concerned about free trade, and then people with health insurance questions. Jumping from subject to subject can be somewhat confusing and rather chaotic for elected officials. Your job is to bring order to chaos by following these few simple steps. Remember that the ASLA government affairs office is always there to help!

Be cognizant of your representative's time limitations. Don't ask for more than one or two meetings per year. Sometimes your message is best delivered by phone or through a staff person.

Decide where you want to meet (DC vs. the home office), after looking at the congressional calendar (see the House and Senate websites for links to the House and Senate calendars)

Decide who should deliver your message. Some members may respond better to powerful figures in the community who support you. A real live constituent is always best.

Limit the number of people you bring to the meeting. Most Congressional offices cannot fit more than five people.

About one month before the proposed meeting time, fax the scheduler a meeting request, including a brief description of what you want to discuss and attendees. Meeting requests should always be made in writing, as the scheduler will have to pass the request along to several people before a decision is made. You can find phone, address and e-mail information from the House and Senate websites at www.house.gov or www.senate.gov. Or, call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to be connected to your congressional office directly. Many offices do not post fax numbers.

Follow-up with a phone call to the scheduler about one-week after sending a written request. Be prepared to send the request again, and again, and again. This can be frustrating, but it is best to grin and bear it. With the high volume of paper moving through the office, it is not surprising that some requests are misplaced.

Send a "one-pager" about your program before the meeting, nothing more. Most staff and Members do not review materials before meetings - they expect YOU to brief them.

Be very flexible - your meeting may take place standing up in the hallway, on the run to a vote, or may be cancelled with no warning. Members have to deal with sudden and dramatic shifts in their schedules on a daily basis. Unfortunately, this can affect the people they are planning to meet with.

Make sure you know "who's who" in the meeting, and take down the names of any staff people you may need to deal with in the future.

Leave behind short, concise, and consistent information.

Follow up after the meeting on any requests you made and information you promised to provide.

HOW TO ASK: EFFECTIVE LETTERS & PHONE CALLS

The key to being effective in your written communications is ensuring that someone on staff actually thinks about what you have to say. This means taking a personal, thoughtful approach, explaining why you're relevant to the office, reaching the right person and, perhaps more important, asking for a response.

The Personal Approach

The most compelling and effective letters and phone calls combine a thoughtful approach to policy issues with a careful explanation of why it's important to you and the member's community. In most offices, it is these letters or phone messages that the elected official actually sees, not the letters or messages generated by mass postcard, form letter, or call-in campaigns.

Why Are You Relevant?

You are relevant to the Congressional office because you are a constituent, and you can demonstrate that connection by including your postal address on every correspondence and as part of every discussion, whether it's e-mail, fax, or traditional letter.

Ask for a Response

Given the limited time and budgets in congressional offices, priority will always be given to letters and inquiries that require an answer. Asking for a response means someone on the staff has to think about what you've said and, in some way, address your concerns or comments.

Reaching the Right Person

Correspondence requesting a meeting or site visit should be sent to the Executive Assistant or Scheduler. Educational and informational correspondence about your work or a particular landscape architecture project should be sent to both the member and legislative assistant assigned to your issue.

Do You Need a Phone Appointment?

If you want to have a substantive discussion about a particular program or policy issues, you should ask for the staff person who handles that issue and see if you can set up a phone appointment. That way, you can be sure that they have set aside time to talk with you, as opposed to catching them in the middle of a busy day.

HOW TO FOLLOW UP

What you do after your initial contact with members of Congress may be the most important part of the communication process. Taking steps to capture the discussion, share feedback, and follow-up on any requests is the only way to ensure that you and your work will remain on the elected official's "radar-screen." The best way to achieve that goal (without becoming a pest) is through effective follow-up.

Thank you notes

Although people rarely take the time to send them, both staff and members really appreciate thank you notes. In fact, if you take the time to write even a short note, you will be in a very small (and very well-thought of) minority. And don't worry, you do not need to send a thank you note every time you talk to a member or staff person. Thank you notes are appropriate after meetings, site visits, or especially lengthy and useful telephone discussions. Be sure to thank both the member and the staff with individual notes, making sure to mention in the note to the member how helpful his or her staff was.

Be Diplomatic in Reporting Your Experience

Even if your meeting did not go well, refrain from publishing scathing accounts of your meeting in your newsletter, posting less-than-glowing reports on your website, or bad-mouthing the member in the community. These reports always get back to the office, making them much less likely to want to deal with you in the future.

If You've Asked for Something, Ask Again (and Again)

In many cases, the first time you ask your representatives for something, whether it's a article for your newsletter, to cosponsor a particular bill, or time for a site visit, you may be ignored. Because of the high-volume of requests, many offices won't respond until they are sure the requester is serious - and the way to demonstrate you are serious is to politely, but persistently, ask again.

Ask Again Soon

It's also important to follow-up on your request within two weeks of your initial meeting or other contact. Staff turnover on with elected officials is very high, and if you wait too long to reconnect with the office, you may find that you'll need to start the request process all over again with a new person.

But Not Too Soon

While following-up and asking again is valuable, being a pest is not. You should follow-up on your request within two weeks, and then about once every three to four weeks until you have a definitive answer. In some cases you may want to let the elected official set the pace. For example, if the staff indicates that they simply cannot respond to your request for two months, then make a note to yourself to call back in two and one-half months.