Contacting Congress: The Staff Perspective

Aaron Scherb is a former congressional staff member who now lobbies on campaign finance reform. After two years working as an FCNL intern, he spent four years working for members of Congress. We asked him some of the common questions we get about lobbying.

How do congressional offices view emails, phone calls and visits from their constituents?

Scheduling an office visit in Washington, DC is probably the most important action that you can take to get the attention of a congressional office on an issue. Schedule the meeting several weeks in advance and then follow up a week or two before if you haven't received a response. If the meeting is not with the member, it's important to meet with the relevant staffer who covers the issue in the office instead of with someone who doesn't cover legislative issues. Developing a relationship with that staffer over time should be a goal so the staffer will view you as an "expert" on an issue.

Emails and phone calls matter as well. Fifty personalized emails on an issue or bill spread out over a several-week period matter more than a petition or form email campaign sent by several hundred constituents. If the member is ideologically opposed to an issue or bill, though, the office may never do what constituents request.

Do members of Congress pay attention to communications on issues from individuals who are not sending money?

Demonstrating broad support for an issue or bill in a congressional district matters more than campaign contributions. While campaign contributions are not supposed to grant any special legislative favors, if a constituent organizes a district fundraiser for one's member that draws 25 people who each contribute $50, that will be remembered by the member.

Many people in FCNL's network report they receive form letters in response to their communications. Does this mean the letters have no impact?

Form letters are a matter of necessity. They don’t mean that the constituent correspondence is being ignored. Congressional offices can easily receive 3,000 or more pieces of communication each week, and often only one or two people are responsible for sorting and responding to all of them. Computer programs used by every office automatically recognize and sort emails that have the same or similar asks and then group the correspondence to receive the same form letter. This process makes constituent meetings and personalized letters that much more important in distinguishing an issue.

Often our constituents will only meet with a staff member for ten or fifteen minutes. What do staff do after these meetings to follow up on what the constituents say?

This largely depends on what the constituents do to follow up with the staffer. At the end of a meeting, the constituents should try to establish a timeline for following up with the staffer. Constituents should provide any relevant follow-up materials to the staffer when sending a "thank you" email the day after the meeting. Furthermore, demonstrating support for the bill or issue in the district during this time by having additional people contact the office or request meetings with the same "ask" is beneficial.

Many offices require staffers to summarize the 15-20 meetings they might have had in a week for an end-of-week memo for the member to read. This memo sometimes includes the number of correspondences received on a bill, so if several people have several meetings with staff about a bill and also generate lots of correspondence on it over a period of time, that will help with the "ask" when following up with the staff. Your issue is important, but constituents care about lots of important issues, so do something to help differentiate your issue.

How important are letters to the editor?

Letters to the editor must mention the member's name and be specific in what they'd like the member to do in order to be effective. Every office has daily "press clips" that flag any publication listing the member's name.