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What
a Congressional Office Can Do For You
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Your Congressional office can only help you out if you ask for something that they can actually do something about. You wouldn't expect your doctor to help you with a tax-related problem, right? So be sure that you aren't putting your elected officials in the same position.
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Typical
Congressional Activities
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Resources
& Ideas for Activists
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| Introduce legislation to change an existing federal law or create a new one, or cosponsor existing legislation introduced by someone else. (Note, though that House members cannot cosponsor Senate legislation, and vice versa.) | Check out Thomas for up-to-date information on legislative activities. |
| Vote for or against legislation being considered by the committee he or she serves on. | Committee votes may be posted on Committee webpages. Access these pages from the House and Senate websites. |
| Vote for or against legislation being considered on the House or Senate floor. | Both the House and Senate websites have up-to-the minute information on floor votes. |
| Send a letter to a federal agency about a concern you may have with a particular agency action. | Write a letter to your Congressional office and ask them to "buck" it over to the federal agency for response. To find out more about what federal agencies are doing, check their individual site, which you can get to from Yahoo's directory. One great general site for researching federal agency activities is the National Archives and Records Administration. Or subscribe to a legislative / federal agency tracking service like GalleryWatch |
| Send a letter in support of a federal grant application you have made. | For information on available grants and loans from the US Government, check out the online Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance. |
| Send a letter to an influential member of Congress, such as a Committee chair or a member of the leadership, about a particular issue you may care about. |
Write or call your Member of Congress and ask them to "lobby" other members of Congress in support of the issues you care about. You can follow Congressional Legislative initiatives on the Thomas website, or by subscribing to a legislative tracking service like GalleryWatch |
| Facilitate a meeting between you and federal agency officials to discuss an agency action you may have concerns about. | GSA's FedLaw site is an excellent research resource for monitoring federal agency actions. |
| Help answer your questions and solve your problems with individual government programs, such as Social Security and Medicaid. | Call your Representative's District office and ask to speak with a caseworker. |
| Help you find government reports and request copies of reports from various government research organizations, such as the Congressional Research Service (CRS). |
CRS reports are available only through your Congressional office. Call and ask for a copy of the CRS report catalog, or for reports on specific topics. Also, check out the federal reports available from the General Accounting Office. |
| Thinking Creatively! | There are all kinds of other things a Congressional office can do for you. Think about asking for: * an article for your newsletter * a statement in the Congressional Record regarding your efforts in the community * a visit to your facility or program |
