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Policy
Resources
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Before you voice your strongly held opinions about certain policies, make sure you know something about the issues ahead of time. Too often, people contact their elected officials outraged about a particular issue only to find out that they were completely mistaken.
A perfect example is a petition that was floating around the Internet about a House bill number 602P from a Congressman Schnell that would impose fees on use of e-mail. There is no such thing as either House bill 602P (that's not even a possible number), nor is there a Congressman Schnell. Five minutes of careful research would have saved many people a great deal of heartburn. Consider going through the following steps, using the resources identified here.
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Questions
to Ask
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Resources
& Ideas for Activists
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| Is there legislation on this topic? | Look up existing House and Senate legislation on Thomas . |
| What are interest groups saying? | Check out the views of a variety of interest groups, think tanks and universities, from Accuracy in Media to Zero Population Growth, at Policy.com. |
| What kinds of facts, figures, and statistics will help make my case? | All kinds of statistics, facts and figures are available at the American Society of Association Executive's Research page, or the University of Michigan's statistical resources on the web. These site will help advocates develop the factual grounding for their policy arguments, as well as good "sound bites." |
| Have reports or studies been conducted on this issue? | Both the General Accounting Office and the National Center for Policy Analysis have great reports and other resources on a wide range of topics. |
