Contents
Advocacy Tutorial
Figuring Out What You Want:
Policy Development and Analysis Resources
Before deciding to call, write, or visit your member of Congress to share your views on policy issues you care about, you should know what you want from your elected representatives.
In fact, asking for something specific is sometimes the only way to get a Congressional office’s attention. Your goal is to force someone in the office to think about you and your issues for longer than five minutes—making the “ask” helps you achieve that goal.
To make sure you’re asking for something that makes sense, you need to gain a working understanding of what a Congressional Office can and cannot do for you, as well as an understanding of the policies that interest you.
What a Congressional Office Can Do For You
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.
| Typical Congressional Activities | Resources & Ideas for Activists |
|---|---|
| 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 committee sites. |
| 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 (NARA). 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 (CFDA). |
| 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 again, with a 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 (GAO). |
| Thinking Creatively! |
There are all kinds of other things a Congressional office
can do for you. Think about asking for:
|
Policy Resources
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 was 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.
| Questions to Ask | Resources & Ideas for Activists |
|---|---|
| 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 Executives (ASAE) research page, or the University of Michigan’s Statistical Resources page. 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 (GAO) and the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) have great reports and other resources on a wide range of topics. |
Stephanie Vance, the Advocacy Guru, is author of Government by the People: How to Communicate with Congress and a former Capitol Hill Staff Director. She believes that “Government Isn’t Broken,” and she trains advocates on how to work the system and beat the odds. Find free articles, sign up for her Advocacy Tipsheet and learn how she can help you at www.AdvocacyGuru.com.
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