Membership of key committees in 110th Congress

Contact your Senators and Members of Congress

Telephone calls to legislators and staff are extremely important—especially when a bill is nearing consideration in a subcommittee or committee or on the floor.Call your legislators & those served by your organization only. All Senators and Representatives—and staff —can be reached through the 202.224.3121.

Email communication with your Senators and Congressman and their staff is another way to get your message across quickly and effectively. All legislators and staff have email addresses that you can usually obtain by calling their offices and sometimes through their websites.

For US Senate members or staff use:
firstname_lastname@(senator's lastname).senate.gov (For example, if you wanted to email Joe Smith in Senator Jones' office you would address to Joe_Smith@jones.senate.gov).

For US House of Representatives members or staff, the format is: firstname.lastname@mail.house.gov (For example, if you wanted to email Mary Jones in Representative Brown's office you would address to Mary.Jones@mail.house.gov)

Writing to your elected officials to express your views on legislative proposals impacting your organization and community behavioral health system is important.

• Write only when it is important to do so.
• Use personal stationery showing your home address. That's where you vote—and that's why your legislator cares about what you have to say. Organization stationery is for "official" communications on behalf of your employing organization.

As a constituent and a citizen, you should write only to your own legislators and those whose constituents are served by your organization.

• Remember to address your legislator properly:

  The Honorable John Doe
  United States Senate
  Washington, D.C. 20510
  Dear Senator Doe:
  
  The Honorable Jane Doe
  U.S. House of Representatives
  Washington, D.C. 20515
  Dear Representative Doe:

• Tell your legislator specifically what you would like them to do in your opening sentence (e.g. support House Bill 1234, contact Chairman Jones and ask him to agree to XYZ).
• Support your request with two or three sentences of relevant facts, avoiding jargon and acronyms that they may not understand.
• Remind your legislator how many people in their district will be affected by the proposal under consideration.
• Remind your legislator of your expertise on the issue (years of experience in the field, with your current employer, and other professional or community involvement).
• Politely request a commitment for their support.
• Always fax a copy of your letter to your legislator as well as mail it and make sure it gets into the hands of the appropriate staff person by calling them to let them know it's there.
• If you don't receive a written reply or telephone response to your letter—write again and enclose your original letter.
• If you receive a response with which you disagree, write your legislator again and politely tell them so and offer to do whatever you can to help them gain a better understanding of issues.