Steps to Contacting YOUR Representative and Senators

1. Know your stuff

This is a lot to talk about! We’re all at different places in our understanding of the war, the Military Commissions Act, and the reasons for impeachment. Especially if your congressperson is opposed to our requests, it is very helpful to know some of the facts that lead to our conclusions and therefore, our requests. For example, if the aide you talk to is skeptical that terrorism has truly increased since the 2003 invasion, it’s helpful to spout off the groups who have made this statement, such as the CIA, National Intelligence Council (NIC), and the recent NIE. To learn more of the details about our conclusions and requests, read through our website, including the sources, as well as the links provided to other organizations and/or websites. You don’t need to know everything, but it’s best to have at least a basic understanding of what you’re talking about.

2. Know your Congressperson

You’ll want to know how your congressperson feels about the issues before you call and write them so that you can better know what to ask of them specifically. For example, if your congressperson supports the war, it’d probably be best to start out by asking them to bring the troops home and stop funding the war. If they have been voting against funding the war, you can perhaps ask them to take up a leadership role against the war by urging their colleagues to stop voting for more funding for the war. Everyone is in a different place, and either way, you’ll want to ask them for all 3 things: stop the war; restore the bill of rights; and impeach Cheney, then Bush.

To find out more about your congressperson may be a bit more difficult than you’d expect, since it’s most often important to read the legislation that they vote for or against, but a good place to start would be www.vote-smart.org, where you can type in your congressperson’s last name or your 9-digit zip code (http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp) on the top left-hand side, and then access their voting records or more information. You can also probably find out where they stand on their own respective website, which you can access via www.house.gov or www.senate.gov. Although research will help you understand better the congressperson you’re dealing with, realize that you don’t need to know everything about them (though some of the specifics help) – just get a feel for where they stand. The most important thing is to ask for the 3 requests (and their specific sub-requests).

3. Find their contact information

Visit www.house.gov and www.senate.gov to get your specific congresspersons’ contact information. You’ll want their DC office phone and fax numbers, and the local if you’d like. Tuck these away for safe keeping. If you’re really ambitious, get they’re local office’s address and show up (or set up a meeting) to talk to the aide (or congressperson) about these issues and requests. This action may be better saved for after you’ve been following up with them for a while and they’re not responding or won’t do what you’ve asked them to do.

4. Call your congressperson

Call your congressperson’s DC office and tell the person that answers that you are a constituent, you have a message for the congressperson and ask them to write it down. See our sample spiel and tell them that you will be faxing a letter and following up later to see if the congressperson has decided what he or she will do.

5. Write and fax your letter

Handwrite a letter to your congressperson, preferably on unlined computer paper, and fax it to their DC office (to avoid the time it would take due to the anthrax scare to send it through the mail). Outline in your letter the requests you have and your reasoning behind the requests. Provide your name and contact information, as well as a place where the congressperson or staffer can verify the factual basis of the reasoning and get more information, preferably www.makeyourcall.org.

You’ll want to keep it reasonably short, polite, and firm, but that’s completely up to you, for it’s YOUR voice we seek to mobilize. See our sample letter (link-erase me when made) for a basis off of which to write. Keep a copy of your letter if the office says they didn’t receive the letter and you have to send it again, to send to us if you’d like, or to show your friends, family, and colleagues to help convince them to do the same!

6. Follow up

Once you’ve made your original call and faxed your letter, it’s time to follow up with your congressperson. Call their DC office again and ask the aide who answers whether they received your letter via fax. If not, send it again; if so, reiterate your requests and ask what the best way to follow up would be (email or phone). Follow up using the recommended follow up you’re given, the next day, a few days later, the next week, or whenever you think is best, but remember NOT TO STOP until you get the answers you want. Even when you get the answers you want, you’re work is not quite over: now you must make sure they do what they’ve said they’ll do.

7. Hold them accountable

Sometimes congresspersons will say something, such as “I’m against the war,” but then vote to fund the war anyway. This sad fact is why it’s also a good idea to research to make sure your congressperson did what they said they’d do. It’s nothing personal: it’s just how politics work (lies) and so it is up to US to hold our leaders accountable (which is the WHOLE POINT of this campaign: people taking control of their government’s policies to ensure that they are truly represented).

The easiest way to find out how your congressperson votes would be to go to www.vote-smart.org, but before you do that, you must know what bills you’re looking for. The ones we know of right now (though they may change) are the Defense Spending Bill (or a similar, perhaps longer name) and the Impeach Cheney resolution (H. Res. 799). The repeal of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 may be in the form of a bill, but it’s not certain. Please visit www.makeyourcall.org again for updates. Also, if you’re a great researcher, or know something that we may not, please, inform us via email!