How to Write a Good Letter to Congress

People frequently ask me: How should my letter to Congress read? Should it be long or short, use legal terms, or speak from the heart?

Anna Vetter, Deputy Chief of Staff and Communications Director for Congressman David G. Valadao (CA-21), and I met for coffee one afternoon on Capitol Hill, and I asked her, “how can constituents ensure that their letter makes a difference?”

It’s the constituent’s sincerity that gets a letter noticed, she explained.

As a constituent, if you’re trying to get your Members of Congress to pay attention to an issue, all you need to convey is why it’s important to you, and do so in an authentic way. Her answer was so elegant in its simplicity.

The average Congressional office receives thousands of letters from constituents a week. Most of these are “form letters”, sent at the prompting of an organization or association with identical text. In some offices, form letters get automatically grouped together as one letter. And, some Congressional offices don’t respond to form letters at all.

The assumption in recent years has been that quantity trumps quality when messaging Congress. Instead, the form letters and social media blitzes via Facebook and Twitter are just creating more noise and less signal. These communications may be convenient and easy to do, but they aren’t effective in getting the attention of Congress.

Rather, the number of communications don’t have to be high, but they must be sincere. In fact, Anna explained, if a single constituent contacted her office about a bill, it will get discussed in their next meeting. So once you’ve written a letter, ask your friends and networks who feel as passionate about the issue to do the same. (More about how to move Congress)

How Do You Write a Sincere Letter that Gets Noticed?

• Research the Member of Congress and research the District. For example, if you’re writing a letter about breast cancer research, you may want to know if the Member or their family has experience with cancer. Or, if you’re concerned about an agriculture bill, you may want to check if the District has a high number of farms. This research may help bolster your point of view.
• Shorter is better. You don’t have to write a long letter. One or two paragraphs is fine. Congressional staffers have a lot of mail to read, and if they want to know more, they can contact you.
• Don’t get intimidated! Congressional staffers genuinely want to hear from constituents, and they aren’t necessarily lawyers. So there’s no need for fancy “legalize” or to comb through a thesaurus for the perfect word! (In fact, the average age of a DC-based House staffer is 31, according to the Sunlight Foundation.)
• Include how it affects you or others from the District. If you’re writing about a disease, include, for example, information about the 10,000 other people in the District have the disease as well, or that 50 other workers will be hurt by an economic issue in your town.
• Share your point of view. Spend a few sentences explaining how the issue affects your life, family, community or workplace. Why is this so important to you? You don’t need to inform the staffer on the technical legislative aspects of the bill. They can research it themselves (and probably have already).
• Include a specific ask. What do you want Congress to do about the issue? Include a sentence that conveys an action item, such as holding a hearing on an issue, voting for or cosponsoring a bill (and include a bill number), or increasing funding for a program.
• If there isn’t a bill that addresses your issue, then suggest one! Members of Congress are open to introducing legislation that will improve the lives of their constituents. If you see a problem that can be fixed by Congress, then bring it to the staffer’s attention. For example, in September 2016, the House passed a bill that would prevent the federal government from mailing letters to people that included their Social Security numbers on the outside of envelopes and postcards where anyone can see them. Congressman Valadao introduced the bill, H.R. 3779, the Social Security Fraud Prevention Act of 2016, when one of his constituents explained to him at a Community Coffee Event he regularly hosts that her Social Security number could be seen in a letter she received from a federal agency.
• Don’t guilt the staffer or be condescending. Congressional staffers are there to help constituents — and they understand that your issue is very important to you. There’s no need to say, “how would you feel if your kid/mom/grandma got stricken with _____.” It only takes one person to convince a lawmaker to sign on to a bill and kindness always goes far when trying to accomplish this.

It was already dark as we finished our coffee, and while we walked back to the Rayburn House Office Building — Anna still had work to do — she mentioned that Members and staffers want to build relationships with their constituents. (That’s why they host coffees or town halls in the towns and cities they represent.) As a constituent, it’s important to stay in touch with your lawmaker after writing a letter about an issue. You can follow up with the office with a phone call or by attending a town hall meeting — and if your Member of Congress ends up cosponsoring a bill, then thank them!

Anna summed it up simply by saying, as a constituent, “your voice counts every day of the year.”

So speak up and share your voice!

Whether you decide to engage via communications tools like POPVOX, a nonpartisan platform that helps you track and weigh in about what’s happening in Congress, or during in-person meetings, phone calls or town halls — it’s important to speak up year-round and urge your networks to join you!