Background - Why Get Involved?

As private citizens, individual VA health care providers, researchers and administrators can have a significant impact on VA research policy and funding because: 1) you are intimately acquainted with the VA research program; 2) as a constituent, you are a voter so your legislators are interested in your views; and 3) you are involved in providing care to veterans, a large and politically influential group of voters. At a time when so many interests are competing for attention and funding, it is vital to speak up on behalf of VA research. When it comes to federal policy and funding, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

If you are a government (VA) employee, you must conduct all aspects of your advocacy on your own time, without use of government property. Also, during meetings be sure to convey that you are expressing your own personal views. Please read and abide by Guidelines for Lobbying by Federal Employees.

Each stage of the legislative process is an opportunity to influence the final outcome. To maximize impact, timeliness is important. You can't influence a vote that has already been cast. But don't wait for a crisis to initiate a relationship with your legislators. Become acquainted with them now and maintain the relationship through good times and bad!

Constituents from states or districts represented on committees with jurisdiction over VA policy and funding-the VA authorizing and appropriating committees have a particular responsibility to be active advocates for VA research. Broad support for VA research is extremely important, but members of these key committees are particularly influential. On the small appropriations subcommittees and the House VA Subcommittee on Health Care it only takes seven or eight votes to carry an issue or determine funding. So each committee member is extremely important. If you are from a state or district represented on these committees, please make a special effort to become involved.

Communicating with Your Legislators

After October 15, 2001 - the day an anthrax-filled envelope was opened in the office of Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD) - and more recently on February 3, 2004, the day the deadly poison ricin was found in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s mail room – the means for communicating with members of Congress and their staffs changed dramatically. The most effective communication remains the personal message from a constituent, but delivering it now requires more effort and the chances of being heard are increased immeasurably if you have taken the time to develop relationships with your elected officials and their staff members. Unfortunately, a letter delivered to Capitol Hill by the US Postal Service is no longer an effective way to communicate your views to legislators.

Before reading further, please take a few moments to become familiar with the resources found on Congress.org.  Use this to facilitate interactions with members of Congress in the new environment. Enter your personal or VAMC ZIP code and click “go” to access a page that shows all of your state legislators. Under each photograph, click “email” to send a message (see below for guidance on emails). Click “info” for a page about this legislator - phone and fax numbers, web site address, Washington and state office address(es), committee memberships, etc. Under the photograph on the info page, click “staff members” to obtain the name of the appointments scheduler and other key staff. As discussed below, you will need this information to reach your representatives.

Written Correspondence

Many congressional offices actively discouraging constituents from sending letters to Washington offices by regular and express mail. All such mail is now routed to several distant processing plants and may be delayed by as much as four weeks. When mail finally arrives after screening and irradiation, it smells burned, and colors and text are faded. The paper feels crispy and often disintegrates upon opening. Staff members complain that the smell makes them nauseous and handling processed mail causes tingling in their hands and arms.

Ricin is not a biological agent so it is not detected by the mail screening methods used to date. Consequently, a great deal of congressional mail addressed to Washington offices piles up unopened.

At the same time, personalized, articulate, thoughtful and timely correspondence from constituents continues to be highly important. The new challenge is to get your correspondence to the right staff member in a timely fashion.

	One option is to send regular mail to the legislator’s state or district office where it will be sorted by issue and hand delivered by special courier to the Washington office. Again, state and district office addresses are posted on each legislator’s web site and can be found using Congress.org.  See below for more discussion of sending letters.
	For timely communications, a better option is to fax your letter to the legislator’s Washington office. Fax numbers can be found by using Congress.org as discussed above. Many offices now have three or four fax machines operating around the clock. If you get a busy signal, be persistent or send your message outside of business hours. VA employees should use a non-VA fax machine to send their faxes.
	The third option is email as discussed below.

Email

All congressional offices and staff now have email, and email can be an effective way to communicate with members of Congress and their staffs. Each legislator has a public email address into which mail flows (see below for emails to individual staff members). Sophisticated software has been added to congressional email systems to cope with the huge increase in volume. Senators in large, populous states report receiving 30,000 emails a month. To increase the chances that your message will be read and referred to the correct staff member, you must follow certain rules:

1. Clearly identify yourself as a constituent by using the approved format. Non-constituent emails are routinely deleted without being read so it is important to format your email in such a way that the sorting software will recognize it as coming from a constituent, generally by street address and ZIP code. If you use the email capability provided on Congress.org, your message will automatically be formatted correctly. If you don’t use Congress.org, be sure to include the following signature block:

Correct:

John H. Jones
1234 Maple Avenue
Kingston, NY 12345

Incorrect:

Sincerely, John H. Jones
1234 Maple Avenue, Kingston, NY 12345
USA

2. In the first sentence of your email message, state that you are a constituent as well as the city and state where you live or where your VAMC is located.

3. Use the subject line to identify your issue succinctly. For example, “VA Research FY 2007” or “Veterans’ Research Funding.”

4. Use a non-VA email server, not VA’s.

Your message stands a better chance of having an impact if you send the email directly to the staff member responsible for VA issues. However, it is important to get to know the staff member first during a visit or a phone call and to establish yourself as a credible source of information. If the staff member does not recognize your name, your email message may not get the attention it deserves. During a visit or phone call, ask what method of communication the staff member prefers for future correspondence and if it is email, ask for his/her personal address.

If you neglected to get an email address during a visit or phone call, you can make an educated guess for staff in the personal offices of legislators:

House Staff: firstname.lastname@mail.house.gov
Example: mary.jones@mail.house.gov

Senate Staff: firstname_lastname@senatorslastname.senate.gov
Example: john_smith@frist.senate.gov

Committee staff email addresses are trickier because an abbreviated form of the committee name is sometimes incorporated. It is best to call committee staff and request their email addresses.

Framing Your Written Message

Regardless of the delivery method, written correspondence should be kept short (ideally, one page long) and to the point. The most effective communications contain a personal anecdote and tie the relevant issue to the legislator's home state or district. Describe how VA research funding levels impact your research, your medical center, veteran patients, your district, employment, etc. Emphasize how VA research benefits veterans and the general public.

If you are a VA employee, do your writing during personal time.

Faxed or Mailed Letters: If you send a letter, use personal stationery. You can fax your letter to a congressional office using the number provided by Congress.org. If you prefer to use regular mail, pay for your own stamp and do not use a VA envelope. Addresses for senators and representatives:

When writing to the chair of a committee, address him/her as Dear Mr. Chairman or Dear Madam Chair:

Also, consider sending your letter to the legislator’s state or district office to avoid the delay and other problems caused by irradiation. Addresses are available through Congress.org.

Phone Calls

To reach any Washington congressional office, dial 202-224-3121 and ask for your legislator's office by his or her name. Direct phone numbers as well as district and state office numbers are available through Congress.org.

Unless you have a personal relationship with the legislator you are calling, expect to speak with a legislative assistant.  When you reach your legislator’s office, ask the receptionist for the name of the staff member responsible for VA health policy and/or funding.  Many congressional offices have a “veterans case worker” who helps handle veterans’ disability claims.  Generally, this is a junior staff member and is not the person with whom you want to speak.  When you are connected to an individual, confirm that he/she handles VA health policy and/or funding.