Letter To Elected Official

The goal of this assignment is for you to write a letter to an elected official that requests they either support or oppose a piece of pending legislation. Your letter should be an exercise in persuasion. The most effective letters tend to be brief and concise. Elected representatives are very busy and have little patience for long-winded epistles that fail to get to the point. Your letter should also identify a single action that you want your representative to take and justify why they should do it. Keep your letter to one or two short pages.

Good letters concerned with legislation before Congress also provide a brief summary of what the bill does. This may seem unnecessary, but Congress considers thousands of bills each year and you want to save time by explaining exactly which bill is being addressed.

First you will need to find a bill under consideration that interests you. So you need to go to http://thomas.loc.gov/, the home page of the Library of Congress which provides online search engines and texts for all current legislation.
Think of a topic you are interested in. Is there an issue pending that affects your personal congressional district? Whatever your interest, identify one or two key words and enter them into the THOMAS legislation search engine. You will then be presented with a list of legislation in which your search terms are mentioned.

Next locate a bill being considered that interests you, use the THOMAS Congressional Record search engine, enter the name of the bill and you will find the bill as presented. Look at the headings in the box above the bill “congressional record references” to find a record of speeches that have been made in Congress for or against the measure in question. Next, decide whether you are for or against the legislation and write down an initial list of your reasons for supporting or opposing it.

Now you need to write your letter. First address your letter properly. See the table provided below. Begin by telling your representative exactly what you want him or her to do and which piece of legislation is affected. Be sure to include the following information, which you will find when you locate the bill in the online Congressional Digest:

• Name of the bill (e.g., Environmental Justice Act of 2007);

• Subtitle of the bill (e.g., “an act to require Federal agencies to develop and implement policies and practices that promote environmental justice, and for other purposes”);

• Bill’s number (e.g., H.R. 2200);

• Current status of the bill. Click on the “Bill Summary and Status” (e.g., referred to the Subcommittee in Commercial and Administrative Law)

Next, you will need to make your case, a) either that the issue or problem warrants (or does not warrant) their support or opposition, and b) that the specific proposed legislation appropriately deals (or does not appropriately deal) with the issue or problem. Using a bullet format of short phrases or words is an ideal way to make your points.

Provide at least a few facts and examples or anecdotes. Include any personal experience or involvement that you have in the issue or problem. But don’t overdo it. Provide just enough information to get him or her interested in the issue and to give it serious thought. Format the letter as you do a standard business letter, and of course, proofread your final draft carefully.