Getting Heard in Washington

Stephanie Vance, known in Washington, DC, as the Advocacy Guru, began her career working for various members of Congress— and what she saw during this time caused a change in her career path. “While I was working on Capitol Hill for different members of Congress, I had many people come ‘advocate at me’ badly,” Vance told Organic Connections. “People would come into our office and it was clear that they didn’t really understand the power they had as constituents. I realized that someone needed to tell them how to do this, and if I did, they might get more of what they wanted out of government and everybody would be happy. That was really my inspiration.”

Vance began by publishing a book in 1999 entitled Government by the People: How to Communicate with Congress. She then started assisting individuals and groups through seminars and training on working the advocacy system in Washington. Her assistance is now some of the most sought after in the capital, and she has also just released a new book—Citizens in Action: A Guide to Influencing Government. She recently sat down with Organic Connections to provide some advice on dealing with our political system.

A Day in the Life

A congressional office is an intensely busy place. A member’s day usually begins around seven or eight o’clock in the morning with a breakfast meeting or event. At 8:30 or 9:00 the office staff gather to look over the votes that will be on the floor that day and decide what recommendations they should make to the member about these votes. At 10:00 there are usually two or three different hearings for members to attend and there might be four or more bills being debated. Throughout the day, there are many other types of meetings that both members and staff must make, including luncheons, and members must also be in attendance on the floor of Congress in order to do their jobs.

“I would say every hour there are probably about 5, 10, 15, sometimes even 20, different demands on a congressperson’s time,” Vance stated. “There was a time when I was working on the Hill that my boss said he’d received 50 requests for constituent meetings on one particular day. I had another office just tell me lately that they had 200 requests in for the day. It’s always non-stop busy, and in the midst of it all they have to go down to the floor to vote. It’s pretty chaotic all day long.”

So, given those kinds of statistics, can we really be heard? Do petitions really work? What happens when you e-mail your senator? Would a personal visit really be worthwhile? The answers to these questions become clear in understanding communication priorities within those offices. “It is frustrating when people think they can’t make a difference, because they really can,” said Vance. “While Congress on average receives well over 500 million e-mails per year, there is actually a sort of triage system they utilize that is to your advantage.”

The first level of separation of communication comes with isolating those e-mails or letters that emanate from the member’s district or state—that is, from that member’s constituents. Traffic not from constituents gets forwarded to the proper elected officials. For that reason, Vance always advises only to communicate with officials to whom you are relevant.

Next sorted out are form communications. For example, a website is set up by a special interest group that allows one to simply click and send a pre-written e-mail to an elected official, with a form message. While those are received by the offices, they are not given the same priority as personal communications.

Which then brings us to the most important type of message you can send. “The ones that really rise to the top are those personalized communications that tell a story about how a particular federal or state policy will impact the person who is writing,” Vance said. “When you are part of the member’s constituency and are asking for something specific that that person can do, it’s actually going to capture the legislator’s attention.”

What about petitions, then? “I don’t want to tell people not to do things like petitions or form e-mails, because I do want people to be communicating,” Vance said. “However, if they want to be most effective, they can sign a petition but they should really follow it up with a personalized communication. I’ve seen several examples where just three letters or three phone calls from individuals in the district who have real stories about something that impacts them have inspired a legislator to introduce legislation, to co-sponsor a bill, to really get involved in a particular issue. And it’s those personalized communications that make the difference far more than a petition or form communication.”

In this digital age, e-mails are actually more effective than physical letters. Since the anthrax scare of several years ago, all physical mail must be routed through New Jersey to be irradiated and arrives six weeks late. Hence, e-mails or faxes will arrive in a timely fashion and have a chance at making a difference.

And, believe it or not, so will personal visits. While there is tremendous lobbying power in Washington, even a lobbyist has a better chance of being heard by using the of a new trend in Washington, DC, grassroots advocacy is actually more powerful than direct lobbying,” Vance remarked. “I think direct lobbying is an important component of any government relations campaign; but any good lobbyist will tell you that when they walk into a legislator’s office they had better have a lot of information about that legislator’s district, and they will be far more effective if they can actually bring a real live constituent in with them. In fact, there have been studies from the Congressional Management Foundation that show that in-person visits from constituents are the number one way of influencing legislation. So I really believe that grass-roots advocates, individual citizens, have much more power than they recognize.”

Of course, such a visit should be very well planned. “You may only have five to ten minutes to get your point across, so you have to be prepared,” Vance explained. “You have to know what you’re asking for and have your personal story prepared, as well as your explanation of why you’re relevant to the legislator. And I think you also have to make sure that you are ready to do follow-up. Seven minutes in Washington, DC, once a year is really not going to get you that relationship you need to have for a legislator or staff person to be on your side.”

Such follow-up consists of getting to know the staff of the congressional member you are dealing with—something that’s more valuable than you might realize. “It’s great to shake a congressperson’s hand and say hello, but if you want to move forward on your advocacy, get to know the staff,” advised Vance. “They are the ones who are going to do a lot of the day-to-day legwork. They’re going to be advising the member of Congress on issues; they’re going to be bringing issues that are affecting the district to his or her attention. I can’t tell you how many times, when I was working as a lobbyist, that we achieved legislative objectives without ever having met that member. If members are going to pay attention to anyone who is contacting them on a dayto- day basis, it’s going to be their own staff. If you can get their staff on your side, then constituent touch—especially now. “As sort they almost become mini-lobbyists for you within the offices and they become the ones that are really pushing the issue.”

Influencing Government Agencies

Unlike Congress, there are government agencies such as the USDA and the FDA that pass regulations and make decisions that aren’t influenced by voters. Is there a way we can have a compelling effect on them? “Federal agencies aren’t required in any legal or constitutional way to be responsive to individual citizens,” said Vance. “So, what I suggest is seeing if you can utilize some of the folks in Congress to help you get to the agencies, because the agencies have to be responsible to Congress. Congress determines agency budgets, so agencies are pretty much going to be paying attention to what Congress has to say. If you make a good enough case to your congressional offices, they will be willing to help you in having a meeting with the agency personnel; or if you have a congressional staff person who’s really interested in the issue, they might sit down with the agency regulators and talk about the issue. If worst comes to worst and the agencies are running out of control, Congress can always introduce legislation to pull them back. So, while you might want to get involved in the rulemaking process at the agencies and respond to any requests for comments, going through your congressional office may have the most impact.”

Dealing with the Complexity of Bills

You may have heard how complex congressional bills can be—and it’s true. They can be hundreds of pages long and are written in legal language. How could a member of Congress, with such a busy schedule, possibly be well enough informed to vote on such things? “People tell me that they can’t believe their congressman didn’t read some 500-page bill,” Vance related. “I ask them, ‘Have you ever read a bill?’ The actual bill language reads something like, ‘Take out the semicolon at the end of paragraph 673 of code 2742 and insert the following sentence….’ If you aren’t sitting there with the original code and comparing it, it doesn’t make any sense. So the staff who are writing the bill, as well as independent counsel, provide summaries of the legislation explaining exactly what the bill does. People in the lobbying community also have lawyers who pore through the bills and compare them to the codes and explain them. That is the material that the members and the staff really need to read, and they do. Reading an entire bill is not a good use of a member’s time.”

In addition to a member’s overloaded schedule, there are a lot of bills to get through, discuss and vote on. “In every session of Congress, there are about 10,000 bills that get introduced and only around 4 to 5 percent of those get passed,” Vance explained. “So almost 96 percent of the bills don’t go anywhere. A lot of people hear those figures and think, ‘Well, geez, that Congress is pretty inefficient!’ And they’d be right; it is inefficient. But if you actually thought about it, it’s an institution that’s designed to be totally and completely inefficient. The Founding Fathers, when they set it up, were coming off a monarchy that they weren’t too fond of. They wanted to set up a system of government that didn’t simply pass legislation; the stress was primarily on arguing and fighting and deliberating about legislation, which Congress does a really good job with.”

The Bottom Line

At the end of the day it is your government and, despite its flaws, was designed to be that way. Following the advice of someone like Stephanie Vance who knows the rocks and shoals can greatly help in getting your issues heard. You can find out more about Stephanie and her books, and read her articles, at her website: www.advocacyguru.com. Her books are also available at our bookstore.