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 E-mailing Members of Congress is an important way for the PH community to advocate, as we’ve seen with the success of our Budget with a Heart alerts. Not only is e-mail communication gaining popularity in Congressional offices, it is also an important tool for patients and supporters who don’t have the time or energy to visit their elected officials in person.
As with any form of communication, sending e-mail messages to your Members of Congress is most effective when your message includes some key elements. Below are tips and suggestions to keep in mind when responding to an action alert from PHA’s website:
- Start with a request. Action messages include several paragraphs of text that you can use to build your e-mail by clicking the appropriate arrows. The first paragraph is crucial since it outlines how you want Members of Congress to help. As you edit and personalize your message, be sure to include the first paragraph so that the purpose of your e-mail is clear.
- Watch for brackets. Action messages provide some standard text describing an important issue that your Members of Congress should know about. They also offer the opportunity for you to personalize the e-mail. Suggestions for personalization often appear in [brackets]. You should not include the brackets in your e-mail message. If you do not have time to include personal information in your e-mail, simply delete the bracketed portion of the message.
- Personalize your message — share your story. Personalizing your messages is important. Legislators are more likely to support legislation that benefits the PH community when they know that their actions will have a significant positive impact on the lives of their constituents. When possible, take the time to personalize your message by including your story.
- Stay on message. The best way to catch your elected officials’ attention is to send them targeted, personalized messages that ask them to take action for the PH community. Using PHA’s action messages to also write about other issues (immigration, abortion, foreign policy, etc.) draws attention away from your primary purpose — fighting PH! Use other vehicles, such as a personal letter, to express your views on other topics.
- Remember: PHA’s action messages are pre-addressed to the appropriate Senators and Representatives. Our online actions alerts make it as easy as possible to send e-mail to your elected officials. Alerts are pre-addressed to your Senators, Representatives or both, depending on which group will vote on that issue. There is no need to send more than one e-mail in reply to an action alert. When you compose your message, you will see text that lists the message recipients as “Your U.S. Senators,” “Your U.S. Representative,” or both. Once you send your message, you will see a confirmation page that says, “Your message was sent to….” Although it is important to follow-up with your Members of Congress a few weeks after you contact them, sending the same e-mail message multiple times is not helpful.
In addition, you should not include Senators in messages to Representatives, or vise versa, unless the alert is pre-addressed to both groups. Senators can only take action on Senate bills (S.XXX) and Representatives can only take action on House bills (H.R.XXX). Messages about incorrect bills will usually be viewed as junk mail.
- Congratulate yourself! By responding to an online action alert, you’ve made a difference in the fight for a cure. Every day, PH advocates are winning victories large and small — from increased funding for PH research to improved airline oxygen accessibility. Together, we are unstoppable!
Check out PHA’s “Learn to Lobby” presentation and get a step-by-step review of the legislative process. For more information about E-Advocacy and communicating with your elected officials, contact Katie at 301-565-3004 x109 or advocacy@PHAssociation.org. |
