Contacting Elected Officials
Identifying Your Area’s Members of Congress
Making contact with the elected officials in position to help your agency is always a good idea. You may wish to include them on your agency’s mailing list, invite them to aging-related functions, or find other ways to let them know the value and/or need of certain aging services in the district they represent. If the AAA or Title VI program serves people from multiple congressional or state legislative districts, it’s important that you be in touch with all of those senators and representatives, regardless of where your agency’s central office is located.
Most area agencies on aging will have a roster of their respective political representatives. For those that don’t, the information is readily available. Congress, of course, serves all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, the five U.S. territories as well as the tribal organizations, and the information for phoning, faxing or e-mailing your state Congressional representatives is easily located on the Internet.
(Please Note : Those without Internet access or experience can obtain the above and following information through their local and/or state boards of election, addresses and phone numbers of which should be available in local phone books and libraries.)
To identify and contact your Senators: www.senate.gov
To identify your Representatives: www.house.gov
If you know the names of your Congressional senators and representatives, you will find information about where and how to contact them by going to the Senate and House of Representatives Internet addresses (listed directly preceding this paragraph) and clicking on “representatives” and/or “senators,” whatever the case may be. The roster for each will appear alphabetically. If you are not sure who your representatives are (there will often be more than one, as well as two senators), you may need your “ZIP plus four” zip code to correctly identify them. Zip codes may be looked up on the U.S. Postal Service’s web site: if you have the exact street address.
How to Reach Members of Congress
PHONE : Every member of Congress maintains a web page that should contain the phone numbers of his/her Washington, D. C., office as well as any local offices. (To find your member’s web page, go to or ) This will also be listed in the phone book. If you want to call Washington and don’t have time to look up a number, use the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121; operators will connect you to the office you want.
FAX: Faxing a letter can be a great way to be in touch with your elected officials. Fax numbers should be available on your member’s web site or listed in local phone books.
EMAIL : Another good way to send an advocacy message, email also has some limitations you should be aware of. Most congressional offices offer a web-based form for communication to specific legislators, but do not accept general emails. This allows them to filter out correspondence from individuals not residing in the legislator’s district or state. To send a message to your member, go to or and use the lists of members to connect to his/her web site. It should be clear how they want you to use their communication system.
U.S. MAIL : We do not recommend corresponding via regular U.S. mail. The process by which it must be irradiated and scanned creates long delivery delays and greatly reduces the quality and strength of the document (i.e., letterhead may be faded and stationery crumbly by the time it reaches Capitol Hill). If you prefer to type or hand-write your correspondence, deliver it to your legislator via fax.
Identifying Your Area’s State and Local Representatives and Political leaders
Those in the aging network will find that the late Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill knew what he was talking about when he said, “All politics is local.” Though Congressional representatives potentially wield broader influence, many important government policy decisions are made and applied locally. This seems particularly true in the field of aging, where there can be significant differences in funding and services among area agencies and tribal organizations – both within certain states and across the country. If your agency doesn’t have contact information for local political representatives readily available, the Internet – and its rapid and reliable search engines – has made identifying political representatives very easy.
In most cases, a Google search with a state’s name followed by the word “legislature” should bring up a Home Page with the desired rosters of state representatives and senators, including links to legislative district maps. As with Congressional districts, you may need your “ZIP plus four” zip code to correctly identify the representatives and senators for your agency. Governors, county commissioners and city/village council contacts should also be traceable via Google searches containing the localities searched along with the terms “governor,” “county commissioners” and/or “city council.” Though traditional U.S. mail may work better locally, the same information given for contacting Congressional representatives applies generally to contacting local government officials. Whether writing a traditional letter, fax, or email, use the following forms of address to your Congressional representatives. For state and local government leaders, the same form – with appropriate substitutions in titles and names, of course – should do just fine. In general, keep the letter as congenial, clear and concise as possible.
(Again: For those without access to, or familiarity with, the Internet, an inquiry to the local library or board of elections should suffice for locating the above information.)
Correct Forms of Address:
U.S. SENATOR U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
The Honorable (Full Name) The Honorable (Full Name)
United States Senate U.S. House of Representatives
Washington , DC 20510 Washington, DC 20515
Dear Senator (Last Name): Dear Representative (Last Name):