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ADVOCACY, GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS & POLICY
Meeting and Corresponding with Members of Congress
As a member of the FSMB Advocacy Network, there will be occasions where you will be asked to either meet with your Member of Congress or send a letter in support or opposition to legislation.
Meeting with Members of Congress and their staff not only serves as a useful opportunity to advocate for the issues important to you and your state medical board, but also plays an important role in developing and maintaining relationships with Congressional offices for the Federation of State Medical Boards.
If you are interested in joining the Advocacy Network, or should you have any questions about the process of contacting and/or meeting your Members of Congress, please contact Jonathan Jagoda, Director, Federal Government Relations in our Washington, D.C. office at 202-463-4003 or jjagoda@fsmb.org.
Finding Your Member and Scheduling a Meeting:
Members of Congress have offices in both Washington, D.C. and in their districts. Members are typically in Washington, D.C. from Tuesday through Thursday, and in their districts on Mondays and Fridays, unless it is a congressional recess when most Members return home for an extended period of time.
In order to determine who your Representative and Senators are, please visit http://www.congress.org/. You will type in your zip code and then may be asked to enter your full address, as some congressional districts overlap by zip code.
Should you then be interested in scheduling a meeting with one or more of your Members either in D.C. or in your home state, please contact Jonathan Jagoda at jjagoda@fsmb.org. Our staff will then contact the Member's scheduler and coordinate a time for you to meet with the congressional office. Most meetings are held at the staff level, but Members often attend the meeting for a few minutes depending on their schedule and availability.
Preparing For Your Meeting:
As congressional meetings tend to last no more than 30 minutes, preparation is key in leading an effective legislative effort. It is important that you are fully prepared and ready to present your viewpoints quickly and effectively. Should a meeting be scheduled for you, FSMB staff will send you briefing materials on the key issues of interest to FSMB, including maintenance of licensure, license portability, and physician re-entry. You will receive multiple copies of the materials, at least one of which should be left for the Member and/or staff. You should also be be prepared to provide information about your individual state medical board.
It is also important to know about the Member of Congress you are meeting with, including his/her party affiliation and constituency, key issues of interest, positions and votes on relevant legislation, and committee assignments. To learn more about your individual Members of the U.S. House of Representative and U.S. Senate, please find a link to his/her homepage at: http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml and http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.
Who's Who in a Congressional Office:
You may be scheduled to meet with your Member of Congress and/or a staff member. From the Staff Assistant to the Chief of Staff, each individual on staff plays an important role in carrying out the duties and responsibilities of a Congressional Office. For more information on the roles of Congressional staffers and the structure of Capitol Hill Offices, please click here.
What To Do at the Meeting:
First, it is important to arrive early, preferably 10-15 minutes before your scheduled appointment. Congressional offices have a tendency to run behind schedule, so be prepared to wait. Should you be running late for your meeting, please notify the congressional office beforehand.
Once you have been introduced to your Member and/or staff, proceed to identify the purpose of your visit and be specific. If you are meeting about a particular piece of legislation, be sure to know the bill's number, title, status, and co-sponsorships. Advocate your position on the issue or legislation and politely ask the Member to consider your viewpoints when voting either in support or opposition to a bill that comes before the floor.
As Members are primarily focused on the well being of their district and/or state, you should relate any discussion topics you have to how they specifically affect his/her constituents. As they say, "All politics is local."
When the meeting is nearing its end, it is necessary for you to briefly summarize your position(s) once again and ask if there is any information that FSMB and/or your board can provide as a follow up. At this point, leave behind any briefing materials that the Member and/or staff have requested. Again, congressional offices are very busy, so it is important to be brief and conclude your meeting in a respectable and timely fashion. Thank the individuals you meet with for their time.
After the Meeting:
After investing your time in making the effort to contact, educate and inform public officials, it is critical that you maximize the likelihood of results by following-up with calls and reminder messages. Presuming you were given a business card for the staffer who attended the meeting, you should send either a thank you email or letter. This also helps ensure that the congressional office remembers you and FSMB, thus developing a relationship that can be utilized sometime in the future.
Your packet of briefing materials will also include a "FSMB Capitol Hill Meetings Survey" that will ask: 1) what topics were discussed; 2) feedback and/or relevant information; and 3) follow up necessity. Please complete this form and return it to the Washington, D.C. office soon after your meeting. This will allow for the FSMB D.C. Advocacy Office to know which Members are supportive of our initiatives and which Members may need additional information about the work we do in promoting excellence in health care and protecting the public.
Writing Your Member of Congress:
You may wish to write to your Member of Congress and/or staff in either support or opposition to legislation that will be voted on in the future. Similar to scheduling meetings with congressional offices, you will only receive responses from your Representative and Senators, so please do not contact offices from other districts or states. Once you submit a letter by mail, it may take up to 4 weeks for it to be delivered due to security inspections, and then may take several months for a response to be sent from a congressional office. For this reason, it is strongly encouraged that you either email or fax your letter. Contact information for congressional offices can be found in the aforementioned links to House and Senate offices.
When reaching out to your Member of Congress via mail, fax or email, it is best to use personal stationary or a personal email account. Similar to congressional meetings, you should identify yourself, the purpose of your letter, briefly explain your position (no more than 1-2 paragraphs), and then thank your Member for reviewing your letter. Be sure to include relevant data, facts, and resources to articulate your viewpoints in an effort to persuade the Member to support your position.
Below is a sample letter to a U.S. Senator that you can use to advocate the issues of importance to you. Try to keep your letter at about 1 page in length.
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