A Field Guide to Calling Your Representatives
Me: If I told you that there was an environmental action that was simple, cheap, and effective and that had the potential to change the systems, would you do it?
You: What’s the catch?
Me: It’s calling your representative.
You: Isn’t there a petition I can sign? Or can I just change my toilet paper brand and get on with my day?
Calling your rep can feel weird and intimidating and pointless. And you have to talk to someone. On the phone. Not a text but an actual phone call!
All true, but stay with me.
Because calling your representative feels weird and intimidating and pointless (and you have to talk to someone), your call will be more impactful because fewer people are calling. Your call will, in fact, be pointful. (Why isn’t that a word?)
When staff in a legislator’s office get a call over a specific issue, they log it onto a spreadsheet and then report the results to the legislator. Getting five calls on a bill is a big deal. Now imagine the conversations that happen when an office gets 15 or 20 calls. Even one call on an issue gets your voice heard in a tangible way.
On the other hand, one-click emails and petitions are so widespread, they’ve become background noise, and the impact of social media is hard to quantify. Legislative offices can’t know whether a social media post is coming from a constituent or not and so while social media can create energy around an issue, individual posts rarely make it onto a lawmaker’s spreadsheet. Yes, I will sign every petition I see on reducing plastic waste, and yes, I will try to amplify my voice through social media posts, but I know that I also need to pick up my phone and call my representative.
Here’s what I wish someone had taught me when I first started calling my representatives:
Field Guide to Calling Your Representative
Step one: Find your representatives.
If you live in the United States, you are represented by two state senators and one assembly member at the national level.
You are also represented at the state level by a senator and an assembly member and at the city level by a city council member. You can find these representatives by doing a Google search with your zip code. FYI: city councils get stuff done and are a great place to change systems.
Step two: Have an ask.
When I bumped into my assembly member Mark Takano at the coffee shop, I didn’t have an ask. My general ‘I worry about climate change because I have a daughter’ gave him insight into his constituent, but didn’t impact any specific legislation.
Examples of asks:
I’m calling to ask my representative to support plastic reduction legislation.
I’m calling to ask my representative to support a transition to renewable energy.
I’m calling to ask my representative to support a right to repair bill.
Bonus: If you know about specific legislation, you can ask your representative to vote for or against an upcoming bill. I live in New York state, and I have been calling my state representatives to support the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act.
Step three: Give your zip code.
Your opinion matters because you’re a constituent. The staff member is going to want to make sure you live in the right district.
Step four: Tell your story.
Emily Ellsworth, a former staff member for Jason Chaffetz and Chris Stewart, told the New York Times: “What representatives and staffers want to hear is the individual impact of your individual story. I couldn’t listen to people’s stories for six to eight hours a day and not be profoundly impacted by them.”
Speaking on the phone about complex issues is difficult. Even when I write down the name of the bill and the bill’s number, I still verbally trip over the words. And then I hear myself sounding awkward and stumbly, and I cringe. But guess what? Awkward and stumbly is also authentic.
And the more I call, the better I have gotten. And the more I call, the more I have normalized citizen action in my household. My daughter knows about our legislators, not just from what she’s learned at school, but from watching me contact our representatives. She is going to be a climate warrior when she grows up.
These four steps are enough to start changing the system, but you can take it even further if you like. You can learn about upcoming legislation and then you can call in and provide the name of the bill and the bill number.
Because it’s hard as a general citizen to just know this stuff and still have time to build puzzles and do work and feed your family and bake really tasty banana bread, it helps to join a local chapter of an environmental group, which can alert you to upcoming bills.
Sierra Club has local chapters and many of them put out a fantastic list of legislative priorities.
Beyond Plastics will keep you informed about plastic reduction legislation.
Surf Riders is great on healthy oceans and they have a lot of local chapters.
350.org has local chapters focused on climate change and is where I got started.
Citizen Climate Lobby is all about helping citizens lobby representatives.
Ask yourself: What is my environmental priority? Then look for a local group who is working on that issue. You are not alone and we are all stronger when we work together.
While social media posts don’t impact legislators the same way that calls do, they can create a energy around a bill. Last week, I placed a letter to the editor in Syracuse.com about The Packaging Reduction & Recycling Infrastructure Act (try saying that quickly). I would love to have my tweet, which tags the decision makers, go viral. (And by viral, I think I mean 35 shares.)
If you’re on Twitter, you can help me out here: TY!
Have you called your representative before? What tips do you have for others? Do you want to get started but still have questions? What are they? What sort of a nudge do you need before you can make that phone call? Let’s help each other out.
It's always so much easier than you think it will be! And more effective -- a win-win.
Done! Thanks for the nudge. I've just saved the numbers and email addresses for my national, state, and city reps to my phone.