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Wilfrid Shaw
5 years ago
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1 The webinar will begin momentarily.

2 How Congress Works

3 Trey Forgety Government Affairs

4 Housekeeping This webinar is being recorded, and will be available on-demand at: Slides will be posted online at after this broadcast. Make it interactive! Use the GoToWebinar interface to raise your hand, and you could be selected to ask your question live! You can also submit a text question at any time. Selected questions may be addressed at any time, or during question time at the end.

5 Today s Webinar is Made Possible By:

6 What We ll Cover The different kinds of offices and staff on the Hill. The structure and demographics of each type of office s staff. How constituent messaging really gets in front of lawmakers. Getting to the key staffers who can make or break your case. How to ask for, and get, the most effective meeting you can.

8 Oﬃces on the Hill There are four different types of congressional staff: Personal Staff work in members offices; handle constituents requests; and draft, advocate for, and advise their member on individual pieces of legislation. Committee Staff report to the Chair (Majority) or Ranking Member (Minority) of each committee; handle investigations and hearing prep; and advise members during legislative mark up sessions. Committee Staff often originate legislation at the request of Members. Leadership Staff work for each chamber s officers (Speaker, Leader, Whip) and handle the highest-level political operations related to what legislation will move, and with what contents. Independent Staff work for legislative-branch agencies like the Congressional Research Service, the Government Accountability Office, or the Library of Congress.

9 Who s Who Personal Staff are often under 30 years old, earn less than $40k per year, have a bachelor s degree (only), live with several roommates, and have worked on the Hill less than five years. Committee Staff are slightly longer-tenured: typically in their late 30 s or early 40 s. Salaries range from $40k for junior Professional Staff to the mid-$80s for economists and lawyers. They typically live alone or are married, and have worked on the Hill for between 4 & 7 years. Leadership Staff run the gamut: some may be young, relatively inexperienced staffers brought along from a member s personal staff when he or she was elected to the leadership. Others may be longtenured Hill insiders with decades of experience. Their salaries range from $45k to over $110k per year. These are usually the best political minds in the business who rotate in and out of campaigns, party organizations, policy shops, and Congressional offices.

10 Personal Staff Positions Staff Assistants handle routine tasks like foreign visa applications, overnight passport requests, constituent tours, flag requests, etc. Legislative Correspondents receive and distribute incoming communications such as issue-related phone calls, faxes, s, and letters. Some LCs may have limited responsibility for substantive issue coverage (usually limited to non-controversial matters). Legislative Assistants handle most substantive issue coverage. A typical LA will have four to six major issue areas (e.g., taxation, health care, education, trade, transportation, telecom, etc.) and a host of subsidiary issues. LAs can also handle more controversial topics like abortion, climate change, and marriage equality. Legislative Directors have overall responsibility for an office s policy efforts and manage the LAs and LCs. LDs report directly to the Chief of Staff.

12 Other Staff Positions Chiefs of Staff run personal or leadership offices, coordinating and directing the work of the policy staff. Staff Directors run committee offices. There are two staff directors per committee: one for the majorityparty staff, and one for the minority-party staff. The Majority Staff Director wields considerable power and influence. Chief Counsels advise Chairs on legislation that comes before a committee, develop and revise drafts, and prepare amendments for consideration during mark-up sessions. Floor Directors work for some leadership offices to ensure the smooth conduct (and expected outcomes) of votes. They may track-down wayward (or hiding) members, and gently (or not) remind them of the party s position on legislation, and their personal commitments made to the leadership.

14 Committees Matter! Only a member of a committee will be taken seriously with respect to the passage of legislation that falls within that committee s jurisdiction: Outsiders bills won t move. Only a committee Chair can bring forward a Bill or Resolution for a hearing or mark-up: Awareness of an issue within the congress is highly dependent on hearing publicity. Only a committee can report a Bill for consideration by the House or Senate.* Only one committee in each chamber can control what money is actually spent (Appropriations).

15 Committees Matter! The Committees that control our issues are: House Committee on Energy and Commerce (Subcommittee on Communications and Technology) House Committee on Homeland Security (Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications) Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet) Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs Additionally, the bi-cameral Committees on Appropriations control nearly all government spending.

16 Leadership Offices Speaker of the House Constitutional officer responsible for the operation of the House. Chooses the members of the Committee on Rules. President of the Senate The Vice-President of the United States serves to break ties in the Senate. At nearly all other times, a President pro tempore presides. The pro tem is customarily the senior-most member of the majority party. Day-to-day operations are conducted by junior senators acting as pro tem. Majority & Minority Leaders The leaders control the flow of debate, parceling-out time to members when it is their party s turn to speak. The Senate Majority Leader has a special right to be the first senator recognized when more than one rises. Majority & Minority Whips The parties enforcers. The Whips encourage, cajole, and sometimes threaten members to maintain party discipline. Legislation gets passed because the whips line-up the votes. (Frank Underwood was Majority Whip in the first season of House of Cards.)

17 The House Rules Committee With 435 voting Members, 5 Delegates, and 1 Resident Commissioner, time for debate must be limited. The Committee on Rules, or the Speaker s Committee, establishes how each Bill or Resolution will be considered. It always has twice as many, plus one members from the majority party as compared with the minority party (9 republicans and 4 democrats in the current congress). An Open Rule allows for any member to offer amendments. A Modified-Open Rule allows any member to offer amendments, limited to specified subjects. A Structured Rule specifies the proponents, subjects, and order of allowed amendments. A Closed Rule provides that only amendments reported by a substantive committee may be considered. Each rule type will contain time limits for debate of permitted amendments (e.g., 5 minutes each). Some rules are self-executing: Agreeing to the Rule passes the Bill. (Remember the ACA?)

19 Recharge, 10% Strategic Outreach, 10% How a Member should spend her day Fundraising, 40% Committee & Floor, 20% Constituent Visits, 20% *According to recommendations by DCCC and RNCC.

20 A Time Comparison On average, Goes to Washington Attendees will meet with a Member or personal staffer for 30 minutes or less, once per year. Legislative Assistants may speak with their member three or four times per week when Congress is in session. Even if the LA gets only 5 minutes per chat, that amounts to 435 minutes across a normal legislative year with 29 weeks in session. LAs can also suggest legislation that their Member could introduce, co-sponsor, or vote for.

22 Making the right call Calling the correct office and sounding informed can help you get the best meeting possible. Unless you have an existing relationship with the Member s district staff, it s best to call the D.C. office directly to request a meeting in Washington. If you log-in to your member account at and update your profile with a personal address, your Member Bio page will show contact information for your Representative and Senators! If you know your Representative s name or district number, you can tforgety@nena.org for information on the Public Safety or Telecom LA for your member. Congressional websites can also provide direct-dial numbers for Members D.C. offices. Avoid using Members website contact forms whenever possible.

23 When to make your request Don t make your request too early: anything before 30-days out risks getting lost due to high staff turnover in members offices. Don t make your request too late: inside two weeks, and you may get stuck meeting with a legislative correspondent or staff assistant (not necessarily bad, but not optimal, either). Make certain that you re making your request directly to the scheduler! (Unless you have pre-existing relationship with someone else on the staff.) Ask to include in your meeting the staffer(s) who have responsibility for our issues. Call early in the day, to beat the rush, and offer to confirm your request by fax or .

24 What (and who) to ask for (Ask to speak directly with the Congresswoman s D.C. scheduler!) I m a constituent from (name of town). I ll be in Washington February 28th and March 1st. I d like to meet with the Congresswoman briefly to talk about some important issues, and I would like to include the LA who handles telecom and/or public safety issues for her. (ProTip: Use their name, if you know it!) [If your member is a Chair or Ranking Member of a relevant committee, ask if they could bring along either the Staff Director or another committee staffer with responsibility for our issues.] I can meet anytime after 1:45 on the 28th, or anytime on the 1st. If you could confirm the meeting by , I can be reached at psap_admin@county.gov

25 Help with Meetings Free Webinars: Getting Approval, Getting Here, & Getting Around (on-demand) Successful Meetings: Making the Case for (2/3) Member/District Information on nena.org Staff Contact service via phone ( )

26 Meeting Topics When requesting a meeting, you will be asked to explain what you want to talk about! Two legislative priorities: Accelerate the deployment of NG Pass comprehensive MLTS legislation, and (If they haven t already passed a limited bill)

28 Today s Webinar is Made Possible By:

29 Questions?

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