Contacting U.S. Representatives by E-mail

Although many members of the U.S. House now can be reached by e-mail, they get so much spam that, as far as I can tell, none of them read their e-mail so it's a waste of time to write them that way.

To contact your rep, visit the US House web site, check your rep's page, and call or write a paper letter.

Tips on writing to your Congressbeing

• Be sure to include your name, your e-mail address, and your regular postal address., since many of them still Anonymous mail (electronic or paper) is usually thrown away.
• Your message will probably be read by a member of the representative's staff. Keep your message short and cogent. If you want the representative to do something, ask clearly but politely early in your message.
• Only discuss one issue per message. If you have several concerns, send separate messages. This makes it more likely that each message will be routed to the staffer who deals with that particular issue.
• Polite, well argued letters are a lot more effective than vague rants and threats. (You'd think that was obvious, wouldn't you?)

Many representatives who don't accept e-mail directly do accept it via the House's ``writerep'' generic lookup system which looks up your representative by zip code and provides contact information.

Others use a system called Citizen Direct. If your rep uses it, there's a link to it on your rep's home page.