Looking forward to Lobby Day—meeting with Congressional representatives - Health Policy Issues

AORN Journal, May, 2002 by Burke Beu

Communicating with elected officials is what grassroots advocacy is all about. Petitions, e-mail messages, faxes, telephone calls, and individual letters are all methods for sending officials a message. With regard to federal legislative action, however, most political scientists agree that the two most effective means of communicating with members of the US Congress are a personal meeting at their district offices in their home states and, if possible, a personal meeting at their offices in Washington, DC. (1)

AORN's annual Federal Affairs Conference and Lobby Day, scheduled for June 10 to 11, 2002, in Washington, DC, is an opportunity for perioperative RNs to realize the effectiveness of meeting with representatives in their Washington offices. Members of Congress know that personal meetings on Capitol Hill indicate the seriousness and importance of an issue to constituents who go out of their way to do the planning, participating, and follow-up necessary for such meetings. This article provides helpful insights for these three components of a successful legislative meeting.

PLANNING

Most members of Congress have a full-time staff member who handles their schedule. In addition to the official work of Congress, senators and representatives have a number of demands on their time. These include requests for meetings from a variety of groups or individuals, as well as political party activities, research projects related to their own key issues, and frequent fund-raising events.

If a member of Congress is not available, a meeting can be scheduled with a representative from his or her staff. Congressional staff members usually are assigned to handle particular topics, such as health care, and they may have more knowledge or a better command of specific issues than the elected official. Members of Congress rely heavily on their staff members, so a meeting with a staff member also is an effective approach to legislative outreach.

During the AORN Lobby Day 2002, appointments with members of Congress or their staff representatives will be scheduled by McDermott, Will & Emery, AORN's federal lobbying firm, and the Government Affairs Department. Special packets that provide information about AORN's federal legislative priorities will be compiled for Lobby Day participants to leave with their lawmakers. The Government Affairs Department also has copies of policy profiles on federal issues supported by AORN. These documents are helpful to AORN members as summaries of issues pertaining to perioperative nursing, and they can be sent to members of Congress before a personal meeting as a preview for discussion.

Joel Blackwell, author of Personal Political Power: How Ordinary People Get What They Want from the Government, and a consultant on grassroots strategy for AORN, summarizes the planning phase and general purpose of a personal meeting with this basic challenge.

   Prepare yourself. Get your organization's issue paper and review it.
   However, keep in mind that nobody expects you to be an expert on
   legislation. Your job is to be the expert on your little piece of the issue
   as it affects you. If you can give the broader picture, that helps. But
   your priority is to tell your elected representative how your issue plays
   out in the district, in your company, and in your life. You can be an
   expert on what's going on in your own life and business, and that's  what
   they need to hear from you. [Also], find out what the next step is in the
   legislative process. Your professional lobbyist will know. Your targeted
   elected official may not know where your issue is in the legislative
   treadmill, and they will probably ask you. (2)

Steps in the legislative process for a proposed bill in Congress include introduction in either the House of Representatives or Senate, referral to a committee, review by a subcommittee, mark up (ie, when a bill literally is "marked up" with suggestions and revisions before it is referred back to a committee), committee action to report on a bill to the full House or Senate, a written report on a bill, debate, and a floor vote by the entire chamber where the bill originated. (3) The 2002 Federal Affairs Conference will provide updates on AORN's federal issues and current progress in the legislative process.

Congressional web sites (eg, http://www.house.gov, http://www.senate.gov) also have detailed information about the status of a bill. Additionally, these online resources list individual web sites for each member of Congress. These sites can provide background regarding a member's stand on an issue, as well as his or her perspective on various topics. Reviewing an elected official's web site before a personal meeting can be helpful in deciding how to present an issue.

PARTICIPATING

Different political consultants have different strategies for a personal legislative meeting. Some suggest a casual, friendly approach. Others favor tactics that are formal and direct. Many focus on the difference between meeting with a member of Congress versus meeting with his or her staff members, although some staff members usually attend any such meeting. Blackwell recommends a balanced approach.