Learning to Work with Congress
Working with State and District Offices

State and district offices offer a relatively easy way of gaining access to members who may be difficult to see in Washington. However, all too few scientists and engineers seem to be aware of this channel.

Many representatives and senators have walk-in appointment periods in their state and district offices—although this does not mean you should just walk in without any preparation. Find out where these offices are located, the schedule for such periods, and the procedure your member follows to use the time slots. You can obtain locations and telephone numbers through your local library or telephone directory, or by calling your member’s Washington office.

Most congressional offices place legislative and budget staff members in Washington. The state and district offices are more likely to be staffed to handle a variety of constituent services. Yet this does not mean that you cannot discuss your issue with a local staff member. For example, you can get advice on just whom to contact in Washington or on the feasibility of meeting with the member at a future date. However, unless your issue is "hot" locally, you could well be referred to the issue person in Washington. Even so, the district and state staff will usually make every effort to be helpful.

Meeting with the member in the district may be more relaxed, but that doesn’t mean you should be any less prepared than you would be for a meeting in Washington. Focus on making it a memorable and valuable experience for the member as well as for yourself. Even in the district office, you must "rise above the clutter." This includes taking advantage of the opportunity to relate your concerns to local issues and to give examples of how your colleagues feel about the issue you are addressing—if you know those facts. Tying in other constituent interest gives support to your position.

The time your member spends in the district gives you a special opportunity to show science and technology at work by arranging visits to local laboratories, colleges and universities, events at local scientific societies (e.g., Sigma Xi chapter meetings), or a company facility. This gives the member a valuable window to how scientists and engineers operate and interact and provides a more informal opportunity to convey the importance of policy and budget decisions in scientific areas. You can work with the local offices in requesting the participation of your members in local chapter or regional meetings of Sigma Xi. If you give enough notice and have some flexibility in your request, members say that the chances are good that they can appear. As a practical consideration, do your best to assure a good turnout. Spending an evening talking to five or six people may not be the most effective use of a member’s—or a staff member’s—time. For example, one senior staff member reported: "My boss had to cancel out of a district event at the last minute because of a late floor vote and I went in his place. They had told us there would be a hundred people, but due to faulty publicity, it ended up with less than a dozen. Fortunately, I did some other district business so it was not a total waste, but I sure wasn’t very happy with that group."

Members say they are interested in visiting district organizations where interesting work is being done or where they have an opportunity to talk with workers. As one representative said: "I like to know when a company in my district has come up with some new product or development that is significant." Another representative noted that "Over the years, we have developed good relationships with a number of researchers at universities in my district." He identified these relationships as among the most favorable of his experiences in working with the scientific and engineering communities. You, too, can work at developing such relationships: your work gets exposure to the member, and the member gets information as well as exposure to your colleagues. Building such a relationship can eventually result in your serving as an informal advisor, providing information, opinions, and perhaps more formal studies on matters of importance to the member.

Apart from your working with a member of Congress and his or her staff as a constituent seeking assistance or giving advice and information, there is the special role of serving in a political campaign. This is a difficult issue to raise, but it deserves to be placed on the table. Scientific and technical issues are political in the same sense that other areas of our modern society are political. Decisions entail setting priorities and allocating budgets, and these are quintessentially political decisions. Members of Congress have been strong supporters of science and technology but have not seen this translated into political support in the same way that being a proponent of labor or business or agriculture generates support.

By no means does seeking assistance from a member of Congress translate to an obligation for political support on your part. However, there is a perception—accurate or not—in the world of politics that a sizeable number of scientists and engineers believe they are "above it all" and that being involved with politicians is inconsistent with the ethos of the scientific and engineering professions. While many interest groups provide support—financial and otherwise—for increasingly costly political campaigns, various members of Congress claim to have observed a general aloofness on the part of the scientific and engineering communities.

Obviously, support for science and technology should not be the sole basis on which you make your political choice in an election campaign. But if there is a general compatibility on issues and you believe the individual has been doing a creditable job in office, then you should think about taking part in the member’s campaign. This can include arranging voter meetings, organizing fundraising events, publicizing member achievements and contributions, and making financial contributions. This is not the place to describe in detail the operations and functions necessary to an election campaign, and your decision will depend on your own personal style, abilities, and interests, but the point should be clear: politics is important to science and engineering. Consider getting involved.

¹ Wells, W.G., Jr., 1996, Working with Congress: A Practical Guide for Scientists and Engineers. AAAS and the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government. pp. 84-86.

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