Hill Visit Materials
Here are a few tips to help you schedule and prepare for your Hill meeting.
- Identify your congressional offices and who you need to meet with: Consult ANCOR’s Congressional Directory to identify your Representative, their contact information, list of staffers, and their bios.
- Call the offices: Call your Representative and Senators’ office to request that the appointment scheduler set up a meeting with them or the appropriate staff person, likely the Health or Medicaid staffer. You need to let them know you are a constituent.
- Don’t be disappointed to meet with staff. Everyone would love to meet directly with their member of Congress, but hectic member schedules—especially in September, Congress’ last month to do business—prevent meetings with every constituent. Congressional staff play a critical role in determining a member’s position on issues, so treat the staff as you would their boss.
- When making the appointment with your Representative’s office tell them you would like to discuss the Direct Support Professionals Fairness and Security Act (H.R. 868).
- Schedule enough time: Expect each meeting to last about 15 to 30 minutes. When you schedule your meetings, allow sufficient time to get from one office to another—15 minutes between visits on the House side (your Representative’s office) and then a half an hour to go from your House meeting to your Senate meetings.
- Limit group size: Meeting space, especially on the House side, is limited and Congressional offices usually limit visits to no more than six. You need to discuss how many people you can have at the meeting when you set up the appointment.
- Determine a leader: Choose someone from your group who will initiate conversation and tell the person you are meeting with the purpose of your visit.
- Confirm the meeting: Call to confirm your appointments by Friday September 10th.
Use tips and tricks from Chapter Two in Effective Communication with Congress when you schedule and prepare for your meetings.
References