Meet Face-to-Face with Your Representatives

A face-to-face meeting with your Senators and Representatives, or their staff, to discuss the issues carries much more weight than signing a petition, sending a letter, or making a phone call. Make your visit successful by following these pro tips.

Preparing for the Meeting 

• Know the Member. All Members of Congress provide biographical information on their websites. That information offers clues to what motivates them. What’s their background story? What kind of community did they grow up in? What kind of work did they do before running for Congress? Were they in the military? What Congressional committees and caucuses do they serve on? Find ways to relate what they care about to affordable housing. Even if you’re only meeting with staff, they will appreciate that you took the time to research their boss and incorporate their story into your discussion.
• Focus on the Housing Credit. You won’t have time to deal with more than one issue very well at the meeting; every additional issue that you raise could dilute the message received by the representative or their staff. Stay relevant!
• Know the issue. If you don’t already know, learn the facts, figures, arguments, and counter- arguments surrounding the issue before your meeting. Knowledge is the cornerstone of advocacy. Check out our key messages and national, state, and district fact sheets. We also have fact sheets which demonstrate how many homes, jobs, business income, and tax revenue the Housing Credit provisions in OBBBA will create in their state.
• If your Representative is a cosponsor of the AHCIA, thank them.
• Make it personal. Sharing a real-life example of how your organization has impacted their district will put a face on the work you do. 
• Contact us. We are here to help ACTION members successfully frame the issues and understand them inside and out. We can offer talking points, issue briefs, research, and specific information about the Senators and Representatives that you are going to meet. 

During the Meeting 

• Don’t skip the preliminaries. Introduce everyone present and their organizations briefly. Thank the legislator or their staff for the opportunity to meet. If you haven’t discussed in advance how much time you have, confirm during the meeting and respect those limits.
• Designate one person as the lead speaker. Cutting down on the number of people talking shows consensus, allows the Senator or Representative – and their staff – to focus on the message, and reduces the chances of getting sidetracked. 
• Finding out their views is just as important as conveying yours. Ask genuine questions and respect their answers. They often contain valuable information. If you don’t know the answer to their questions, let them know you will find out and get back to them, and then do it. Reach out to us if you don’t know how or where to find the answer.
• Most important: Be clear on your legislative “ask.” Don’t walk away from a Congressional meeting without asking your Senators and Representatives to take the specific action that you want them to take. For example:
  • Convey your support of the AHCIA and ask that they prioritize its inclusion in “must pass” legislation, such as during any further tax package moving this Congress.
  • Be sure to reiterate the important work that you do and how it’s connected to expanding and strengthening the credit through the AHCIA – specific, local examples are particularly helpful.
• End with a thank you. Regardless of the outcome, thank your Senators and Representative for the opportunity to meet and raise your concerns. Don’t forget to thank their staff as well. If you have business cards, exchange them as the meeting concludes. 

After the Meeting

• Follow up. Send your Senators and Representatives a formal thank-you note, including to their staff, forward any additional information discussed during the meeting, and create a written confirmation of any agreed-to actions. If your Senator or Representative has cosponsored the AHCIA, include that in your thank-you note. 
• If your Senator or Representative asked for more information than you had during the meeting, make sure you follow up with materials or answers. 
• Send ACTION a note on how it went!