GETTING YOUR VIEWS TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVE

Elected representatives can be contacted when people want to present their views or voice their concerns about issues that matter to them. Citizens can phone, write or meet with legislators individually or as members of a coalition or organization that advocates for legislative action on various public issues, policies and programs.

COMMUNICATING WITH ELECTED OFFICIALS

Before calling, writing or sending an e-mail to an elected official, it is important to know how to express what you want to say. The website of Congress.org (www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/basics/) offers helpful tips on communicating with congressional senators and representatives.

HOW TO CONTACT CONNECTICUT REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS

State Representatives and Senators can be found at the Connecticut General Assembly website: www.cga.ct.gov/ The website has e-mail addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers and web pages for each State Representative or Senator. The site also allows users to search for legislative bills by bill number.

HOW TO CONTACT REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS IN CONGRESS

Each branch of the U.S. Congress has a website to contact its members. The House of Representatives website (www.house.gov/) allows users to identify their representatives and provides mailing addresses, phone numbers and web pages for each member. The Senate's website (www.senate.gov/) allows users to find their senator alphabetically or by state and provides Connecticut and Washington D.C. mailing addresses and phone numbers at each member’s web page. All web pages provide sites for sending e-mail messages to the Representative or Senator.

For further information on contacting members of Congress, see the eLibrary paper: Congress - Constituent Services

LEGISLATION INFORMATION

Legislative information can be found at the website of the Connecticut General Assembly. Other websites to search for information on past or pending legislation are maintained by the State of Connecticut Governor's Office (www.governor.ct.gov/malloy/) and the Connecticut State Library (www.cslib.org/)

Also, a wide variety of coalitions, organizations and service providers advocate at local, state and federal levels for issues, policies or programs of concern to them.

TO FIND PROVIDERS IN CONNECTICUT'S COMMUNITY RESOURCES DATABASE:
Search by service names:
Governor Offices
Legislation Information
State Legislature Offices
State Libraries
System Advocacy
United States House of Representatives Offices
United States Senate Offices

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SOURCES: Connecticut General Assembly website; Connecticut State Library website; Congress.org website; Legal Assistance Resource Center of Connecticut website; State of Connecticut Governor’s Office website; United States Congress: House of Representatives website and Senate website
PREPARED BY: 211/pt
CONTENT LAST REVIEWED: July2012