Advocacy plays a crucial role in shaping legislation affects the conditions for graduate and professional students across the nation. One effective way to influence change is by meeting with congressional offices. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the essential steps to conduct successful congressional office meetings.

Step 0: Wait, why should my organization do this in the first place? 

Legislation can impact all kinds of research trainees – graduate and professional students and postdocs – and it can improve working conditions in a wide variety of ways. It’s really important to remember the scope of what we’re talking about here: federal legislation can affect all research trainees nationwide. A single win could be incredibly positive for millions of people.

Congressional office meetings are essential for bringing the issues faced by research trainees to the attention of legislators and staff. A normal rank-and-file congressional office discusses at least a dozen issues with constituents and stakeholders in a regular day and hundreds over the course of a 2-year term. Not only that, but research trainees are neither a large nor a high-profile population of voters in most congressional districts. So you should assume your representatives in Congress don’t know your issues in detail – unless, and until, you tell them yourself.

Congressional office meetings are also very useful for networking and name recognition, both for the individuals participating in the meeting and for your organization.

Step 1: Manage your expectations.

It is important to keep this in perspective: your single meeting is not going to be the thing that made it possible to pass immigration reform or a FAARM Federal Framework. Big, complicated reforms require a lot of time and work, often over many years, before the conditions are right for passage. If fact, many large reforms are accomplished in small pieces over time, not as a single package. For any given meeting, it might honestly be difficult to measure how much you moved the ball forward. That’s ok. Veteran advocates from the nation’s largest advocacy organizations struggle to articulate a clear and specific way to measure the impact of a single given meeting or event. (You should definitely ask them about this any chance you get!)

I use this model, the “Fundamental Physics of Legislative Advocacy,” to help set expectations for my congressional office meetings:

• Fast Force: Occasionally, you’ll connect with a member or staffer who is simply a true believer that likes you and your causes. They’ll do cool stuff like ask for your input on hearing questions and legislation text, mention your organization in press releases and floor speeches, or introduce bills for you. This is really awesome when it happens, but it’s very rare. Making this kind of ‘fast’ connection can require a lot of shots-on-goal.

• Slow Force: Plenty of Congressional staffers have no experience with grad school or scientific research. Even some immigration staffers will have no idea how graduate education intersects with immigration, so they may not understand why you care about Optional Practical Training  and may not be familiar with it at all (ask the international students in your organization if you don’t get the reference!). Making more Congressional staff aware of your organization and it’s causes makes it a little more likely that, over time, positive action will be taken.

Regardless, both forces reward organizations that have as many meetings as possible. Each meeting can have an impact, even if you don’t see it right away.

Step 2: Research your members.

The importance of this cannot be understated. Each member of Congress has unique interests, experiences, and priorities – often aligned with the major features of their district. You need to learn about them and shape your “pitch” around their priorities. Ask yourself –

• What is their history on the issues you want to discuss? Have they stated a position on your issues or your priority legislation? 
• Are they a co-sponsor on the bills you are discussing? Were they cosponsors of any previous iterations of that bill? Remember that it often takes many years, across many Congresses, to pass substantive new legislation. Check for past versions of bills you care about.
• Are they a member or chair of a relevant committee or caucus?
• Do they have something in common with you or your organization? It’s good to know where your member grew up and got their college degree.
• What are the major universities with graduate programs in their district or state?
• How many grad students are in those programs?
• If your ask is related to a subpopulation (e.g., international students), how many of that subpopulation are in those programs?

Step 3: Craft your pitch!

Now that you know your audience, you can create a message tailored to them. There are some important things to consider as you do so:

• How much time do you have? This is key to deciding how to prioritize your discussion points. Be prepared to trim it down to the bare bones, but also be prepared for a longer discussion and follow-up questions.
• Who’s talking about each of your issues or priority legislation? It can be very helpful for members of your team to strategically target their efforts, each focusing their prior research on a small set of issues or legislation.
• What are your talking points for each issue or bill?
  • Be familiar with the general background and recent news on the issue or bill.
  • Be prepared to share 1 or 2 hard-hitting and salient facts.
  • Where possible, tell a story! Make use of personal experience to the greatest extent possible.
• What are your asks?
  • Being practical and realistic helps ensure your team will be taken seriously. Can the Member of Congress do what you’re asking for?
  • Common example asks include:  Introduce a bill, cosponsor an existing bill, write a letter, ask a question in a hearing, attend an event, etc. 
• Do you have a one-pager or statement for each of your issues or priority legislation? It’s an extremely good idea to produce a one-pager or statement in advance on each issue or bill you want to talk about!

Step 4: Contact offices and request meetings. 

First and foremost, don’t overthink this. Email is almost always the best way to get in touch with a Congressional office. It’s entirely ok to use a generic utility address (like scheduling@member.senate.gov) or a ‘Meeting Request’ form that you’ll find on their websites. You can usually get a swift reply, but if you don’t get a reply within a week, you may need to call the member’s DC office. If you’re a constituent of that member (you live in their district), make sure to say so in any emails, form responses, or phone conversations. If you’re not, consider getting a constituent to help with outreach to that office, since constituents are far more likely to get prompt responses to meeting requests. Include any one-pagers or statements your organization has produced on your issues or your priority legislation in the meeting request, if possible. Start reaching out to request meetings 3-4 weeks before your lobby day event or target meeting date.

Be aware up front that you will probably not talk directly to the Member of Congress. You will probably meet their education, immigration, or science staffer, and it’s very helpful to state clearly in your meeting requests that you’re ok with meeting with staff if the member is not available. You will usually have 15 – 30 minutes, depending on the office and on whether the member will be able to join the meeting. But know this – meeting with staffers is no less impactful than meeting with a member, so don’t feel like you won’t be able to make a difference.

If your organization has met with a given office in the past, reach out to the staff you met with previously to request your meeting. This is a great way to build a relationship with that office and maximize your likelihood of a prompt response. (Make sure your organization saves good records and notes on each Congressional office meeting! Don’t overthink this part, either – a Google Drive folder, a spreadsheet, and a Google Doc is plenty. Just make sure your successor knows where to find them!)

Step 5: Conduct your meetings!

The office may have anywhere between 1 and 3 staff to meet with you; it’s appropriate for you to bring 2-4 team members to each meeting. (You’ll see some kinds of advocacy groups that fill offices with a huge crew in matching shirts and whatnot; you do not need to do this, and you’ll probably start seeing that there are some real practical drawbacks to this approach after you run into a few groups like this during your meetings.) Don’t be surprised if you end up having meetings in some oddly arranged – or just plain odd – rooms. FAARM Core Team members have had meetings in hallways, cubicles, and a couple different kinds of utility or storage spaces.

Before you go in, decide who on your team will direct traffic and who will take notes during the substantive parts of the meeting. Don’t be surprised when lots of Congressional staff pull out a paper notepad to take their notes, and you should consider doing the same yourself. It’s fairly customary to exchange business cards at the beginning of the meeting, but if they don’t, be sure to request theirs at the end.

Once the meeting has started, follow your plan, be friendly, and don’t overthink things! Make sure you introduce each member of your team, what you study, and where. Discuss your issues and bills in the order you planned before the meeting, and make sure your level of detail is appropriate to the time available. Answer follow-up questions from the staffers as well as you can, and try to stick to the planned schedule and be finished at the planned time – they have very little flexibility to their schedule.

When you finish, be sure to thank them for the meeting. Always let them know they can contact you or your organization if they have questions about your community’s concerns and how legislation could impact them. Being a good resource helps build relationships. 

Everyone says the same thing starting out: “We’re gonna play error-free ball.” But then the unforeseen happens. It’s unavoidable. What matters then is how good an audible you call. The difference between a successful presidency and a historical footnote is how well you roll with the punches, just to complete my tour of sports metaphors.

Josh Lyman, The West Wing, S7E19

Congressional office meetings are often more of a conversation than a presentation, and that means they may go unexpected directions. If the staff you’re meeting with ask you a question that you can’t answer, be honest about it: maybe you don’t have the data needed to answer it – maybe it doesn’t even exist yet – but maybe you can look into it and get back to them later. But whatever the question is, be plain, honest, and direct in your answers: don’t make things up, and don’t feel like you have to have all of the answers. This will earn their respect and trust; Members of Congress and their staff can usually tell if you’re blowing smoke. Instead, take note of the questions asked and answer as much as you can in a follow-up email after the meeting.

Step 6: Follow up afterwards.

Make sure you send a follow-up email for every single Congressional office meeting you conduct! Thank everyone you met with for their time (again) and answer any unanswered questions from the meeting. Resend your one-pagers. as well as any other documents discussed in the meeting, so that they’ll be easy for them to find (and share) when they need to (they generally prefer electronic copies of things, anyway). And be sure to offer yourself and your organization as a resource for your community and its concerns.

If you’re planning to discuss the FAARM Federal Framework or any of our Immediate Needs or other proposals, let us know at faarmteam@gmail.com, and we’ll be happy to support your Congressional office meeting planning. All kinds of research trainees are always welcome to use any of our materials that may be helpful for your advocacy work.

Good hunting!

Daniel Curtis

FAARM Co-Founder