CAPITOL HILL 101
THE KEY STAFF POSITIONS
IN A CONGRESSIONAL OFFICE
• Legislative Correspondent (LC): Answers constituent letters, faxes and emails.
The LC will usually prepare for the Congressman a periodic summary of how
many letters, faxes and emails are for and against each issue. Most offices do
not reply to out of state/district mail and email, unless you are writing as a
representative of an organization or company or if you are a donor or other
supporter. Always ask for a reply if you wan one and expect that most replies
will be from letters.
“Personnel is policy.” You may find that many staff have different political
views than their Congressman or Senator, thus a good conservative
representative can be somewhat neutralized in his effectiveness on life
issues by having staff who are not loyal to his philosophy. Lobbyists and
advocates for big government also seek to befriend representatives and their
top staff to convince them that “business-as-usual,” more spending, taxes,
pork projects, special laws and exemptions, and campaign donations are the
way to go. That makes YOUR job as a citizen lobbyist all the more important
to overcome these layers of protection and often false information.
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