Tips for contacting Congress about bad internet bills

Last updated: August 5. At the Senate Commerce Committee markup today, KOSA and some other bills moved forward, and while the SCREEN Act unexpectedly failed (yay!) it could still be brought back. So it's still time to contact your Senators!

Spirited grassroots activism stoped KOSA and other bad internet bills from passing in 2022 and 2024, and if we keep the pressure up we have a good chance to do it again. One key ingredient: getting as many people as possible to contact Congress repeatedly. Waves of phone calls and emails complements the work advocacy groups are doing behind the scenes, and gives ammunition to the politicians and staffers who are on our side.

If you haven't contacted your Congress before, it can be intimidating! Pages like EFF's Tell the Senate: Don't Turn the Internet Into an ID Checkpoint, Fight for the Future's Bad Internet Bills are a good option; they take care of the logistics, and provide a script as a starting point. Then again, it's also easy to phone your legislators directly, or use the web forms on their site, and tell them whatever you want.

Three key starting points:

The US Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 is active 24 hours a day. You'll need to give your address, and they'll connect you to your legislator.

Contacting US Senators, on congress.gov, lets you look up your Senators by state or name to get a link to their Washington DC phone number and web form to contact them. If you click on their picture, it will take you to their official site, which usually a Contact page with other ways of contacting them -- including phone numbers and addresses for their in-state offices.

Find your Representative and the Directory or Representatives fill a similar role for the House.

Phone calls are typically more effective than emails, but if talking on the phone isn't a good option for you (or you just don't have the spoons to do it) you can also use their web contact form. Or both – it's useful to contact legislators more than once about a vote, so mix and match as much as you want!

When things get busy, calls to their DC offices sometimes go directly to voicemail; if that happens, and you really want to talk to somebody, try calling their local offices. On the other hand, if don't want to talk to somebody and just want to leave a message, call in the evening or very early morning when it's likely to go direct to voice mail.

If you've got a lot to say about an issue, an in-person or online meeting with a staffer is by far the most effective way to give feedback -- although it's also time-consuming, and typically requires advance notice. If you can bring together a group of people and/or organizations, that can increase the chances of scheduling a meeting. AOTA's How to conduct a Congressional meeting page has suggestions about how to make the meeting more effective.

What to say?

Sites like Bad Internet Bills have wording that emphasizes the key points, but you can customize it or even roll your own from scratch.

A few tips here:

Always make sure to say the magic words "I'm a constituent" (or a variant).

If you've got a perspective that's especially relevant, it's a good idea to mention it: "I'm a parent", "I'm a teen", "I'm a cybersecurity expert".

Some people (like me for example) prefer to write out what they're going to say, and even practice it; others prefer to just wing it.

Or, you can go into more depth – if you've got a relevant story, legislators love anecdotes. If you have a lot to say, one useful tactic is to submit it via the web form and follow up with a call.