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Hi All, C-Span has a page entitled Capitol Questions at http://www.c-span.org/questions/ The latest question is very timely and fits right in with asking your representitives support re: stem cells... Read the text below... ----------------------------------------- I would like to get Congress to change a law. I’ve written my representative and so have friends and relatives. All we get back are form letters. What else can we do? Shelby, Michigan Only a Member of Congress has the authority to introduce a bill. You are doing all an American citizen can do -- write, phone, or visit all of their Members of Congress and ask them to take legislative action. Most Members of Congress have open office hours when they visit their home states and districts. Most also hold regular town meetings open to all constituents. Call all your Members and find out when their next home visit is scheduled and attend one of these sessions. It is your best opportunity to communicate directly and in person to your Member. Be sure to contact all three Members: your Representative as well as both of your two Senators. To contact or identify your Senators, visit the U.S. Senate website Contacting the Senate. http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm For contact information on House Members, visit the U.S. House website Write Your Representative. http://www.house.gov/writerep/ However, Members of Congress are under no obligation to act on every legislative request they receive. They are allowed to exercise their own judgment, and to establish priorities among the many competing petitions for legislative action they receive from various citizens. They are only directly accountable in the next election for the actions they take or fail to take. The growth of the Internet and advocacy websites present another outlet for political involvement. A book describing this grassroots trend using the Internet has just been published, and it also provides references to many political and governmental action websites: see Cybercitizen: How to Use Your Computer to Fight for All the Issues You Care About. http://www.cyber-citizen.org/ If all your individual efforts to get Congress to focus on your issue of concern fail, you might consider joining a national organization which best reflects your point of view. In a representative democracy like ours, there is strength in numbers. There are thousands of advocacy groups in this country. Ask your local reference librarian to help you identify organizations relevant to your topic of interest, or do some extensive searching on the Internet for like-minded organized groups. Finally, there is an additional, more formal, method to gain the attention of the Congress. Under the Constitution in the Bill of Rights (Amendment 1), all U.S. citizens are given the right to petition the government directly. The House of Representatives accepts all petitions addressed to it, signed with full name and address, and sent in care of the Clerk of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515. Petitions can come from a single individual or a group of individuals, or from private organizations. The Senate accepts petitions for action addressed to it, signed with full name and address, and sent in care of the President of the Senate, United States Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510. Both chambers refer petitions received from private citizens or organizations to the appropriate congressional committee in their chamber which has jurisdiction over the subject matter addressed in the petition. However, petitions are considered "advisory," and enjoy no special status for action. Committees of the Congress take them under advisement, and may or may not choose to act on them. --------------------------------