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Comment by rootusrootus | Hacker News Reader

> almost any US citizen can get a meeting inside a Member's office

Indeed, most days you can just walk directly into any senator's or member's office. Maybe leadership has different rules, I haven't tested that, but I had no trouble strolling into Ron Wyden's office. So anything you can get through the building metal detectors (which really aren't very sensitive, they're just looking for weapons) you could take in and surreptitiously drop off.

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I had no idea. I'd love to meet my reps, especially Wyden. They represent me so well I wouldn't really have anything to say, but it would still be a bucket list kinda thing.

You can walk into the office, but you won't get a meeting with Wyden if you aren't on the schedule. Instead, if you are a resident of the state, they'll have staff that will meet with you in a small conference room, take notes, maybe ask a few questions. These are typically fairly young intern types, so don't expect too much depth from them (in my experience, you're going to get some very naive questions if you bring up anything related to science/tech policy). They'll then tell you that you are being heard, thank you, and send you on your way. This is occasionally a useful thing to do, e.g. to bring attention to a niche issue, cause, or special interest that their office might not be aware of at all.

Is there a way to follow up on the mentioned issues?

Make sure you write down the name of who you spoke to, and see if they'll give you their email address. Then you have way to follow up, either directly or by calling the office and saying you had spoken to so-and-so and wanted to follow up. Obviously the people you speak to can't promise much of anything, but if you bring up something that sounds important to them, they will do what they can to move it through the bureaucracy. Follow-ups can help keep it on the radar or make it more urgent. Obviously there are no fool-proof methods here (and congress is full of fools). And people don't like to say no, so you may need to read between the lines sometimes to figure out that they decided your requests were inconsistent with whatever political school of thought that representative subscribes to.

Wait, this is a thing that people actually do? I thought the "talk to your representative" thing Americans say was a polite way to tell people off.

It’s a thing in every democratic country – although usually, only few people actually use this, and those few tend to often be the rich.

If every now and then regular people would also use this right, we’d be able to change a lot.

Talking to your representative is a basic civic duty.

Well, it certainly was a few decades ago when I was in my twenties. I was in Washington D.C. as tourist, walking around, seeing the sights. Having been educated in a typical U.S. public school of the time, I thought to myself, "Gee, as long as I'm here, I should visit my representative's office." The security situation was probably different then. I just wandered around the building, found his office, walked in, and announced myself as resident of his district. He wasn't physically there at the time, but I was welcomed and given a tour and chatted with a staffer.

I was nobody - just a kid - but I was voter.

Definitely!

An in-person meeting is the best way. If you figure that an e-mail is worth X, then a phone call is worth perhaps 100X, and an office visit is probably 10000X. Politicians do actually want to know what people care about, and the amount of work you do to get in touch definitely factors into how representative they think your opinion may be.

I've done it, but at my Representative's local offices back here, not in DC.

Definitely this. I would suggest you do some leg work to at least get in with a legislative assistant. The more prepared you are, the more you bring to the table, the more specific of an issue or ask, the more you will be 'heard' if you will.

Also most don't know your House Rep's office can help with way more than listening to complaints. They are very helpful. Case work, lots of student stuff (if you want to go to a military academy), maybe some grant stuff. But especially if you are having VA bureaucracy issues. There is budget for constituent services including Franking $ to reach out to their constituents. Members actually try here because it helps them win elections.

It's important to remember that nearly all of these offices are in other buildings across the street.

Yes, this is true. And they have practically no security compared to the Capitol. Though I have to say, once you get through the visitor center, the Capitol isn't really locked down very tightly, especially off-season.

One thing that's fun to do in DC, if you plan ahead, is get a White House tour. Sadly they don't let you see any of the west wing, but the rest is still pretty interesting, and the Secret Service agents are really cool. We had some really great conversations, they're extremely knowledgeable (and proud of it, too). I asked one of them how many steps he thought I could make it if I jumped the rope and headed for the staircase up to the residence, and he just chuckled. Funny thing is he'd probably not even bother tackling my fat ass, he'd just grab my arm and escort me out of the building. They were pretty proud of that, too -- the discipline they have and ability to use just enough force without going over the top. I was impressed with their professionalism. Not that it should be surprising, presidential protection is an elite detail.

I'm not so sure if it's less secure. Hart is the emergency space used on Wednesday. There's also way fewer entrances.

That's terrifying, knowing just how bad some of these people are with technology....

Yeah but how do you get your listening device to work over all the interference from the CIA listening devices?

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