Friday, 14 March 2008
Spring Break – Meet Your Elected Officials
Late last night, the House and Senate finished work on their respective budget resolutions and now they are all heading home for a couple weeks of recess.
Most federal Representatives and Senators will be home in their districts over the next two weeks for the Spring District Work Period. ASCE Key Contacts should watch for opportunities to meet with these folks during public appearances and office hours in district offices and educate them about the nation’s crumbling infrastructure and what they should do to begin improving it.
Start by visiting your lawmaker’s website: for Representatives visit http://www.house.gov and select your Representative from the drop-down list. For Senators, visit http://www.senate.gov and select "Senators" at the top left for a list that can be arranged by last name or by state. Many elected officials list local events and appearances on their websites. Many lawmakers also produce an e-newsletter to inform constituents of events and issues, so if you sign up from their website you might get advance notice future events.
ASCE members can visit the "Six Clicks" (or less!) advocacy website to learn about the top civil engineering issues currently facing congress and prepare for speaking with your elected officials. Or, if you can’t make an opportunity to meet with your lawmakers, send them a message through the personalized system. Don’t forget to add your own personal experience as a civil engineer to your message so your lawmaker will know your message is from a real constituent and not generated automatically by a computer!
For non-Members, check out the Infrastructure Action Plan for the 110th Congress for background on the nation’s infrastructure and specific steps legislators can take to Raise the Grades on America’s Infrastructure.
Find more tips like this to get involved in the public policy process at http://www.asce.org/keycontacts .
Thanks, and have a great Spring Break!!