Complete E-Mail Addresses for Congress/House, Senate, Governors & State Legislators

Why Can't we Send an Email to Every Member of Congress?

One of the common questions we get regarding emailing Congress is "why can't I send a message to all Senators and Congressmen with just one click?" I wish it were possible, and if so we could provide that capability.

Not too many years ago when the web and email were new, most members of Congress indeed had real email addresses and some Members' staff would even read and reply to non-constituent emails. We prided ourselves in offering every possible email address we could.

Then came spam as well as a tidal wave of citizen emails to Congress, swamping their staff to read much less to reply. A typical Congressional office might have just one "Legislative Correspondent" who's job is to read and reply to 500+ letters, faxes and emails per day--just from their own constituents. They may also have an intern or two who will help handle such communications, so you can see they have a tough time even handling their own constituents' messages. Senate offices will have a few more staff for this work--but they have to handle a far greater number of messages from their entire state.

It may also be that some members of Congress really don't want to hear from their constituents, much less people from across the country due to their liberal voting records. You remember how surprised Congressmen were when faced with angry citizens at the town hall meetings over Obama Care! Those who continually vote for more socialism and against their constituents' wishes may not want their votes known well. So some may rather avoid dealing with those who know what's going on.

Today, Congress has almost totally eliminated using real email addresses for constituent messages, replaced with web page forms where you must fill out your address and zip code before it will let you send a message. And those will not work if your address is not in their state or district. We offer the complete list of all Congressional web contact forms.

Real email addresses were nice while they lasted, but we regret the reality has changed.

Even if someone sleuthed out the Member's private email addresses or those of their staff, it wouldn't do any good. They would delete them, block your address, change their email addresses and pay no attention to such emails. Same if you entered phony addresses on their web forms. Sending issue comments to email addresses or web forms designed for other purposes, such as for media or scheduling requests, will be similarly ignored and deleted.

Since the entire goal of writing Congress is to help change their minds, if they refuse to look at non-constituent emails or you try unwanted ways to deliver them, nothing has been accomplished.

Given these realities, the best thing to do is email, call, write, fax and visit your own Senators and Congressman, then urge your family and friends in other areas to do the same--the result will be many Senators and Congressmen each getting messages from their constituents. Use your email list and blogs, social network pages, political forums, etc. to urge others to do the same, and together we can still flood Congress with the right messages.

You CAN fax a message to all offices, and we offer a complete list in Excel or Ascii csv formats, but those who receive it will look to see who its from and if from a non-constituent or there is no return address at all, it's likely to be ignored and deleted and you have accomplished nothing. You'll find when calling Congress about an issue (Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121), that they will often ask for your zip code when you call, and politely suggest you call your own Senator/Representative if you are not a constituent--and they will not record your comments at all.

If you represent an organization or company which has customers or members in their state/district, write a postal letter or fax on your letterhead and mention the local connection, and you may get results.

You can also call the committees where so much work on bills occurs and discuss your concerns with their staff members. And if you have a good conversation with a Congressional office or committee staff member, they may give you their own email to continue your discussion or to send them additional information. But if you then abuse the trust and send continual emails to them, they'll just put your email address on their blocked sender list or close that email address completely and you will have lost that ability to reach that staffer when you need it most. So treat all staff email addresses with great care and respect.

Elected officials still do place great weight on citizen comments, letters, and office visits, so keep up the grassroots action and involve your friends, family and web/Facebook/email contacts to expand your influence.

Art Harman
Policy Analyst

The Conservative Caucus

Click Here to select a Congressman by your Zip Code and send a message (link to "WriteRep", the Congressional site).
Tip: Fax urgent letters instead of mailing them -- Congressional mail security screening can delay postal letters by weeks.
If you would like a reply, request it in the letter and include your street address.
When writing to a Senator or Representative other than your own, you will not get a reply unless you make it clear why they should reply; for example, if you represent an organization or company which has members or does business in their district.

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