All letters to congress go through a special place where the corners are cut and then searched for Anthrax or similar agents.

This adds an additional 1 or 2 weeks to reach the intended person. 

The NASPCC PR person feels that both a letter and an email will insure that they get something from you.

As Betty Gallo has found out, THESE BILLS ARE STILL IN COMMITTEE AND NEED COSPONSORS, hence the wording in the first sentence of the Letter directed to your Representative or Senator.

Go to http://www.contactingthecongress.org/, the website for Contacting the Congress, Online Directory for the 110th Congress.

You will need to enter your zip + 4. (Congressional districts do not follow zip code lines, so zip by itself won’t work).

Click on the Representative’s or Senator’s email address and following the instructions – each Congressperson’s website and instructions to submit an email is different, so read each carefully!

Make sure the letter is addressed correctly, as well as updated with your own personal information. See attached for suggested draft letter.

Since you can’t sign an email, I would place your name and address below the sincerely yours in the email before pressing “Send”

It appears that many Senators and Representatives folk have gone to a web-based form of email submissions which makes sending a regular email difficult.

If you choose to follow their path for emailing, you will need to re-type (or copy and paste) the letter in the appropriate space they provide.

The letter is written in such a way so you can tailor it to your Senator or House Representative so put the proper name at the top of the letter and again in the greeting.

In the first paragraph, you will want to make sure that the bill # (HR2131 or S1275) and person who introduced the bill are from the same branch of Congress that match the person to whom you are sending it. In other words, if you are sending it to a Senator, make sure the bill number is listed as S1275 and that you mention Sen. Charles Schumer as the person who introduced it, and vice versa if you are contacting a Representative.

Again in the last paragraph, you would want to make sure that the branch (HR or S) are the same as in Paragraph 1 of the letter.

Complete the envelope, sign the letter and send it.