How to Determine Your Legislative District
How to Find Your Legislator’s Email Address
How to Call Your Legislator on the Telephone
How to Set Up An Appointment with Your Legislator
What to Expect

There will be times when the Northwest Credit Union Association will ask you to contact your state or federal legislators about issues important to credit unions. Contacting your legislators isn't as intimidating as many believe. In fact, legislators are usually happy to hear from you.

This section is a step-by-step guide to contacting your lawmakers. 

Determine Your District

If you are unsure what district you are in, check your voter registration card, or use the following websites to look up your district: Oregon District Finder  Washington District Finder. (If the link returns more than one possible legislator, you’ll need to enter your zip+four information, which you can find using the US Postal Service zip+four look-up service.

Each resident of Oregon and Washington is represented in either Salem or Olympia, and in Washington, D.C. with two (state-wide) senators and one local representative.

Knowing your state and federal legislative district is important, because legislators most want to hear from the persons they represent. If you’re not from a legislator’s district, you’ll need to find another way to make a connection to the legislator. For example, you could tell the legislator that you have 2600 members in his or her district (using Project Zip Code to map your members), or you could tell the legislator that you have a branch in his or her district, or finally, the legislator may want to hear from you simply because you’re a subject matter expert on credit card fraud, or some other topic.

Contacting Your Legislator via Email

Email can be a convenient way for you to contact your legislator. In both states, many state legislators  have a laptop computer, and they often use floor session time to review constituent email. Because bills progress so quickly in Salem and Olympia, email is a good method of contacting your state legislator, as long as you clearly identify the issue you’re speaking to and your connection to the legislator (constituent, subject matter expert, etc.)

Emailing Oregon & Washington Legislators

Method #1: Use the “contact me” link provided on the legislator’s web site (you’ll receive a link to the legislator’s website if you search for your district as described above.)

Method #2: Go to the Oregon or Washington Legislative web page and look up your legislator by their name or district.

Method #3: Using your Credit Union Directory, find your legislator under the “Legislators” tab.

Method #4: You can also look up your district information and contact your legislators through CapWiz, the Association’s interactive grassroots tool. Generally, you’ll be provided with telephone numbers and a link to your legislators’ website, which will allow you to use the legislators’ “contact me” link.

Emailing Federal Legislators

Emailing federal legislators is often less successful than emailing legislators simply because of the overwhelming amount of email received by federal legislators, and because federal legislators have staff dedicated to major issue areas. Email is typically routed through the staff rather than being addressed directly by the legislator.

However, if you’d like to contact your legislator via e-mail, you can use either of the following methods:

Method #1: Go to the federal legislator’s web site and click on their “contact me” option. This will provide you with a form for contacting the legislator. It’s very important that you identify yourself as a constituent or create a connection when using these forms, as often correspondence received from persons who aren’t perceived to be constituents is ignored. You can find your federal legislator’s web site by searching for your legislators using the method described above (“Determine Your District”), or by going to www.House.gov or www.Senate.gov and using the dropdown menu to go directly to your legislator’s webpage.

Method #2: Using your Credit Union Directory, find your legislator under the “Legislators” tab.

Method #3: You can also look up your district information and contact your legislators through CapWiz, the Association’s interactive grassroots tool. You’ll find CapWiz in the Association’s website in the Advocacy section. Generally, you’ll be provided with telephone numbers and a link to your legislators website, which will allow you to use the legislators “contact me” link.

Contacting Your Legislator by Telephone

Calling Oregon & Washington Legislators

Method #1: Call your legislator’s office directly using their telephone number provided by using either the legislative look-up (described above in “Determine Your District”), by using CapWiz, by looking up your legislator on their legislative web site, or by using the telephone number found in your Credit Union Directory.
Oregon Legislative Website | Washington Legislative Website

Method #2: Call Washington’s legislative hotline at 1.800.562.6000 or Oregon’s legislative hotline at 1.800.332.2313. An operator will take your message and e-mail it to your legislator. This is often a useful method when you need to convey a simple message (“please vote for HB 2838”).

Calling Federal Legislators

Method #1: Call your legislator’s office directly using the telephone number provided on their website or by finding their number in your Credit Union Directory. You will likely be asked whether or not you’re a constituent and what your issue pertains to so that staff can route you to the legislative aide handling your policy question (usually the legislative aide specializing in financial institution issues).

Method #2: Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 1.202.224.3121. An operator will connect you with your representative or senator’s office (therefore it’s helpful if you know who you are trying to contact before calling).

How to Make Appointments with Your Legislators

Step #1: Determine who your legislators are (see above).

Step #2: Contact your legislator’s scheduler by calling the legislator’s office.

Step #3: Have the following information prepared and convey it to the legislator’s staff:

1. Your connection to the legislator (being a constituent is more likely to get you an appointment).
2. How many people will be attending the appointment.
3. The names of the persons attending the appointment.
4. The issues you’d like to discuss with the legislator (generally).

Step #4: Once the appointment is scheduled, be sure to give the legislator’s staff the name and (mobile) phone number of someone to contact in case the meeting is rescheduled or the legislator is running late. Remember that legislative meetings during session are often changed at the last minute, and lawmakers can be called away for a vote on short notice. Your lawmaker is not being rude by canceling or asking you to reschedule an appointment.

Step #5: Verify the location of your meeting. Depending on the number of people involved, you will either meet in the legislator’s office or in a larger meeting room. Be sure to confirm the location of the meeting with the lawmaker’s assistant or scheduler.

What to Expect

The most important thing for you to remember is that your legislators are regular people just like you. They will appreciate that you’ve taken the time to schedule a visit with them—there’s no reason you or anyone in your group should feel nervous or intimidated.

Your meeting will probably only last about 15 minutes. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for extraneous conversation; therefore it’s a good idea to rehearse your key points ahead of time. You can always get a list of current issues from the Northwest Credit Union Association to help you prepare for your meeting.

Be sure to bring plenty of business cards to your meeting, as your legislator may wish to follow-up with you on the issues you discuss.

Your meeting is an opportunity to establish contact with your legislator even if there are no pressing issues. Any time is an excellent time to educate your legislators about what makes credit unions special and important to your members—their constituents.

Just as important, your meeting is a chance to find out how you can help your lawmaker. Some lawmakers have bully pulpit issues, such as literacy or drug abuse prevention, that they would love to talk about at one of your upcoming chapter or board meetings, or they may be struggling with their position on an unrelated bill, so be sure to ask what they need help with—like any relationship, the one you build with your legislator goes both ways.

If you have any questions, please contact a member of the Northwest Credit Union Association's Legislative Affairs Department by dialing 1.800.995.9064 and choosing option #4.