citizen engagement

When I talk to citizens and grassroots advocates, one of the biggest complaints they have is that they feel like they have few avenues to participate in committee processes on the Hill. Congressman John Shimkus (R-IL), however, recently gave his constituents a unique opportunity to participate in a House Energy and Environment Subcommittee hearing.

Our friends over at the American Psychological Association recently brought to our attention a publication created by their affiliate, the California Psychological Association, entitled 'A Legislator's Guide: Communicating with Distressed Constituents.' (PDF-418 KB) The document was authored by clinical psychologist Sandra R. Harris, Ph.D. and was originally created and distributed to members of the California State Legislature. The information that it provides, however, translates well to the challenges Members of Congress and congressional staff face at the federal level when assisting constituents with casework requests, taking constituent comments over the phone, or answering constituent letters or emails.

Website Grades Were Sent to Offices Today

This afternoon, we sent e-mails to Chiefs of Staff and Staff Directors notifying them of their office's website grade in the 111th Congress evaluations. Don't worry — these grades are confidential and are not provided to anyone but the office itself.

Naturally, we've been fielding numerous calls and e-mails from staff all over the Hill. Some are pleasantly surprised by their performance — others not so much.

But no matter where you fall on the grade spectrum, we have some good news for everyone:

1. There is plenty of time to improve your site before the 112th Congress evaluations.
2. Anyone, and we mean ANYONE, can win a Mouse Award by following the lead of the best sites.
3. And, for those offices wanting to know more than their overall score, you can purchase detailed Website Report Cards that provide grades for each of the major categories that sites were evaluated on.

We hope that you receive this information in the spirit it's given. Our mission is to help you communicate more effectively online. Just don't shoot the messenger.

After much eager anticipation and nervous worry from congressional offices, CMF — through its Partnership For A More Perfect Union — today announced the best Web sites on Capitol Hill.

The cornerstone of our democracy is a Congress elected by and accountable to the people. Improving and enriching the relationship between them is essential to forming a more perfect union. And as any relationship expert will tell you, communication is key.

For town hall meetings to be effective and deliberative - defined as the discussion and consideration of all sides of an issue - citizens need to be able to hear each other and the Member. Likewise, Members of Congress need the opportunity to explain their own policy positions in a face-to-face venue and to hear feedback from as broad and representative a group of their constituents as possible.

Since the release of our Recommendations for Improving the Democratic Dialogue in 2008, we've been working to bring about a dramatic change in the way communications are transmitted to and from congressional offices.

CMF partnered with AmericaSpeaks to showcase a model that Members can utilize to conduct large-scale, deliberative discussions with constituents that promote a meaningful dialogue.

Download the slides from the congressional briefing:  as-cmf-town-hall-slides.pdf  (1.07 MB)

Download the audio from the Webinar.

This report summarizes the findings and recommendations from a study of 21 online town hall meetings between Members of Congress and their constituents which were facilitated by the Congressional Management Foundation and our academic research partners.

The report was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and contributions from Harvard's Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation.

Online-Town-Hall-Meetings.pdf 1 Mb

Key Findings:

• Trust in the Member of Congress increased 14%.
• Participants were more likely than non-participants to describe the Member of Congress as "accessible," "fair," and "compassionate."
• When asked whether the participants trusted how the Member of Congress handled the issue discussed ("immigration," not exactly a softball topic), 58% "approved" after the session, compared to 20% before the session.
• These sessions were more likely than traditional venues to attract people from demographics not traditionally engaged in politics and people frustrated with the political system.
• 95% of participants agreed that such sessions are "very valuable to our democracy" and that they would be interested in doing similar online sessions for other issues.
• Participation in the town hall increased citizen engagement in politics. Not only were they more likely to vote and follow elections in the news, they were more likely to try and persuade others to vote.

In 2008, after nearly 10 years of research, outreach, and study of the communications between citizens and Congress, CMF released recommendations for all stakeholders and suggested improvements to the structure and processes for managing congressional communications.

CWC_RecommendationsReport.pdf 3.50 Mb

Highlights include:

• Discussion of the challenges citizens, Members of Congress, and grassroots advocates face which threaten the effective exchange of ideas;
• Details about the processes used to facilitate electronic communications between citizens and their representatives in Congress;
• Recommendations to each stakeholder group – including citizens, grassroots advocates, Congress, and the vendors that provide services to each group – for changing their practices to help improve the democratic dialogue;
• Presentation of a new model for these communications which would ease administrative burden, improve communication, and help facilitate more meaningful dialogue about public policy.