Government Contacts
(see Communicating with Elected Officials below) FEDERAL President George W. Bush
http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/
president@whitehouse.gov
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
(202) 456-1414 Senator Chuck Hagel
http://hagel.senate.gov/
chuck_hagel@hagel.senate.gov 248 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4224
Fax: (202) 224-5213 Omaha Office
11301 Davenport Street, Suite 2
Omaha, NE 68154
Phone: (402) 758-8981
Fax: (402) 758-9165
Lincoln Office
294 Federal Building
100 Centennial Mall North
Lincoln, NE 68508
Phone: (402) 476-1400
Fax: (402) 476-0605
Kearney Office
4111 Fourth Avenue, Suite 26
Kearney, NE 68845
Phone: (308) 236-7602
Fax: (308) 236-7473
Scottsbluff Office
115 Railway Street, Suite C102
Scottsbluff, NE 69361
Phone: (308) 632-6032
Fax: (308) 632-6295
Senator Ben Nelson
http://bennelson.senate.gov/
ben_nelson@bennelson.senate.gov 720 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-6551
Fax: (202) 228-0012 Omaha
7602 Pacific St. Ste 205
Omaha, NE 68114
Phone: (402) 391-3411
Fax: (402) 391-4725 Lincoln
Federal Bldg, Rm 287
100 Centennial Mall North
Lincoln, NE 68508
Phone: (402) 441-4600
Fax: (402) 476-8753 Western Nebraska
(Chadron)
Phone: (308) 430-0587
(Scottsbluff)
Phone: (308) 631-7614 1st District Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
http://www.house.gov/fortenberry 1517 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone:(202) 225-4806
Lincoln Office
301 South 13th Street
Suite – 100
Lincoln, NE 68508
Phone:(402) 438-1598
Fremont Office
629 North Broad Street
Fremont, NE 68025 2nd District Congressman Lee Terry
http://leeterry.house.gov/
talk2lee@mail.house.gov 1524 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4155
Fax: (202) 226-5452
Omaha District Office:
11640 Arbor Street
Omaha, NE 68144
Phone: (402) 397-9944
Fax: (402) 397-8787 3rd District Congressman Tom Osborne
http://www.house.gov/osborne/
http://www.house.gov/writerep/ 507 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-6435
Fax: (202) 226-1385 Grand Island District Office Address:
819 Diers Avenue Suite 3
Grand Island, NE 68803
Phone: 308-381-5555
Fax: 308-381-5557 Kearney District Office
212 Communications Building
1910 University Drive
Kearney, NE 68849
Phone: 308-236-1330
Fax: 308-236-1331 McCook District Office
203 W. 1st St.
McCook, NE 69001
Phone: 308-345-3328
Fax: 308-345-3329 Scottsbluff District Office
21 East 20th Street
Scottsbluff, NE 69361
Phone: 308-632-3333
Fax: 308-635-3049 STATE Governor Dave Heineman
http://gov.nol.org/
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 94848
Lincoln, NE 68509-4848
(402) 471-2244
State Senators of the Nebraska Legislature
http://www.unicam.state.ne.us/senators/senators.htm
Mailing Address for Senators:
Senator __________ [Fill in Senator's name]
District __________ [Fill in Senator's district]
State Capitol
P.O. Box 94604
Lincoln, NE 68509-4604 COMMUNICATING WITH ELECTED OFFICIALS
by Jeff Poley, ProRail Nebraska Government Relations Here are a few suggestions for communicating with elected officials.
Most elected officials I know may say that they seek your advice about issues but most of them don't really want your advice, they want to know what YOU are thinking. You are a constituent of the elected official and most if them want to know what you think. The important thing is to let your representative know your position on an issue in clear terms.
The following discussion refers to Members of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate but could apply to all elected officials.
I have found that calling the offices of Members of the House and Senate is an effective way to communicate. When you call, you will get the office receptionist. Ask to talk to the congressional aid that is assigned to the issue that interests you. Often you will get voice mail. If you do, always leave a short message with your name and telephone number and be sure to say that you are a constituent. Also leave a very short message indicating your position on the issue. You can say, " I support passage of House Bill such-and-such and I'd like a moment of your time." Even if the call is not returned, your position on the issue will be counted. IF YOU LEAVE A MESSAGE, KEEP IT SHORT.
E-mail is not a bad way to communicate but I've been told that some members of Congress get 2 to 3 thousand e-mail messages a day. Obviously, the Member is not going to read all of these. Most e-mail messages will not be answered. Some offices have staff filter the messages for yea or nay content, some offices sample e-mail, some offices have very elaborate soft-ware that does content analysis of e-mail. All of it is counted and the office will try to determine the intentions of the e-mail author. The effectiveness of e-mail has been reduced considerably due to the practice of some advocacy groups to use "spam". (Some Members such as Doug Bereuter do not have public e-mail accounts for this reason). My suggestion is to visit with staff members and get THEIR e-mail addresses. Staffers do not get huge volumes of e-mail and they will often read and respond to your e-mail. IF YOU SEND E-MAIL, KEEP THE MESSAGE SHORT.
A typed letter is a very good way to communicate with Members. I have been told that all (or almost all) mailed correspondence gets opened, read and counted by a staff member. If the correspondence is particularly compelling (or is from a large donor), the letter will be forwarded to the attention of the Member. When you write, only write about one subject, don't include a wish list. If you want to address more than one subject, write separate letters. KEEP THE LETTER SHORT. The FAX is a legitimate way to communicate with elected officials particularly in light of the events of September 11th. The same rules would apply to sending a FAX as would apply to sending a letter...keep the FAX short, limit to a single subject and be respectful. A public official's FAX number may not be published so you may need to call his or her office to get the information.
There's nothing wrong with sending a form letter that's prepared by an organization. Labor unions, AARP and the National Rifle Association are famous for these. The Member's staff will know the correspondence is a form letter but they're interested in getting a count. They do not, however, like getting a whole lot of correspondence from the same source. Believe it or not, some organizations batch thousands of post cards and send them from the same drop. This, I have been told, is not effective.
Sending more than one piece of correspondence to a Member on the same subject is usually not effective. The point is not to send a large volume of communication to a member, the point is for the Member to receive correspondence from a large number of constituents.
So here's the bottom line. If your correspondence is short, simple, clear and respectful, your message will be counted.
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