Letter To Legislator Template: Fill & Download for Free

The first thing you should understand before reading through this process is that Members of Congress receive too much mail for anybody to expect them to read every bit of it. Between posted mail, email, and faxes, a typical Congressional can receive several hundred pieces of correspondence in a day - more if there's a particularly contentious issue under debate.The process here is the result of how staff try to manage this inflow.Once the correspondence arrives in the office, it is read by a staffer known as a Legislative Correspondent. Their job is, basically, to sort the mail and immediately decide two things:Is this casework (eg, the constituent is writing to me about a problem with a government entity)?If it's not casework, is this something we already have a response for (eg, the constituent is writing about a bill or policy issue the Congressman and staff have addressed previously)?If it's determined to be casework, it will likely be referred to staffers who work in the Congressman's office in the State/District for action. You'll get a cover letter letting you know about the referral, and then will work directly with a caseworker.If it's not casework, but is an issue that the Member of Congress has addressed before (either through other letters received, public statements, etc.) then the LC will likely have a template response ready that can be modified to the particular criteria of the letter.If the letter addresses an issue that doesn't have a template response, then the LC will refer it to one of the Congressman's policy staffers, known as Legislative Assistants. They can then advise whether it's something they've come across in other work, or if it needs more attention.From here, the LA and LC might work together on drafting a reply (in some offices it's the LA's job, in others the LC takes the information the LA pulled together). If it's a significant enough policy issue, it might be brought to the attention of the Chief of Staff.The draft will then be reviewed by at least one senior member of the Congressman's staff for consistency with other statements and general proofreading before being approved for the Congressman's signature and transmission. Although every Member of Congress has an electronic signature that staff can use for this purpose, many like to sign constituent mail personally.As I've said, the volume of mail is too large to read each letter. However, many Members of Congress I've worked with like to receive a summary of the issues that are being presented by constituents. This is developed by the LC, based on the topics they've flagged while sorting the mail. Some Congressmen go further and ask to be given a sample of constituent letters to read personally (and since everything is digitised these days, it's not hard to pull them up), but it isn't universal.In all of this, your name and whatever details you provided about yourself are entered into the office's constituent database for future reference for any number of purposes (eg, mailing lists, notices of town halls, additional correspondence based on the issues you've written in about, etc.).

This question always reminds me of the scene in Monty Python’s “The life of Brian”. The Jewish insurgent raves at the unfairness of the Romans and asks “What have the Romans ever done for us?” and, much to his chagrin, is instantly faced by a litany of benefits the Romans had brought.The same is the case with the much maligned EU that, particularly in the UK and the US has always been a target of fake news. For a hugely entertaining debunker of the most outrageous stories, see Euromyths, My favourite is the one about the coffins.Anyway, let’s start with the real news. I will start by repeating the obvious that people younger than me have come to view as a right, but Brexit is reminding us is anything but. Moving, settling and working anywhere in the EU with minimum fuss. I am old enough that I remember what it was like to require visas to travel around, and then work permits etc etc etc. It was a huge waste of time and effort. And cost money too. And it goes for your pet too: Travelling with petsSo [rubs hands], where to go from here?Let’s start with the newest development:MEPs cap prices of calls within EU and approve emergency alert system | News | European Parliament. The new legislation has made international calls affordable to all AND introduced an emergency system where if there is a major event all affected citizens will get a message informing them. E.g. a natural disaster, or a security alert. This goes on top of the hugely successful:Mobile roaming costs or “roam like at home” policy that allows EU citizens to use their devices with no international surcharges. It makes a huge difference in everyone’s pockets, as I discovered during a weekend in Switzerland. Just by opening our mobiles to look at Google maps, we paid a total of 80 Euro. Yes there is cheaper travel package offered, but I had forgotten people actually need them. Because EU, right?And while you are roaming you have at least some protection regarding your personal data. I know what a pain in the ass the GDPR laws are (oh, yes I do!!!) but at least it has made a lot of people aware of the safety shortcomings of their systems and the blatant and callous selling of personal data has been somewhat curtailed. Yes, a drop in the ocean but one has to start somewhere. Brought to you, by same old grey bureaucrats.: Reform of EU data protection rulesOn to more fun things:The ​Europass CV. 130 million people have created their CVs and motivation letters using this service, developed in Cedefop, an EU agency in my hometown Thessaloniki. It is an interactive on line template that helps you create your CV in a standard way to help you make your skills and qualifications clearly and easily understood in Europe and abroad. It’s been years since I last saw a non Europass template.One major reason is that students need them for applying for the Erasmus programmes to study outside your country of origin. Two million EU citizens have participated and their life has truly been changed. There is a rumor there are one million Erasmus babies. Well, these babies are a direct impact of the EU in people’s everyday life :)…On to more mundane stuff:Food labelling. If the EU had left it in the hands of big corp there would be little of value on the labels, just gibberish and advertisements. Believe me, I worked in the field and the things they try to get away with… It shocks me, for example, that in the EU there is in 99% of foods an obligation to put an expiration date, whereas in the US it is optional!!!???? What? How can you keep food indefinitely? And in any case the companies wanted the minimum fonts to be so small that only Superman would be able to read it. No, they didn’t get their way.Labelling is on top of the general food safety regulations, that these awful grey bureaucrats love to write in order to make big corp furious. As a guy from a multinational once told me “We [the big producers] are the only ones who know this stuff. Why you [civil servants] had to meddle, I don’t know. It’s costly, you know.” Yes, it’s costly because, according to EU law, before putting something on the market, companies need to prove it is safe. This is called the precautionary principle, i.e. better safe than sorry that applies to anything that has to do with human safety in the EU.So, because of this demand on the producer, if you catch three eyed fish it is up to you to prove its safe before marketing. The authority needs to have some legitimate fears/suspicions and it can ban you. It is not need to prove anything. The effect on the balance between companies and market authorities is evident in the case of smoking. It took ages to prove it was deadly. BTW same process, first prove then market, goes for any food additive, you might feel like adding. The certification procedure to get new additives approved is mind boggling. As it should be, it’s going into our food.And another thing. The EU demands that food is safe “from field to fork”. It is not allowed to produce sub-par products and then take “remedial action”. In other words, make sure there is no Salmonella in the chicken. Washing it with chlorine later is NOT acceptable in the EU.Moving on to product safety. CE marking CE marking is a certification mark that indicates conformity with health, safety, and environmental protection standards for products sold within the European Economic Area(EEA). Briefly, it assures the consumer that product is good enough to use. If a product does not have the mark you had better stay away from it for your own good. Chinese made toys are the first thing that comes to mind.I will stop here, because the list can go on and on and on. In a nutshell, the EU’s goal is to protect and serve its citizens. It has varying degrees of success, but even a small step in the right direction is good, and there have been cases where it has made huge leaps whereas others have been tied down by “market forces”.If you are interested:What Europe does for me

No.One of my mum’s favourite sayings is ‘don’t ask, don’t get’, and she’s been right on more than one occasion!Last year I booked return flights from London to Montreal, to visit a friend that had just moved there and make a trip by train to New York. When I got to Heathrow, my flight was delayed by 9 hours. Slightly annoying, but they gave me a £20 voucher for Pret-a-Manger and a $100 airline voucher, and I had several episodes of Mad Men to watch. I just bought loads of snacks, curled up under a blanket and pretended I was binge watching in bed.When I got back from the trip, I decided to send a letter of complaint to the airline, with my mum’s ‘don’t ask, don’t get’ policy in mind. I wasn’t expecting to get anywhere, but a template was available online which could be emailed directly to the airline, and it took me less than five minutes to sort.Two days later, I had an apology from the airline and the full cost of the flights refunded - all £500 of it! So I got to live on Rue St Denis for a week, hike up Mont Royal and chow down on stacks of poutine… FOR FREE!It turns out that some pretty strict EU legislation was put in place a few years ago about delayed flights and your right to claim. I’d recommend anyone checking it out, since it’s applicable to any flight you’ve experienced a delay of over 3 hours on, spanning back to 2010. In particular, get looking at it if you’re British, since we may lose our right to this EU perk, post-Brexit!You can read an FAQ about it here, as well as downloading templates for complaining: Flight delay compensation: get up to �510/person for free � MSEP.S. Montreal is beautiful!