Frequently Asked Questions

Pressure from constituents and key stakeholders provides a complementary approach to the efforts of larger lobbying operations. Unfortunately for the climate movement, the fossil fuel industry runs an exceptionally effective lobbying operation. Big advocacy organizations with paid lobbyists are a critical piece of the puzzle, but they can’t stand up to the fossil fuel industry alone. We are tasked with undoing a century of fossil fuel economic dependency and the politics associated with the extraction economy. For elected officials in many parts of the country, it feels risky to stand up to that system. Constituent support gives members of Congress the political cover they need, and in the absence of that support, there’s much less incentive to defy the status quo.

When the kind of landmark legislation we’re hoping for seems impossibly out of reach, it can feel frustrating to the point of giving up. But the truth is that we only get significant bills signed into law about once every session of Congress—and huge, monumental laws like the Affordable Care Act even less often than that.

That being said, we won a huge legislative victory in 2022. The Inflation Reduction Act is the kind of once-in-a-generation landmark bill that will hopefully change the course of U.S. carbon emissions in a really significant way. This doesn’t absolve Congress of its responsibility to do more, since we’re still not quite on track to meet our emissions reduction targets, and we need to strengthen environmental justice laws. But it’s a huge accomplishment for advocates.

We can’t expect to see wins like the IRA happen every time we advocate to Congress. In legislative advocacy, expectation-setting is important. But even when it seems like Congress is hopelessly stalled in passing impactful new climate legislation, the climate champions in the House and Senate are consistently showing up to play defense. It might not seem like it, but members of Congress are actually voting all the time. They pass smaller standalone bills, vote to confirm the president’s political appointees, and reauthorize existing legislative packages. This last category is especially important, because it’s a common mechanism for “sneaking” in extra provisions that probably couldn’t pass if they were their own bill. Some examples are the yearly budget resolutions and appropriations bills, the National Defense Authorization Act, the farm bill, and the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act. Members of Congress renegotiate the terms of these recurring bills and are free to add myriad amendments of questionable relevance to the legislation’s core purpose.

Having pro-climate-action majorities present in the chambers means climate obstructionists can’t add environmentally harmful provisions to these business-as-usual legislative packages. They can’t confirm anti-climate judges and political appointees, and they can’t use the appropriations bills to strip our existing critical climate policies of their funding. And in cases where the filibuster doesn’t apply, a pro-climate-action majority means the opposition can’t block progress.

We have tangible evidence of this under-the-radar legislating at work. Check out the League of Conservation Voters’ 2021 Scorecard to see a comprehensive list of environmental votes that were taken that year and how every member of Congress voted.

While there are certainly political and financial incentives to remaining in the “climate obstructionist” camp, your job as a constituent is to make holding that position as difficult as possible. Constituent attitudes are used to justify the relative prioritization of different policy issues. It’s easy for an elected official to abdicate responsibility on climate if they can honestly say “most of my constituents don’t believe climate change is a problem,” or “I never hear from my constituents on that issue.” By contributing to a growing chorus of support for climate action in your district, you’re applying much-needed pressure to anyone who denies climate science and fails to take action on your behalf.

You can think of support on climate issues as a spectrum rather than a binary. At the federal level, LCV scores are a great baseline marker of support because they’re a reflection of “yes” votes on climate bills. The scores don’t reflect whether they’re cosponsoring or introducing new climate bills, speaking out in the media on climate, prioritizing climate in negotiations with their colleagues, etc. The reality is that there’s almost always more they could and should be doing!

Hearing from constituents also provides justification for, and validation of, keeping up their climate work. Elected officials can’t go to bat for climate policies and put their reputation on the line without the support of their constituents. Even U.S. senators need to be able to say, “I hear all day long from my constituents on this; it’s critically important to them.”

A city councilor who joined our Hour of Action put it well: “​​The additional push is so, so critical. I get pushed in so many directions by my constituents—I wish more people were pushing on climate so that I could focus all my time and energy there and could know that doing so was in total alignment with what folks I represent were demanding. We need politicians going way beyond voting the right way. We need them working really hard to introduce and lead on climate policies constantly.”

Cosponsorship is a great place to start, but it’s by no means all they can do! If your member of Congress is doing their job, they likely cosponsor a big smattering of bills. It’s important that they know which legislation matters most to their constituents, since they have limited time and resources with which to aggressively pursue passage of a specific bill. Ask them to do whatever it takes to get the bill over the finish line. Some concrete examples: recruit more cosponsors to the legislation or make public statements (like Tweets) about it. Ask them if there’s anything you can do to help them go above and beyond, especially given that you’re part of a climate advocacy community like Climate Changemakers.

Even bills that progress out of their committees are rarely put up for a vote before the entire chamber. Increasingly, Congress passes fewer, much larger bills that can include dozens of seemingly unrelated pieces of legislation. The more cosponsors that sign onto a bill, the greater the bill’s visibility. A critical mass of cosponsors can help the original sponsor make a case to House or Senate leadership that they should bring the bill to the floor for a vote. Typically, House and Senate leadership do not like to hold votes they think will fail, so showing a unified front of support is critical. Bonus points if the cosponsors are bipartisan.

Constituent meetings achieve 3 things:

1. Influencing members of Congress: This is the most obvious goal of a constituent meeting. By speaking with a staffer, you are centering a policy issue that might not have been on their radar. At the very least, you have communicated that constituents care enough about the policy to schedule a meeting; in the best case, they are now considering cosponsorships or communications strategies they had not previously considered. Many Climate Changemakers constituent meetings result in new cosponsorships!

2. Gathering intel that helps us maximize our impact: Meeting with staffers gives you the ability to ask questions about how the member is approaching a specific policy issue, which climate issues they’re currently prioritizing, and where they might need help mobilizing constituent support. This can give us fodder for conversations with other members and make us more strategic advocates.

3. Establishing trust and rapport: This goal is in service of the previous two goals, but it’s a unique benefit of having a two-way conversation with the appropriate staffer as opposed to contacting the office via phone or email. The staffer might be more inclined to share information that informs our advocacy strategy. We also want to instill a positive view of Climate Changemakers, so they may be inclined to mention us to others or proactively reach out for help. Building this relationship also provides a direct line of contact for discussing future priorities.

When your meeting is over, follow up with the staffer and attach any additional materials you wanted to share. On our 📖 Issue Briefings page, you can find downloadable one-pagers for many of the policy priorities.

Now, your job is to keep up a semi-regular cadence with this staffer. Feel free to use them as a resource to ask questions about the member’s support for certain legislation or the ongoing state of negotiations. Treat this relationship like you would any other professional relationship. While you should stay in touch, don’t inundate them with emails and give them adequate time to respond (you wouldn’t believe how busy some congressional staffers are!).

A suggested meeting cadence with the same staffer is once per quarter. Any more frequently than that, you run the risk that the staffer just hasn’t had the bandwidth to raise your issue with the lawmaker, and you won’t have much to gain from meeting again so soon. An exception would be if you hear that the bill in question is suddenly moving toward passage in the House or Senate (or adoption by a committee), and your member of Congress is going to have to vote on it imminently.

We’re happy to answer all your specific questions about follow up and meeting cadence. Email advocacy@climatechangemakers.org.

No, it’s not advisable to spend time contacting elected officials if you don’t live in the state/district. It can feel frustrating when national attention is focused on a small handful of lawmakers who seem to hold the key to passing significant legislation. But unfortunately, there isn’t much incentive for elected officials to take note of your concerns at all if they aren’t responsible for representing you. Legislative staff are already inundated with constituent correspondence—they won’t read more mail or take more calls than they’re obligated to. At worst, a flood of non-constituent outreach can backfire, causing lawmakers to become resentful of the outside pressure on a particular issue.

If you want to target an elected official who doesn’t represent you, there are two approaches you can take. If you know any constituents in that district, encourage them to make the call. If you don’t know them personally, you can always ask them on social media for added visibility. You can also urge your elected officials to prioritize your policy issue in negotiations with lawmakers who are still on the fence.

If you’re in for the long play, the best strategy is to vote the obstructionist out of office. This is an instance where it doesn’t matter where you live or vote—you can work hard on an out-of-district/state race with huge consequences for climate action. Climate Changemakers is committed to protecting pro-climate action voting majorities in Congress. Each election year, we select one chamber of Congress as our focus and identify key races in each of six regions of the U.S. We form teams for key climate candidates whose win/loss could impact a pro-climate action voting majority, and these teams run weekly Hours of Action to organize support for their climate candidate. You can support a race in your region, or the race to unseat an obstructionist.

YES! Elected officials represent everyone who lives in their district regardless of whether they’re eligible to vote. As long as you are a constituent, you are just as entitled to voicing your opinion as a voter.

The same is true if you’re a U.S. citizen living abroad — contact the elected officials for whichever district you vote absentee in.

As we advocate for climate policy priorities that meet our criteria, we will partner with a range of organizations to advocate collaboratively, including organizations that may have a partisan lean that deviates from our nonpartisan ethos.