How ToSet Up a Capitol Hill Meeting
- Identify your Members of Congress
Go here to locate your Member of Congress by entering your zip code. You can find your Senators and their contact information here. You can also view your legislators’ biography and further information on their websites. Gather information on what committees your legislators serve on and where they stand on particular issues.
- Determine if your legislators are already a cosponsor of Pharmacy Provider Status Legislation
You can find out whether your legislator supports provider status for pharmacists for your House Member here and your Senators here.
- Congress will not be in session when you are in DC. Identify the appropriate staff that you should meet with instead.
Once you have the office phone number, call to identify the specific staff, the aide who handles healthcare issues, with whom you should meet with. When you call the office, be sure to highlight the relationship you have with the legislator’s district or state such as emphasizing you residence or school location as it relates to the Member of Congress. Also, be sure to get the email address of the appropriate staff and then send them an email to request a meeting. A sample email:
“Hello, my name is *** and I am a pharmacist (or student pharmacist) from (your city, state). I am going to be in Washington, DC on August 3rd and am interested in setting up a meeting with you while I am in town to discuss issues that are important to pharmacists and the patients we serve. I will be available in the afternoon, can you please let me know what time would work best for you to meet with me that day?
Thank you in advance for your time, I look forward to meeting with you.”
***Always identify yourself as where you are registered to vote.***
- Follow-Up
The process of setting up a meeting with Capitol Hill staff and finalizing it may take up to a couple of weeks as Congressional staff are very busy and get A LOT of emails. Be patient and politely follow-up with them to ensure you have a specific time to meet with someone on the legislators’ staff. An example of an email is:
“Hello, my name is *** and I recently contacted you about setting up a meeting when I am in DC on August 3rd and I just wanted to follow up with that request. Please let me know if you will have some availability in your schedule that afternoon to meet with me about issues that are important to me as a practicing pharmacist in the Congressman/woman’s district/Senator’s state. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.”