[tab name=’Guidelines’]
Guidelines : Letter to Official
Writing Letters to Public Officials
Guidelines and Alternate Phrases
- Identify your effectiveness by describing yourself as a voter, taxpayer, campaign contributor, senior executive of a large company, writer, or individual with other connections to make your voice heard.
- As the president of Melton Inc., I am concerned for the well-being of our 40,000 employees.
- As you may have read in my recent interview with the Boston Globe, I am opposed to….
- We became acquainted with your staff in our recent campaign work in Texas last fall.
- Address only one subject or issue in the letter.
- Identify the legislation by a bill number unless it has been widely publicized by a particular name.
- Describe the action you want and why.
- I encourage you to support this issue with your upcoming vote and in your campaign speeches. Passage of this bill will only lead to a….
- We would like to see you sponsor such a bill in order to….
- I urge you to vote for the proposed delay.
- Add weight–explain your expertise.
- I would like to include your comments in an upcoming speech I will be making to the Gippart Club on September 5.
- Our 28,000 employees and their families all over the U.S. are extremely concerned about the added burden this will place on their children’s financial future.
- As a personnel director who is well aware of various compensation packages offered by major corporations across the nation, I have seen the direct effects these incentives have on employees.
- My associates and I will be conducting a door-to-door campaign in the next two weeks informing our neighbors and friends about the upcoming legislation and the various positions their representatives hold. We want to include statements regarding your position. Will you clarify to us whether you are opposed to this bill?
- Ask for a reply if you want one.
- I’ll appreciate a response about your position on this important legislation.
- Would you let me know what you are doing to combat this waste of public funds?
- Will you clarify your position on this issue?
- How do you plan to vote on this bill?
- On the bottom of this letter, would you add your reply about how you plan to vote on this bill?
- Give praise, if due, for past action.
- I appreciate the support you have given to similar legislation, such as S123456.
- Thank you for your willingness to be vocal about the harmful effects of such chemical spills.
- Thank you for bringing this out of committee in a most timely way. If I can be of further help in getting it through the House, let me know.
- Thank you for your help. You can count on my support in your upcoming bid for re-election.
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[tab name=’Example 1′]
Example 1: Sample of official letters
Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State Zip
Date
Addressee
Address
City, State Zip
Dear Representative Massey:
As a long-term campaign supporter and frequent contributor, I am appalled by the recent legislative (HR3980) push to give members of Congress, federal judges, and high-level managers a salary increase. At a time when we are trying to balance the budget–and having little success–the 40 percent increase strikes me as ludicrous.
We believe congressional pay raises should be contingent on actions to reduce the federal deficit. As chief executive officer of my corporation, I believe pay raises for my employees should be based on employee performance. The same should be true of government; Americans have a right to expect the same criterion–performance–for their elected representatives. Our chronic budget deficits are clear indications that Congress is not doing its job in this regard.
I urge you to vote against this pay increase. Would you please release a statement to the press about where you stand on this issue? Our 8,500 employees want to see if Congress works under the same rules and premises of performance as private-sector employees do.
Respectfully yours,
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[tab name=’Example 2′]
Example 2: Official letter example
Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State Zip
Date
Addressee
Address
City, State Zip
The Honorable Senator Long:
On July 2, Senator Charles E. Beasley introduced S1234 known as the Conservation Reform Act of 19–. This bill reforms the Residential Conservation Service program and repeals the Commercial and Apartment Conservation Service program.
I ask you give consideration to co-sponsoring this bill. Your support will be of great benefit to your constituents back home and particularly to the employees of my company.
Implementation of the RCS program has not accomplished the original intent, and the enormous expenses utilities have incurred gearing up for the program are being paid by users of electricity.
I have enclosed a copy of a letter to the editor, published in the Barton Gazette, expressing these same views. Thank you for the help and leadership you can give the many of us concerned with this vital issue.
Yours truly,
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[tab name=’Example 3′]
Example 3: Public official letters
Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State Zip
Date
Addressee
Address
City, State Zip
Dear Senator Jennings:
I am one of 800 small business owners in western Connecticut concerned about an increase in the minimum wage. SB1147 proposes a $2.25 hourly increase that would break the back of many small businesses.
My ice cream stands in Westchester and Cobb counties could no longer afford to stay open if we had to pay our employees the proposed increase. Although the bill intends to give low-wage workers more money, it would result in massive job loss. The costs truly seem to outweigh the benefits.
On Friday, September 30, I am bringing the issue before the members of the New England Small Business Council at their annual meeting. Can I have a statement of your position on the issue to present to them?
Sincerely,
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[tab name=’Example 4′]
Example 4: Letter to Official
Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State Zip
Date
Addressee
Address
City, State Zip
Dear Representative Williams:
As owner of the downtown Boston Urban Theater Company, I want to encourage you to support HB1158 to continue the funding of the Humanities Foundation. I am just one of the 120 theater owners in the state who benefit from the work the Humanities Foundation does—in fact, we couldn’t survive without it.
Despite the rhetoric I’ve heard from representatives Pace and Davidson, the Humanities Foundation is not a radical organization interested in supporting explicit or tasteless displays of art. Our theater won a Boston Theater Critics Best Performance Award this summer for our production of Sing Monkey Sing. We could not have put on the production, which entertained and educated over 30,000 Bostonians, without a grant from the Humanities Foundation.
I appreciate your endorsement of the arts in Massachusetts in past years. I hope, for the sake of my employees, my fellow theater owners, and the people of the state, we can count on your support again.
Sincerely,
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[tab name=’Example 5′]
Example 5: Examples of official letters
Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State Zip
Date
Addressee
Address
City, State Zip
Dear Governor Kipling:
As president of the Higher Education Employees of Indiana, I write to you on behalf of our 12,800 members. We are concerned about the budget cuts for the state’s institutions of higher education proposed in SB98-218.
If you do not veto SB98-218, the students of Indiana stand to lose the world class education they now receive. We estimate universities will have to lay off some 2,000 full-time faculty members, increasing class size and decreasing the quality of instruction. Without scholarship money we will lose top candidates to other states or private universities. Libraries and laboratories already strained to capacity will have to scale back services or, perhaps, shut down entirely.
The passage of SB98-218 would be catastrophic for higher education employees, our students, and the future of Indiana. Please, let’s not chase our best and brightest out of the state.
We hope we have your support. Could you send a statement to the Higher Education Employees of Indiana explaining your position on this issue? We would like to publish it in our June newsletter.
Sincerely,
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