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02.11

IEEE-USA Wants You to Welcome the New Congress

Congress welcomes 110 new members this year.  A few of them have backgrounds in engineering or the sciences.  But most don’t.  Most of the new legislators have backgrounds in business, politics or law, but not science, math or engineering. 

This is a problem, as few of the new legislators know much about the engineering community or engineers.  They don’t know who you are, what you do for a living or, worst of all, how what they are doing in Washington will affect you.  But with or without this information, they will be voting on legislation that directly impacts you and your career. 

How can legislators learn about the engineering community in their districts?  IEEE members can tell them.

Every member of Congress has at least one local office in their district. These home offices are used to facilitate communication between each legislator and their constituents.  In other words, the offices help members of Congress communicate with their voters.  Like, for instance, you.

IEEE-USA is looking for volunteers to visit your new Legislator’s local office to discuss IEEE and engineering.  Any IEEE member in a Congressional district that just elected a new Representative is welcome, and qualified, to volunteer.  All you have to do is be willing to visit your Representative’s local office and talk about your job, career and concerns.  IEEE-USA will help schedule the meeting, provide supporting materials and conduct a pre-meeting briefing, if necessary.

At this point, we are focusing on just the new members of the House of Representatives.  Since their districts are usually smaller than entire states, Representatives are easier to reach.  Our goal would be to meet with your Representative in person.  The legislative calendar adopted by the House of Representatives has legislators home for one week per month, on average, so we should have plenty of opportunities.  However, if this can’t be arranged, legislative offices are staffed by constituent relations experts whose primary job is to listen to voters and then report back to their boss.  So even if you can’t meet with your Representative, you can still communicate with them through their staff.

You will be accomplishing four goals with your meetings. 

First, you will be introducing your legislators to IEEE and telling them a little bit about what IEEE is and what it does.

Second, you will be introducing your legislator to the local engineering community.  They will want to know the types of engineering jobs that are done in your community and the strength of the local engineering economy. 

Third, you can introduce your legislator to public policy issues that you are concerned about.  IEEE-USA will be able to provide you with background materials on these issues.

 Fourth, you will be providing your Representative with a point of contact within the engineering community. 

If you are interested in participating in a local meeting with your Representative, please contact IEEE-USA staffer Russ Harrison at r.t.harrison@ieee.org or your local IEEE section.

Russell T. Harrison, CAE, is IEEE-USA's legislative representative for grassroots activities.

Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.