Federal legislation · 2016

Closing the loop before a House vote

Constituent letters, nonprofit and faith-community supporters, and a direct contact with a Georgia House member immediately before the vote on a federal food-security bill.

The situation

A federal food-security bill faced limited awareness and unanswered questions among congressional offices and potential supporters. The national effort needed Georgians willing to speak up, and it needed accurate answers, quickly, whenever an office raised a concern.

What we did

Worked with the national partners on constituent letters from Georgia.
Reached nonprofit and faith-community supporters across the state.
Talked with congressional staff and logged every question an office raised, along with the information needed to answer it, in field reports.
When the national team asked for urgent help before the House vote, used established relationships to follow up immediately.

What it produced

Direct contact with a Georgia House member on July 6, immediately before the vote.
A 369 to 53 House vote in favor, including that member and another Georgia House member, and the bill became law on July 20.
A running log of every question congressional offices raised, with the information needed to answer each one.

This was a national effort, and the credit for the outcome belongs to it. Our part was the Georgia contact and the timely follow-up.

What local people added

Letters and supporter contact showed congressional offices that people at home cared about the bill. The question log turned scattered doubts into a list someone could answer. And relationships built before the crunch meant one call could reach an office in the last hours, when there was no time to introduce ourselves.

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