AIAA members and their families should become active in informing their elected leaders about their concerns and interests. Particularly on controversial issues, this is the main way that legislators can gauge what is important to their constituents.

There are many reasons why people decide not to get involved in the process. It takes too much time out of already busy schedules. Or the belief that what they say won't matter to their Representative, that their opinion won't count because the "little guy" doesn't command enough attention in Washington.

Well I can tell you from my personal experience, arising from two years in D.C. as an AIAA Congressional Fellow, that most of the popular reasons listed above sound perfectly reasonable, but are generally wrong. And what a wasted opportunity it is!

Legislators welcome well thought out and informed views that help them understand their constituent's concerns. A large portion of every D.C. staff consists of Legislative Assistants (LAs), whose job it is to learn about and deal with constituent issues. Any smart legislator queries his staff regularly about what recurrent issues are getting the most mail. Recurrent issues voiced by constituents will often frame the legislative agenda for each member.

The best kept secret is how few persons are needed to make an issue seem large to a member. Since most people, even those who care greatly about an issue, rarely bother to express about their views, anytime a person actually takes the time to send in a reasonable viewpoint, it is safe to assume that there are others that also hold that view but did not bother to write in. The net result of this can be very interesting. For instance, if most of the members of the AIAA Houston section availed themselves of the opportunity to express their similar views on a subject, the amount of letter volume alone on that similar subject in a Representative's office would make it appear that a much larger number of their constituents share the concern. Such efforts can and do spark legislators to action. I have seen it happen.

So don't get discouraged about raising your voice. After all, they are representing YOU.

In the event that the above words have moved you to act, I offer a few hints about Congressional letter writing for your consideration.

1) Try to keep each letter situated on one main topic. There are practical reasons for this. Your letters are usually responded to by a single LA. All letters are distributed out to respective LAs by subject matter. So if you write a single letter describing your concerns on Medicare, the environment, space issues, and immigration, it will likely get answered by the LA dealing with whatever subject that you spent the most time writing about, or that you appeared to stress. But the other issues will sometimes not get seen by the appropriate LA. Also, it is easy to tally and remember concerns of writers who deal with a single topic per letter.

2) don't bother to write to any legislator except your own. By mutually agreed upon courtesy, any mail that comes from outside a Legislator's district is automatically forwarded to the appropriate legislator's district. Such forwarding generally happens before the letter is opened (They know who it goes to by town and zip code of constituent).

3) Include your name and address so that they can return a response to your letter, if you so desire. Including a phone number often will also allow them the option of phoning you with a response. The same applies for providing your E-mail address. You will note that the majority of members listed below have E-mail addresses for your convenience. This takes much of the drudgery out of registering your opinions.

4) don't overly worry if the responses that you receive from your legislator's office seem to be boilerplate or somewhat impersonal. Particularly if the issue is very common. Your opinion has been noted, and that's what is most important.

The following list contains pertinent information for each Texas Representative that is either Houston area or involved in space issues through their committee assignments. If you don't know who your Representative is, find out. The information is on your voter registration card. If you don't have one, then get one. The list order is by Congressional district.