Information for Users of Contacting the Congress

After operating for over 21 years (since March 12, 1995) and serving over 15 million visitors, I (Juan Cabanela) shut down the Contacting the Congress website on August 30, 2016. If you want to know why this website has shut down, click here. This page exists to help users looking for the contact information my Contacting the Congress site used to provide.

OK, What can I do if I want Contact Information on a Politican

While I am in NO WAY affiliated with VoteSmart.org, they are a one stop shop for information on contacting all politicians, not just your members of Congress. I suggest them if you want general contact information for a politician.

Who Represents Me in the U.S. Congress?

Every American citizen residing in a sate is represented by 1 Representative in the U.S. House of Representatives and 2 Senators in the U.S. Senate. Your Senators are determined by the state you live in and your Representative by the Congressional District you live in. If you reside in the United States but not a state (e.g. the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands), you are represented by a non-voting Delegate in the U.S. House of Representative.

Contacting the Congress allowed you to look up who represented you in the U.S. Congress based on your home address. Here are other resources allowing you to find the same information.

Who is on a Congressional Committee?

A congressional committee is a legislative sub-organization in the United States Congress that handles a specific duty (rather than the general duties of Congress). Committee membership enables members to develop specialized knowledge of the matters under their jurisdiction. - From Wikipedia

The Contacting the Congress directory kept track of who was on a Congressional Committee as well as the rank of the members of the Committee or Subcommittee. Here are some resources you can use to look up how to contact a particular congressional committee or who is on it:

The U.S. Congressional Committees page maintained by the Library of Congress provides a listing of Congressional Committees. Clicking those links will take you to official committee pages listing members and subcommittees.

Who is in the Congressional Staff?

The Contacting the Congress directory listed the chief of staff, communications directors, etc. for members of Congress.

The InsideGov Congressional Staff Directory allows you to identify Congressional Staff members.

The Sunlight Foundation has a website listing staff members, although it hasn't been updated since Sept. 2014.

Who is in the Congressional Leadership?

The Contacting the Congress directory had a page listing the Congressional leadership. Here is a resource providing a similar list.

The U.S. House of Representatives Leadership page hosted by the House of Representatives.

The U.S. Senate Leadership page hosted by the Senate.

Where can I look up the Current Congressional Schedule?

The Contacting the Congress website also used to provide a list of House and Senate Schedules. This was done by scanning the official schedules online. Here are those schedules:

Who are the Members of Congress on Social Networking?

One of the uncommon pieces of information Contacting the Congress used to track was Twitter pages for members of Congress. Others have done a better job of tracking social networking usage by members Congress. Here are some good resources for this information:

Although I have maintained an interest in pubic outreach, my job has never involved direct lobbying or contacting members of Congress. I am a college professor, teaching Physics and Astronomy. That is my job and I am very happy doing it. I kept Contacting the Congress going because it was rewarding to empower people to connect with their members of Congress and because I had a very generous congressional data provider, Congress Merge. When Mike Waters choose to retire and shut down Congress Merge in January 2016, I lost my primary up-to-date data source. It is a full time job to keep track of all the changes in Congressional contact information. I have found I simply do not have enough time to maintain this non-profit website on my own any more. And since I didn't want to provide an out-dated resource, I have chosen to shut the site down.

Contacting the Congress was NEVER a service of my employer (Minnesota State University Moorhead) and was always hosted on its own private server. As I have shutdown that server, I am placing this information page on my university account so that Contacting the Congress users are not left out in the cold. Minnesota State University Moorhead was not in any way responsible for maintaining Contacting the Congress or its shutdown.