Making the State Government Work For You

One of the big tricks for success in "the government game" is knowing how to get information in a timely fashion and knowing how to contact the people involved at the correct time. This is all about getting your voice heard and influencing a big, complicated, chaotic -- but very human -- process. Here's some of the resources I've found for making the system work for you and reflect your goals, not someone else's.

Contents:

How to Get Bill Info
What Contact Info is Available for Legislators?
Who are my Senators and Representatives?
The Office of Governor
Home Pages of Selected House Committees
Home Pages of Selected Senate Committees
Tracking Bills through the Legislature


How to Get Bill Info

The MN Legislature maintains online versions of all bills for viewing over the Web. If you go to http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us:81/SEARCH/BASIS/hstat/public/www/SF , select "House" or "Senate", and type in the bill number (e.g., "HF0537"), a copy of the bill will appear on your browser to be read online or printed out. There are also links for each bill to find authors, revision info, and current status of the bill.

You can also get copies of bills by calling the Chief Clerk of the House at 651-296-2314.

Note well: the online version of a bill and its related info will most likely NOT be the most current available! The "latest and greatest" version of these bills changes quickly from day to day when the committees are in session. Sometimes a printed copy with the most recent amendments is not even available to the public. At times, even the legislators don't know what's in the bills they're voting on, even if they sponsored it! (Gasp! -- it's true!!)

To find out more about how bills become laws and the details of the legislative process, see Tracking Bills through the Legislature. Very useful background info here!

Please stay in contact with the email "grapevine" to stay on top of the latest news.


What Contact Info is Available for Legislators?

I'm trying to post as much info about important legislators as I can get. It includes the email address (you can "click" right on their address to send email to them), a phone number of their office (all area code 651 at this time), and their office room number at the Capitol or the State Office Building. Notes about voting preferences, chairmanships, or other tidbits will be included as they turn up.

Warning! -- If you access the legislature's web pages, you may have been looking at old information, so double check your info. The web sites for the state government were totally redone (as of Jan '99) for the new session, so many of your "bookmarks" may not work anymore. I've tried to double check all the links here, but something may have slipped through the cracks.

The email addresses all start with the Senator's or Representative's name (so I won't repeat the name all the time). They all look like:
rep.firstname.lastname@house.leg.state.mn.us (for Representatives)
-- or --
sen.firstname.lastname@senate.leg.state.mn.us (for Senators).

Not every legislator reads their email personally, in which case it's probably read by office staff. A few legislators aren't wired for email at all -- I'll try to weed out those individuals as I receive that info. Full lists of these email addresses are on the web -- those web sites are noted below in the pages for the House and Senate committees. Also, according to WCCO news, legislators are apparently swamped by email traffic and their offices can barely handle it all. If you want to make an impact on them, letters and phone calls may make more of an impression.

If the legislator's office is in the Capital building, I'll precede the room number with "CAP". If they are in the State Office Building, I'll use "SOB" (no comment). If you are writing them a letter, the full address of their office would then be:
Rep. (or Sen.) Firstname Lastname
Room roomnumber
State Capitol
St. Paul, MN 55155.
-- or --
Rep. (or Sen.) Firstname Lastname
Room roomnumber
State Office Building
100 Constitution Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55155

There's a home page for the entire State Legislature that contains links to all sorts of info about legislators, the texts of bills, committee schedules, and so much more. It's worth browsing through here! The state government as a whole is also online.

The legislature also publishes a little "Members Directory" booklet that is a gold mine of contact and background information. You can obtain up to 5 copies by phoning 651-296-2146.

Write, phone or email these legislators frequently, so they can't ignore our voices. Better still, make an appointment and see them right at their office!

Help me keep this data accurate and up to date -- let me know of corrections as you find them!


Who are my Senators and Representatives?

If one of the Senators or Representatives you contact at any time are from your home district, tell them you are one of their constituents! Legislators listen more to your opinions when they have to earn your vote. Your voice means more to them then.

If you are uncertain who your elected officials are, the St. Paul Pioneer Press has a page that will help you find them (it's kinda slow and clunky, but useful). You can get the same info via their Law and Politics Page on the same site. You can also look up your representatives on an interactive map that lets you zoom in on your home district (I like this one myself).


The Office of Governor

The office of Governor has a web site at http://www.mainserver.state.mn.us/governor/ . Or email Governor Jesse Ventura at governor@state.mn.us. Phone numbers for his office are 651-296-3391, 1-800-657-3717 or 651-296-2089 for faxes. The office is in the Capitol Building, CAP-130.


Home Pages of Selected House Committees

The home page for the House is http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/. The home pages for the individual House Committees are a gold mine of info, including membership lists and member contact info, schedules of upcoming meetings (check these on Friday or Saturday for the upcoming week), bills being addressed, meeting minutes, etc. A full list of all the committees and their membership is available.

Daily Schedules and Weekly Schedules are online, but are subject to frequent changes.

Here's the home pages and contact info for the Committees involved with the bills we're tracking:

Health and Human Services Policy Committee, 296-9249, SOB 559. The health bills we're tracking start here.
Health and Human Services Finance Committee , 296-5515, SOB 563.
Government Operations Committee, 296-9889, SOB 409. Aka, "Gov Ops".
Judiciary Finance Committee, 296-7153, SOB 533.
Civil Law Committee , 296-6860, SOB 503.
Crime Prevention Committee , 296-5502, SOB 543.
Ways and Means Committee, 296-0573, SOB 453.
Rules and Legislative Administration Committee, 296-4128, SOB 459.


Home Pages of Selected Senate Committees

The home page for the Senate is http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/. The home pages for the important Senate Committees are also worth investigating.

These Committees are involved with our bills:

Health and Family Security Committee , 296-1323, CAP 120. Health bills usually start here.
Government Operations and Veterans Committee, 296-4175, CAP 303.
Judiciary Committee, 296-0249, CAP 306.
Commerce Committee, 296-5776, CAP-303.
Human Resources Finance Committee, 296-4151, CAP-309.


Tracking Bills through the Legislature

The path that a bill takes in order to become a law is fairly convoluted. While trolling the Legislature's web pages, I found a really helpful page called Legislation and Bill Tracking. The links for "how to follow a bill" and "how a bill becomes law" are especially useful. And if you need the web sites of legislatures in other states, there's a link for that, too. This page is a veritable "Legislation 101", so check it out!


Martin Bulgerin
BioPsciences Institute
P.O. Box 11026
Minneapolis, MN 55412
612-824-1303
Email: bunlion@bitstream.net

Revision date: 2001-2-9
This page's URL is http://www2.bitstream.net/~bunlion/massage/gov.html.
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