Be honest: What comes immediately to mind when someone talks about how Congress makes a law? For generations of Americans it’s the 1976 “I’m Just a Bill” episode of Schoolhouse Rock. It was a catchy introduction when we were young, but we soon learn there’s much more to the process than, “He signed you, Bill! Now you’re a law!”

Your participation in democracy doesn’t have to end at the ballot box. You can tell your legislators what laws you’d like to see, or which you oppose. There’s an old saying that “if you don’t vote, you can’t complain”—the same could be said of legislation that passes, if you don’t share concerns with your members of Congress.

My hope here is to help you effectively do that and feel comfortable doing so. If you already know the finer points of crafting legislation, you may want to skip over this next section. For everyone else, here’s a quick overview of lawmaking at the federal level.

Journey from bill to law

Any legislator can create and introduce a bill in their chamber of Congress, the Senate or House of Representatives. It is then assigned to the proper committee, which may hold hearings, conduct research, and possibly rewrite parts of the bill. If the bill is to advance and not just languish in committee, it needs to be voted out of committee to the full Senate or House—where the Speaker of the House or the Majority Leader of the Senate can decide whether to allow it to come to the floor for debate and a vote. The committee could alternately decide to just study the matter longer, or vote to kill the bill.

One note on the above is that bills that expressly require federal funding must start in the House.

Once on the full House or Senate floor, a bill can pass to the other chamber after it receives a majority of “yes” votes—51 in the Senate or 218 in the House. There are some rules unique to the Senate, however, that can put a snag in this process. One is the fact that any Senator, for any reason, can place a hold on legislation and prevent it from coming to a vote.

Another rule is the filibuster, which is designed to delay the voting process. Under filibuster, a member can talk on the Senate floor as long as they like, about the bill or any topic, and no vote can be taken until they are finished.

Cloture is a way around the filibuster—if a Senator invokes cloture and at least 60 members vote to agree on that, it ends all debate, filibusters, and holds and forces another vote on the bill itself. Probably the latest example of cloture at the writing of this article was on March 14 when several Democrats joined Republicans 62-38 to force a vote on the stopgap spending bill to avert government shutdown.

For the sake of argument and to keep this short, let’s say the House or Senate does approve a bill and sends it to the other, but the second chamber makes some changes to pass it. This creates two versions, which must go to a reconciliation committee made up equally of Senators and Representatives. If they can agree on a single compromise version, that’s what goes back to both House and Senate for votes.

Once both chambers have approved the same language—whether on first pass or through reconciliation—it goes to the White House, where the President has 10 days (minus Sundays) to sign it into law or expressly veto it and state their objections. If they fail to sign or veto the bill in that time, it automatically becomes law. A vetoed bill that can win a two-thirds “yes” in each chamber (67 in the Senate, 290 in the House) will become law… but this doesn’t happen often.

One more note about veto power: If Congress sends the President a bill but adjourns before the 10 days is up, making the President unable to return an express veto, he or she can do nothing and kill the bill with a pocket veto. Congress can’t override this type of veto, so the process would need to start all over again with the introduction of a new bill.

An example of ongoing advocacy

For more than 30 years, I have been involved in federal legislative efforts both as a concerned citizen and an attorney who represents farmers. I have had successes, such as when I helped write legislation for Chapter 12 bankruptcy that addresses farmers’ unique concerns. And then there are issues that take longer to solve, which I continue to work on with legislators.

One longtime cause is venue reform for bankruptcy cases. I believe large companies filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy should be required to do so in the court closest to where they conduct business, but there is a loophole in federal law that permits them to set up subsidiaries in other states with courts historically sympathetic to the specific relief the corporation desires. Having that subsidiary organized in a favored state allows not only the subsidiary to file there, but by extension, the parent corporation to be able to do the same—often far from their creditors.

This tactic has been used to deny farmers and other creditors fair payment for supplies and services when massive corporate assets are liquidated. It happened when ethanol manufacturer VeraSun Energy, headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, filed its Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008—in Delaware, a state notably lacking in ethanol plants or cornfields—leaving many Midwest farmers with grain contracts holding the bag. Just last month, crop ag-tech firm Benson Hill headquartered just outside St. Louis filed its Chapter 11 in faraway Delaware, as well.

Why is this issue important to farmers? Bankruptcy proceedings happening several states away discourage creditors who can’t take the time or afford to travel from attending to testify or observe. Also, if I’m representing an Iowa farmer in a Delaware courtroom, we need to hire an extra lawyer who is licensed in that state as my co-counsel. (A prime example of how farmers were adversely affected by the VeraSun bankruptcy can be found in this video.) Part of my advocacy has been to meet and talk with members of Congress about various topics, but also to help organize farmers, ag groups, and other businesspeople in reaching out to their legislators to explain their needs. And it’s not just about venue reform—for instance, the current individual estate tax exemption of nearly $14 million is set to drop to around $7 million this December unless Congress renews it. Then there’s any number of provisions of interest in a yet-to-be-passed farm bill, as well as non-ag legislation important to many readers, such as the future of Social Security and Medicaid.

If you share your thoughts with your Senator or Representative on a topic dear to you, you won’t always get the outcome you want—but there is a better chance of success than in saying nothing

Sharing your opinions

The only way your legislator is going to know what you’re thinking is if you tell them—it’s important to participate. And there are several ways to do so: in a letter, email, phone call, town hall meeting, or office visit. If you choose to write a letter, I advise attaching it to an email. Physical mail these days is diverted to a screening facility to ensure there is nothing dangerous inside before being routed to the legislator, so it will take longer to arrive.

Talking with a legislator or one of their staff face-to-face is ideal. When I meet with a lawmaker or advisor, they generally don’t have much time, so I try to keep my remarks as brief as I can and put it in writing, such as a letter that I will leave with them. If I’m speaking about more than one topic, I generally write a separate letter for each topic in case there are different staffers handling those topics. This also helps the legislator (or their staffers) track feedback on each topic they’re managing.

Most voters don’t have the luxury of time or proximity to visit a legislator’s office or attend a town hall. In these cases, a phone call or email works; better yet, combine the two. If you call their office, ask to speak with the staffer who handles your topic of interest. If that person isn’t available, ask for their name and email address, and ask if you can make an appointment to speak with them another time.

Just as you would do in-person, when you do speak with the staffer, keep your points succinct and to the topic they can address. Finish the call with a request for response within, say, a week or 10 days. After the call, I like to follow up with an email to the staffer thanking them, reiterating the main points, and repeating my check-back request. (If you don’t hear back, it’s okay to follow up; they’re human too, and may have gotten busy or forgotten.)

A word on tone: It’s easy to get emotional about certain topics for legislation, especially if your lawmaker has a different position than you. While you want to remain polite, it’s fine to explain your disagreement. Talk briefly about how the legislation impacts you, your social circle, or your business. Stick to facts as much as possible. Don’t veer into personal attacks. Legislators want to hear from their constituents—if nothing else, their job relies on satisfying the most voters.

Legislators are elected by and work for the people, and most of the ones I’ve interacted with genuinely seem to want to help. If you don’t have success at first, don’t be discouraged; sometimes it takes a while to see change. And even if you don’t get the outcome you want on one topic, you may help affect legislation on others. If you don’t know who your federal legislators are, visit congress.gov/members and use the menu at the top to find by your home address:

Entering your home address at congress.gov/members brings up the names and contact information for your Representative and Senators.