The First Amendment of the US Constitution explicitly protects the right of Americans to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
But not all members of Congress are responsive to their constituents as they ought to be.
We hear time and again how constituents struggle to connect with their federally elected officials through the usual methods: phone calls, letters, district office visits, and town halls.
Members’ phone lines are jammed; voice mailboxes are full; emails go unanswered; office doors are locked; and town halls go unscheduled, cancelled, scaled back, or restricted to pre-screened audiences only.
We live and work near the congressional offices on Capitol Hill.
We can dismantle the obstacles listed above by visiting Senators’ offices and talking to their staff in person on behalf of their frustrated constituents who do not feel their Senator is representing their interests.
We offer citizens new ways to amplify their messages, tell their stories, and request responses from their elected officials.
Herd on the Hill amplifies constituent speech in a number of ways.
We hand letters to staffers and members, read aloud from these letters on social media, arrange phone calls on behalf of constituents and press staff and members for updates on bills on the floor of the Senate, all to maximize pressure on members of Congress and media impact. When elected officials fail to fully and fairly represent the millions of people who sent them to DC, we are not afraid to name and shame them.
The politically savvy local volunteers who work with Herd on the Hill are highly motivated, as many of them—those who live in the District of Columbia—have no voting representation in the House or the Senate. Yep, “taxation without representation” is the burden 775,000 residents of the District of Columbia are under. DC has more residents than both Wyoming and Vermont. DC pays more taxes than 22 other states and has no say in how those tax dollars are spent. DC is the only capital of a modern democracy with no voting representation in the national legislature. During the second Trump regime, Trump has sent national troops to DC for a fabricated crime emergency and Congress has been working to impose more restrictions on DC’s ability to run its own local government.
We also partner with other grassroots groups for protests and social media campaigns to push Senators to answer for their actions—or for their inaction.