Quote Originally Posted by cinderbird View Post
can we do that?
As a matter of fact, as a US citizen, you are entitled to call any member of congress. They are not obligated to care about what you have to say if you are not from their district, but you can certainly call.

However, this is a slightly different situation. Most of the determination of the exact wording that goes into a bill is done in subcommittees. Does that mean that if your representative doesn't happen to be on the subcommittee for a bill that you are interested in, that you are not allowed to have your say? Of course not! You can call them in their role as members of that subcommittee, which is different then calling them as your representative.

Also, just as a representative is much more likely to listen to someone from their district, they also care a little more about people from their state, even outside their district, than they do people outside their state. This is entirely self-serving on their part, and has nothing to do with what they are supposed to do as representatives. They care because they may some day decide to run for Senator or Governor, and then they'll need the votes of everyone in the state. We can still use that to our advantage.