Beyond Bills: Understanding the Tools in Congress’ Toolbox
Updated January 4th, 2023
Author: Catherine Rowland, Legislative Affairs Director (catherine@progressivecaucuscenter.org)
Introduction
As the government’s legislative branch, Congress is best known for making laws. However, members of Congress have many more tools at their disposal that allow them to affect change without passing legislation. These tools are especially critical to members of Congress whose party does not control their chamber of Congress since the party in control decides which bills advance and which do not. Therefore, understanding these tools and their various uses is critical for the public, lawmakers, and advocates alike as they determine how to advance their priorities.
This explainer highlights different tools members of Congress can use to hold corporations accountable, ensure the executive branch is following the letter of the law, and uphold our rights. Additionally, this explainer uses terminology that, while commonplace on Capitol Hill, may be unfamiliar to some readers. For more information, please see the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center’s glossary, Understanding Capitol Hill Jargon.
Letters
Any member of Congress concerned about a matter affecting their constituents, the country, or the world can author a letter raising the issue to relevant government officials or private sector actors.
Often, members whose districts, states, or positions in Congress are directly related to an issue will organize a letter regarding that issue. For example, a member who sits on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure—which conducts oversight concerning the Department of Transportation—would be well-positioned to author a letter to the Secretary of Transportation and may be more likely to receive a timely and comprehensive response. However, a member need not sit on a particular committee to contact a government agency. Members may also author letters on issues relevant to them personally. For example, a member who owned a small business before running for Congress may wish to weigh in on small business loan regulations. Alternatively, a member whose relative lives with diabetes may be particularly inclined to question pharmaceutical companies about high insulin prices.
Letters serve an important purpose beyond the information they elicit in response: they offer members an opportunity to shine a light on the issue at hand and drive news coverage of the problem. Letters can also garner public attention and, in turn, create pressure for the entity overseeing the issue—for example, the executive branch or a private company—to address it.
In the example below, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and the late Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) penned a letter to a drug company CEO highlighting skyrocketing drug prices. Letters like this helped build public support for legislation to lower drug prices, like the Inflation Reduction Act (P.L. 117-169). This law allowed Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to bring down drug prices for the first time in the program’s history.
Hearings
Hearings are committee meetings during which members of Congress hear from witnesses on a predetermined topic and ask those witnesses questions. These meetings are typically open to the public and cover issues under the relevant committee’s jurisdiction. For example, a hearing about a foreign policy issue, like a military coup in another country, would be held in the House Foreign Affairs Committee or the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Hearings serve various purposes: they allow members to evaluate pending legislation, discuss a law’s implementation, conduct oversight over the executive branch or private industry, or learn more about an issue in the news. In early 2020, for example, numerous committees held hearings regarding the emerging coronavirus.
Hearings also provide a formal, public platform for members of Congress to bring attention to an issue and hear expert perspectives. The ability to organize hearings and select hearing topics is a privilege reserved for the majority party. However, members of either party can use hearings to highlight important issues and stories. For example, In July 2022, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on the Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down Roe v. Wade and eliminate the constitutional right to abortion care. Several members used the hearing to highlight stories about abortion bans’ harmful effects. For example, Congresswoman Kim Schrier (D-WA) spoke about her personal experiences as a physician to underscore the dangers pregnant people are facing.
Members may also use hearings to push for accountability and force witnesses to respond to inquiries on the record. Even if a member does not get a direct response to their questions, the very act of questioning can shed light on how a matter is being handled and indicate what steps those responsible for the matter might take next.
In the example below, Congressman David Cicilline’s (D-RI) questioning of then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen revealed that the Trump administration did not know how many people had died in the Department of Homeland Security’s custody. The public, in turn, could interpret that revelation as evidence that the administration had little regard for those people’s lives.
Members have also used hearing questions to this effect with private sector witnesses. In the example below, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) questions Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg regarding Facebook’s efforts to take over smaller companies. Viewers could interpret Zuckerberg’s failure to answer her questions directly as a tacit admission that Facebook used threats to acquire competitors.
Committee Investigations and Reports
An investigation or report from a member of Congress or congressional committee may not require action from a government or business entity but can highlight a matter of concern and, in turn, put pressure on the entity implicated to respond.
In some cases, a report can pressure other lawmakers to take—or not take—a specific action. For example, in 2017, the Democratic staffs of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report outlining the consequences that repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would have in every congressional district. The report came out as Republican members of Congress and the Trump administration were trying to pass ACA repeal legislation and detailed how many constituents in every district would be at risk of losing their health care under the proposed bill. Ultimately, while ACA repeal legislation eventually passed in the House, it failed in the Senate partly due to concerns over how constituents might be kicked off insurance.
Public Statements
Written Statements
A press release, press conference, or another form of public statement by a member of Congress can help shape the narrative surrounding an issue or event. If, for example, a federal agency takes executive action, that agency will likely pair its action with a public relations strategy to encourage favorable press coverage and enthusiastic public response. A member of Congress who disagrees with the agency’s approach can issue a statement offering their perspective. The press might include that perspective in its coverage and afford the public a more comprehensive picture of the matter at hand.
This scenario plays out in the example below. In 2018, after then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos threw out a regulation that protected consumers from predatory for-profit colleges, then-ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) released a statement detailing the harm this could pose for students. The New York Times’ coverage of the issue included an excerpt from her statement.
Floor Statements
Members of Congress often deliver statements from the House or Senate Floor to underscore the gravity of the issue at hand. In some cases, House members may organize a group of their colleagues to deliver statements about a specific topic on the House Floor during periods known as “special order hours.” These periods let members speak for longer windows than the House rules typically permit, allowing members to share stories and make more personalized appeals for specific bills or policies. In the Senate, the majority leader may ask for unanimous consent to allow for “a period for transacting routine morning business” during which senators may speak on the Senate floor about their topic of choice. The length of these periods varies, depending on the Senate’s schedule.
Amicus Briefs
Congress’ powers are distinct from the judiciary branch. However, the separation of powers does not preclude members of Congress from expressing their views on matters before the courts. Members may use an amicus brief—in which a person or group not party to a case before the court submits a brief advocating for their favored outcome—to do this.
Members of Congress from both parties routinely submit amicus briefs to indicate and explain their positions on court cases. Whether or not the members’ brief influences the court, submitting an amicus brief can help the public better understand lawmakers’ positions on significant issues. Constituents may, in turn, hold their representatives to account should the same issue come before Congress in the future. Members typically coordinate a single brief signed by a group of members with the same position. For example, 163 members of Congress submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court as it considered Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.
Direct Action
Site Visits
Members of Congress will sometimes visit sites where an issue of concern is occurring—and, in turn, draw media attention toward that site and issue. By generating news coverage, members’ site visits can build awareness of an issue and increase public pressure on the relevant stakeholders to address it. In 2019, for example, dozens of members of Congress made trips to the U.S.-Mexico border to examine the conditions in which immigration authorities were holding migrants. Their visits helped bolster the public’s understanding of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, including migrant children’s separation from their families.
Protests, Sit-Ins, and Rallies
Members of Congress can also use their physical presence to affect change even when there is no “site” for them to visit. In 2021, Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MO) began a sit-in on the U.S. Capitol steps and slept there to protest a federal eviction moratorium’s expiration. The Congresswoman’s direct action garnered tremendous attention and support for the eviction moratorium, which was extended within days.
Members may also attend protests or rallies that they do not organize personally. For example, in 2022, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) and other Senate Democrats attended a rally for gun violence prevention legislation outside the U.S. Capitol.
Press Conferences
Members of Congress can convene reporters for press conferences to discuss a topic of their choice and offer reporters the chance to ask questions on the record. Members might do this to roll out a bill or another legislative effort, or respond to news topics. For example, in 2022, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) held a press conference in response to the Supreme Court’s West Virginia v. EPA decision.
Direct Calls
Members of Congress can also directly call officials to advocate for a policy change. For example, a member seeking a specific executive action might call the relevant agency head to urge them to take the action in question.
Conclusion
Members of Congress have ample tools at their disposal that allow them to shine a light on important issues, demand accountability from government and private sector actors, and defend their constituents’ fundamental rights when they are under attack. Members retain these tools regardless of their party affiliation or seniority. As such, Americans may demand action from their elected representatives no matter which party controls Congress. The tools and examples outlined in this explainer demonstrate that no individual member is powerless to affect change.