Tell Senator Schiff: Communicate with Constituents
Call Script
My name is _______ and I am a constituent. My zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible.
Please provide two-way communication channels for your constituents:
1) a local office in northern California, preferably in San Francisco, with walk-in access to staff
2) sufficient staff to meet constituents, answer phones, and respond to constituent input including voice mail and email
3) opportunities for conversations in group settings, preferably in-person, town-hall-style meetings during Senate recesses, with virtual meetings as a fall-back
4) a regular newsletter available for subscription that specifies communication channels
If the General Service Administration is hindering your ability to secure office space and hire staff, please speak up loudly and often about that. The American people need to hear that Musk is trying to cut them off from their elected representation.
Background
It’s been a tumultuous month since the start of the MAGA Republican trifecta and their campaign to institute a unitary executive under no legislative or judicial constraint. Many California activists understood immediately that the old norms in the Senate around comity and collaboration across parties are defunct and that GOP senators would no longer function independently from the new administration (e.g. Thom Tillis and the Hegseth nomination). Senator Schiff’s early votes to confirm some cabinet-level nominees caused great concern among constituents who wanted to express that concern to the senator.
However, we haven’t been able to reach the senator or his staff in person or by phone to voice those concerns. We’ve only been able to leave voicemails, and some of us have received boilerplate responses to email.
Senator Schiff did help keep the Democratic bloc intact in later votes on the worst of the nominees and on the Senate budget resolution, but other consequential votes are coming up, notably on the expiring Continuing Resolution and potential government shutdown and on budget reconciliation when the House passes their version of the FY2026 budget. Ineffective or absent communication channels will further frustrate constituents and advocacy groups.
It’s possible that the General Service Administration, which is being raided by DOGE, is hindering the Senator’s ability to do these things. Don’t let him off the hook though—in that case, we need Senator Schiff to speak out about it.