Need help crafting your message? Want to brush up on your advocacy skills? TSHA is here to help with resources!

Capitol Watch Archives

• January 2025: Tips and Tricks for Contacting Your Legislators

Webinar

• From Game Plan to Execution: Winning Advocacy Strategies for Rookies to Veterans

Contact Your Legislators

• How to address your state and federal legislators
• Finding your representatives: Who Represents Me?

Tips for Contacting Your Legislators

1. Collect your facts. Most bills will have a number to refer to when contacting a member of the legislature or their staff.
2. Contact your senator and/or representative and clearly identify the bill by number (e.g. SB 107) that you wish to discuss or offer an opinion regarding. 
3. It is OK to visit with legislative staff. They often know more about specific legislation and work on it daily. If a bill is being heard and the legislator doesn’t know a lot about it, he will call the responsible staff member and ask if they have had any input from the district. We want the answer to be yes.
4. Be concise! For example, "Please vote FOR House Bill 4409 regarding the Interstate Compact bill for speech-language pathology and audiology." If time allows, it is helpful to briefly state why it is important to you and his/her constituents in the district. The TSHA governmental team will offer suggestions for wording when a bill is contentious. 

Issue Briefs

• Advocacy for Issues Related to Public Schools
• Public Schools: Inclusion of SLPs and Audiologists in Pay Raises
• Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Interstate Compact 

Contacts for Support

Please reach out to our legislative team with your thoughts or questions:

• Lori Colletti, Vice President of Advocacy (government@txsha.org)
• Larry Higdon, Director of Governmental Relations (lwhtsha@gmail.com)
• Mark Hanna, Legal and Legislative Counsel

We'll continue to post resources that are available to members. Thank you for your advocacy for the professions!