Survival Strategies for Embassies Dealing With Congress The following are a number of specific suggestions for embassies as they deal with Congress: 1. Be well informed. The central law of survival when dealing with Congress is to be well informed about what is going on through regular staff contacts, meetings with lawmakers, and conversations with others in the think tank and diplomatic community. A great deal of valuable information can be obtained by carefully reading newspapers, such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and USA Today. There are also several congressional publications that are very helpful. Congressional Quarterly publishes a daily CQ Monitor and a weekly magazine. National Journal publishes Congress Daily, a daily newsletter and a weekly magazine. Two Capitol Hill magazines, Roll Call and The Hill, have excellent stories about internal machinations in Congress. 2. Use the Web. Virtually all 535 members of Congress and the several dozen congressional panels have Web sites that contain extremely helpful information. The Web is a remarkably eas y and convenient way to find speeches, bills, hearing schedules and congressional reports. To get started, go to www.congress.gov and track down the Web sites of lawmakers, committees and agencies such as the Congressional Budget Office and General Accounting Office. A group called Congress Online has recently published a valuable study of congressional Web sites. It can be found at www.congressonlineproject.org. 3. Keep in touch. Stay in contactóregularly, briefly and accurately. Embassies should keep in contact with the various committees and subcommittees and lawmakers and leaders who are especially involved in issues of particular interest. Congressional staffers offer this suggestion: Embassies should make their views known regularly, briefly, with a touch of originality, and accurately. Embassies are presumed to present only their side of an issue, but even this case should be constructed in a way that is factual and credible. 4. Focus on direct contacts. Most lawmakers vastly prefer meetings with ambassadors and government officials than dealing with lobbying or consulting firms. While some use of lobbying and consulting firms may be helpful, it is not a substitute for direct embassy contacts. 5. Use embassies and overseas visitors creatively. Take advantage of visits from national leaders to showcase your embassy and tell your nationís story. Invite lawmakers and key staffers over for public events and private meetings. 6. Make a few good friends. While all embassies would prefer to have close allies in the House and Senate leadership, strong contacts with rank-and-file members can also be useful to get a sense of the mood on the Hill and what issues are hot. ìEvery embassy should have a good friend in Congress,î said Bill Frenzel, a former Republican congressman and now an analyst at the Brookings Institution, adding that you need contacts to lay out the overall mood and others to focus on specific issues. 7. Be realistic. Influence in, and access to, Congress is not conferred on the saintly or the virtuous. American lawmakers are likely to open their doors wider to diplomats from NATO, European Union, Group of Seven, regional powers and U.S. allies in the war on terrorism. But diplomats from other nations should take full advantage of what resources they haveóbusiness links, sentimental attachments and ethnic communities in the United States. 8. Be ready to play defense. The basic law of congressional politics is that itís far easier to block initiatives than to enact them. Even if embassies cannot always get what they want, they can often block what they most strongly object to. Itís especially important to have a strong Senate ally. Rules and customs in the upper chamber allow one senator to exert enormous power to block legislation. 9. Understand that there is often strength in numbers. While each nation has its own agenda and interests, embassies should work to the maximum extent possible with other nations to form coalitions. Congress is more likely to seriously consider the views of a group rather than just one nation. 10. Read and study. ìFriends and Foes: How Congress and the President Really Make Foreign Policyî by Rebecca Hersman, uses many examples and three careful case studies from the mid-1990s to show how American foreign policy is really crafted. The author has held senior legislative and executive branch staff positions and offers a shrewd and insightful account of how the United Statesís international policy is formed. ó John Shaw