Write Congress

Choose a letter below to use as a template for contacting a member of congress.

Sample letters to send to your Senators and Representatives

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington D.C. 20515

United States Senate

Washington D.C., 20510

Dear [Member of Congress]:

I was listening to the Ralph Nader Radio Hour and heard an interview with Columbia Law Professor John Coffee about his new book Corporate Crime and Punishment: The Crisis of Under Enforcement.

I urge you to listen to this program and to read the book.

The corporate crime wave and violence inflict far more damage on society than all street crime combined.

I may have missed it, but I haven’t seen any public statements you have made on this problem of corporate crime. If you have, please send it along.

The legislation should include the creation of a corporate crime database—the corporate crime equivalent of the FBI’s annual Crime in the United States report, which focuses on individual crime. Long overdue.

Coffee proposes that the legislation should, at a minimum, end the promiscuous use of deferred prosecution agreements, abolish non-prosecution agreements, use stigma and shame to combat corporate crime, bring back corporate probation and, as a condition of probation, restrict incentive compensation, encourage corporations to turn on their top culpable executives, encourage whistleblowers through bounties, encourage the top civil enforcement agencies like the under-staffed Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to hire outside lawyers to litigate corporate enforcement cases, allow civil enforcement agencies like the SEC to direct a portion of the corporate penalties they collect to their own low enforcement budgets and address the growing problem of the revolving door.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the current wave of corporate crime and violence sweeping the nation—Purdue Pharma (tens of thousands of opioid deaths and no prison time for executives), GM ignition switch (124 documented deaths, not one executive prosecuted), Boeing (346 dead, not one executive prosecuted), the massive Wells Fargo heist (no criminal prosecution of executives), the VW toxic emission crime, major oil spills, workplace trauma and diseases, mass billing frauds, pharmaceutical caused casualties, and the endless scams and swindles, especially on the elderly, to name a few recent examples—and the need for Congressional hearings and up to date legislation to address this growing assault on our public health, safety, and rule of law.

Please do not send us a form letter.

Sincerely,

P.S. Do you wish to ask the Congressional Records Service for corporate crime reports and the executive branch’s enforcement record?

Address

CC: Interested Parties

Date
Name of legislator and address

Dear [Senator or Representative]:

I am sending you, by separate mail, the forthcoming (mid-April) book—Tax the Rich: How Lies, Loopholes, and Lobbyists Make the Rich Even Richer by Morris Pearl and Erica Payne—leaders of the growing organization Patriotic Millionaires. Both have been up on Capitol Hill many times.

Their case is compelling, detailed and readily treatable by lawmakers with a sense of non-partisan fairness, efficiency and impact. It is exceedingly well-organized for non-experts and well-documented for more scholarly readers. As you and your staff can see, there are listings of major tax tricks, well-known tax escapes and a useful list of refutations of the major lies bolstering these privileges of the very rich and large corporations, many of which are paying no federal income taxes.

Here is what I (we) wish that you do. Reply to me by print letter your considered responses for the major changes outlined in this readable book. Then tell me what you propose TO DO about any of the changes which you agree with, both within the Congress, within the appropriate Committee structure and toward your citizenry back home. Re: the latter, you may wish to have a virtual town meeting on this all-encompassing subject of taxes—who does and doesn’t pay them, what taxes should be restored and/or increased on the super-wealthy and major corporations, how much more money the depleted IRS needs to start collecting over $400 billion in annual uncollected taxes (their figure) and what the people and you think should be the uses of these greater tax revenues to benefit the American people and their families, their public services (infrastructure) and the environment.

Also, please tell me (us) why, when Congress is in session and not on its long recesses, it doesn’t work five full days a week like we all do with our jobs? Why do so many members of Congress arrive Tuesday before noon and leave to fly back home on Thursday afternoon or evening?

Thank you for your serious response. To make it worth-while for your time, I (we) will spread your response to as many people in the state (district) as we can.

OPTIONAL—If you wish to have more people in your state (district) sign this letter, please let me (us) know and we’ll oblige.

Thank you for reading the book and responding.

Sincerely,

Address, email and if you wish telephone #

CCL: interested parties