"Dear Colleague" Letters in the House of Representatives: Past Practices and Issues for Congress (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Feb. 22, 2017 |
| Report Number |
R44768 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Straus, Jacob R. |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
The practice of one Member, committee, or office broadly corresponding to other Members,
committee, or officers dates back to at least the 1800s. At least as early as 1913, this
correspondence was labeled as “Dear Colleague” letters. Since 2003, it has been possible to track
the volume of House “Dear Colleague” letters sent through an email-based distribution system
(from 2003 to 2008) and a web-based distribution system (since 2008). The creation of the webbased
e-”Dear Colleague” distribution system in 2008 has made it possible to systematically
examine “Dear Colleague” letters, thereby offering a clearer understanding of what are largely,
but not exclusively, intra-chamber communications.
Named for their opening salutation, “Dear Colleague” letters are official correspondence widely
distributed to congressional offices. Members, committees, and officers of the House of
Representatives often use “Dear Colleague” letters to encourage others to cosponsor, support, or
oppose legislation. Additionally, senders use these letters to collect signatures, invite members to
events, update congressional offices on administrative rules, and provide general information.
In analyzing data on the volume of “Dear Colleague” letters sent between January 2003 and
December 2014 in the House of Representatives, several discernable trends can be observed.
Overall the total number of “Dear Colleague” letters continued to increase from 5,161 letters sent
in 2003 to 40,487 letters sent in 2014. Additionally, examining data from the web-based e-“Dear
Colleague” system from the 111th Congress (2009-2010) and the 113th Congress (2013-2014)
shows that the most common reason “Dear Colleague” letters are sent is to solicit co-sponsorships
for legislation. These co-sponsor “Dear Colleague” letters accounted for 53.0% of letters in the
111th Congress and 42.0% in the 113th Congress. The second most frequent category in both
congresses was asking for signatures for letters to congressional leadership, the President, or
executive branch officials. These letters accounted for 20.8% of all letters in the 111th Congress
and 25.4% in the 113th Congress.
Each “Dear Colleague” letter can be tagged in the electronic system with up to three self-selected
policy categories. Analysis of the self-selected categories shows that the broad public policy
issues that were most frequently tagged in the 111th Congress remained similar in the 113th
Congress. Healthcare was the most frequently selected issue category with 8.8% of letters in the
111th Congress and 8.3% of letters in the 113th Congress. In both congresses, the next most
popular category was foreign affairs (7.9% and 6.9%, respectively). In the 111th Congress,
education (6.0%) was third most popular followed by family issues (5.8%). For the 113th
Congress, family issues was third most popular (6.1%), followed by education (5.5%).
In light of the analysis of the volume, use, characteristics, and purpose of “Dear Colleague”
letters, several possible administrative and operational questions are raised in this report to aid the
House in future discussion of the electronic “Dear Colleague” system. These include questions on
handling the growth in volume of “Dear Colleague” letters sent per year, and the potential to
create additional mechanisms within the e-“Dear Colleague” system to aid subscribers in
managing the “Dear Colleague” letters they receive.
For a brief explanation of how to send “Dear Colleague” letters, see CRS Report RL34636,
“Dear Colleague” Letters: Current Practices, by Jacob R. Straus.
