According to a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Management Foundation, constituents are sending Congress more mail than ever; between 200 and 1,000 percent more letters than ten years ago. One Senate office even reported an increase of 1,422%.
The influx of correspondence has caused offices to spend more time on crafting and sending responses. A majority of staff said they spend more time on constituent communications than they did two years ago.
CMF found that the sheer amount of correspondence is overwhelming offices, who haven’t increased in size since 1979. “While responding to constituent communications is a high priority for congressional offices, a sizable number of offices are unable to respond to constituent emails with pre-existing responses in less than a week.” For uncanned responses, it can take more than three weeks for a congressional office to respond.
