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Guidelines   page 2        Announcement        Guidelines PDF

FORMAL GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING ORAL AND WRITTEN TESTIMONY TO THE COMMITTEE AT A HEARING

At the hearing each speaker may have no more than three minutes, so it’s best to come prepared with a shortened version of your written testimony or notes to speak from. (Three minutes goes by much faster than you think; it’s a good idea to do a timed practice reading at home so you can pare it down if needed. Less is more.)

• Your opening greeting should be to “Senator Rodney Whittemore and Representative Roland Martin, Chairs and Members of the State and Government Committee.”
• The first sentence should be “Thank you for the opportunity to address the Committee.” Or something similar.
• The second sentence should state your name and town.
• The third sentence should clearly state whether you are in favor of or opposed to the specific bill. “I support HP 956 because . . .” Then give your specific points as briefly as possible.
• Your last sentence should again thank them for their consideration and respectfully ask their support of HP 956.
• Provide 20 copies of your written testimony to the Committee Clerk before you testify. Try to get the hearing room early and give your copies to the clerk, who may put them in the committee members’ folders at their desks (there is also a procedure for submitting a “petition” with multiple signatures).

Talking Points for HP 596

“Testimony” sounds a bit intimidating, but it doesn’t have to come from professional or technical expertise. What’s desired is to go beyond “support this legislation” and to give reasons and personal experiences to explain why the legislators should take the action requested of them.

The basic points for the We The People Maine legislation are:

• we want to get money out of politics
• we want to stop corporations from claiming Constitutional rights meant for people
• there are many citizens from all political persuasions who agree that the Citizens United decision should be overturned

Beedy Parker (beedyparker@gwi.net, 236‑8732)

Continued . . . next page

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