We've made some changes to Congress.org.

You now need to be a registered user in order to send a letter to Congress or the president. (You will not need to register to continue receiving the newsletter.)

Registration is free and painless. If you haven't already, just go to www.congress.org/register , enter your e-mail address and you'll be ready to go in less than a minute.

We will not share your personal information with any third parties. (You can read our terms and conditions here .)

We'll also be making the process of sending a letter smoother and easier in the coming weeks.

If you have any questions or concerns, please e-mail editor@congress.org.

We want to know what you think of Congress.org. Please take a minute to fill out a survey about the Web site and what improvements you'd like to see.

Update: Some users have asked why we made this change. The reason is that a small minority of users were abusing the previous system.

Registration will mean that the letters sent through Congress.org are more effective and more likely to be read and responded to by Members of Congress.

As a registered user, you'll also be able to send a letter to your lawmakers with one-click from the home page. Just look for the orange "Write this official" or "Write all of your officials" links in the upper right corner after you've logged in.

Second Update: A handful of users have said they can't find the ZIP code Congressional district lookup box. It's still here -- it's just in the right-hand column on the home page, rather than the middle.

-- Ryan Teague Beckwith, Congress.org