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Yahoo!You won’t read many stories critical of the recently-passed “Ban on Lobbying” bill, H.R. 27865, whether in this newspaper or any other media outlet. Lobbyists have been treated as pariahs by the press, by both candidates in the latest elections, and in popular culture. They have been called “the root of the problem” in Washington, and much worse. The newly proposed ban on capital punishment even has a temporary exemption clause — for lobbyists!
As a lobbyist I vehemently object to this treatment.
Let me remind you of something. We are people. We are citizens. All U.S. citizens are guaranteed the right to petition the government for redress of grievances; nowhere in our founding documents does it say those citizens can’t be well paid to do so.
We have worked closely with most politicians — including both Barack Obama and John McCain. What lobbyists do is figure out how to sway politicians to vote on legislation in a way that favors the interest they represent. They educate and inform members of Congress on issues that will come before them for a vote. Much of the information provided to elected officials by lobbyists cannot be found in any library or newspaper, nor in any way whatsoever… except from the lobbyists themselves. This is what makes us indispensable.
It is indeed true that our services are only available to those who can afford them, and it’s true that on any issue, both sides can’t always afford the same things. But that’s exactly where the problem lies. The problem isn’t lobbyists, it’s a lack of sufficient money in Washington.
For example, the top five spenders among mortgage bankers and brokers invested more than $31 million on lobbying and campaign contributions during the past election cycle. With the help of us lobbyists, the financial services industry successfully stopped the government from regulating the frenzy of borrowing and buying during the housing boom, a frenzy that enriched hundreds.
Lobbyists were also successful in preventing Congress from taking steps to help families keep their homes despite an inability to repay their mortgages — which would have hurt bankers and brokers.
But we lobbyists would be more than willing to work for whomsoever could afford us. That is why Congress needs to grant first-time homeowners, indigenous peoples, the urban poor, recent immigrants, working-class families, and other embattled groups enough funding to compete for our services against those with opposite interests.
We lobbyists have been willing to comply with the rules and laws that Congress adopts. For example, the Fair Elections Now Act (S.1285), which mandated that candidates for Senate run on public funding only, made our role nearly irrelevant in those races. We fought against that legislation with all the influence we had, but we lost, and we accepted our loss. We did not attempt a coup.
If Congress passes the “Ban on Lobbying” bill, we will likewise comply with it, though not without a fight. Because the “Ban on Lobbying” bill is not only unfair, it is wrongheaded.
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Comment on November 13, 2008 07:58 amsend bush to guantanamo