This diary is intended to be a follow-up to the
excellent diary that was published today by Soj. Soj attempts to provide a look inside one of the biggest lobbying firms in D.C. as a way of better understanding the industry. I thought it might be helpful to provide some more information about lobbying from someone who used to work as one in New Jersey - me.
By way of "credentials," I worked for six years at one of the largest lobbying firms in Trenton, NJ, before deciding to leave the industry and pursue my JD. Of late, a friend of mine who is a professor at Penn State Great Valley and teaches a Business and Ethics class has had me lecture to her students on the subject of the ethics of lobbying.
Continued below...
LOBBYING, BUSINESS, GOVERNMENT AND THE SYSTEM
As Soj discusses in his diary, lobbying is very entrenched in politics in DC. But, it is also important to understand that it also has major influence at the state and local levels as well. There are a variety of reasons for this, and only a few have to do with the lobbyists themselves.
Personally, I like to refer to the entire lobbyist/government/business relationship as "The System." The System has three major element: Power, Money, and Access. The System cannot survive without all of them, but they are each so intertwined, that it is impossible to remove just one.
The System, put in the most basic of terms, works like this: Legislators require Money in order to continue their political careers. Businesses/Interest Groups know this, and attempt to use money to gain Access to the political process in order to achieve their goals. However, they cannot do this alone - this is where well-connected lobbyists fill the void. With their Access, interested parties (through their lobbyists) can influence legislation, introduce new bills, or stop legislation in its tracks. Such pervasive Access is a form of Power. The more Power a business or lobbying firm has, the more Money they will be able to pump Money into The System, and the more Access they will achieve. Similarly, the more Money a legislator rakes in, the more Power they will have.
The System helps all sides - Politicians gain more Power, Interested groups are able to achieve their goals through Access and Power, and Lobbyists are able to increase their Access and Power. And, of course, everyone makes more Money.
Therefore, no side is interested in reducing the amount of Money that is in The System. To do so would negatively affect the other two elements for all involved. Likewise for reducing the amount of Access businesses and lobbyists can achieve, and the amount of Power each side can hold.
CURRENT REFORM EFFORTS
The only major type of lobbying reform effort to ever gain traction (especially at the state level) are laws and regulations designed to inject Transparency into The System. Specifically, many laws (especially state) require lobbyists to list who their clients are, how much they paid the firm/lobbyist, what legislation was lobbied on for them, etc. Additionally, legislators are forced to report how much money they received from businesses, groups and lobbying firms.
The problem with the Transparency approach is that it assumes that someone will look at the filed reports. Often, this doesn't happen, especially at the local level.
For example (and this is a true story!), in the 1990's it was reported that the Mayor of Hamilton, New Jersey had reported on his own Election Law Enforcement Committee (ELEC) campaign report that his campaign had used donations to pay off a credit card bill.
Why do that? Well, to not report it would be a crime, so, why not just report it and hope no one notices?
WHY ALL LOBBYING IS NOT BAD
When I worked as a lobbyist, I would often get funny looks when I answered the question "what do you do?" I liked to point out in reply that, all too often, the people who get elected are not exactly the brightest kid on the block - I just try to give them a hand.
More specifically, any legislative body is made up of a number of people with very divergent backgrounds. Yet, all too often, interested parties have to rely on their local legislator, who had spent his life before politics working as a podiatrist, to understand their needs and concerns.
Many important and diverse issues come before legislators, and they often are clueless about the subject under consideration. Interest groups and their lobbyists often provide an important function: they act as educators for the legislators, so they can make an informed decision.
Here is an example from my own experiences. My firm represented an association representing a large number of milk producers in New Jersey. A bill was introduced that caused them great concern - it would provide local police the power to pull over and inspect trucks on local roads for weight violations.
Now, at first glance, this bill would appear to be a good idea. At the time, only the State Police had the power to pull trucks over on major highways. The bill was designed to address the concerns of municipalities concerned about smaller, overweight trucks barrelling through their towns.
But, the concerns of the milk industry had not been considered by the sponsors or the Assembly Transportation Committee, which I addressed concerning the legislation. I pointed out that the milk industry has hundreds of trucks, traveling throughout the state, making thousands of stops, carrying a perishable item - milk. The delays that could be caused by the open ended legislation could have had an incredibly negative effect on the local milk industry and consumers (not to mention other food items!).
My point is this: not all the work of lobbyists is bad. Other examples of helpful lobbying comes from environmental groups, civil liberties concerns, etc., etc. Any legislation designed to curtail lobbying activity will affect these groups, and could prevent businesses and groups with very legitimate concerns from being heard by the people who can make or break them.
SOLUTIONS?
I have often personally wondered what sorts of legislation could curb lobbying abuses. Certainly, any lobbying reform effort is faced with the "fox guarding the hen house" dilemma - legislators, who benefit greatly from The System, are certainly not going to want to see it go away.
But, the injection of Transparency is a commonly accepted practice. Many lobbyists, in fact, favor this approach for a less-than-obvious reason: it allows them to see what their competition is up to!
But, the problem remains this: sure, you can make lobbyists and politicians file reports, but who is going to read them???
In New Jersey, ELEC reviews reports in response to complaints, but in terms of reviewing them in order find out who is in whose pocket....well, that's up to you and me!
The best practical solution in my mind would be a two-tiered approach:
1) Require full disclosure: Lobbyists must report who their clients are, what they pay annually in terms of lobbying fees, and what exact pieces of legislation (or regulations) were lobbied upon, for whom, when, and via what method (letter, fax, phone call, golf meeting, etc.).
Similarly, office holders must report what organizations provided them with donations (and, if the check was written by a business/organization but delivered by a lobbyist, the lobbyist's name must be reported), who has lobbied them, on what, when, and how.
2) Establish a Review Commission: A bi-partisan commission (with non-partisan members) should be established to act as a watchdog over the reports that are filed on a quarterly basis. The Commission should compile a quarterly summary of all activity, as well as identify elected officials who have either crossed the legal line, crossed the ethical line, or skated near the ethical line. The Commission should also be given the power to make admonishments of those who have behaved unethically or illegally, and then refer them to the House or Senate ethics committees for action.
Such reports and admonishments would likely get media coverage (because they wouldn't have to do any "homework!"), and would at the very least be more accessible and understandable to the general public than just raw reports.
I think this might be a good first step. Any suggestions/thoughts?