Analysis Of Behind The Closed Doors Of Washington Lobbying

Lobbying is an issue that has recently found itself at the forefront of the American politics. Many feel that lobbying is essentially a legalized form of bribery and has lead to the government catering to the needs of special interests instead of the interests of America at large. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 74% of Americans believe that elected officials place their own interests ahead of the country's. So it seems many Americans wonder who their representatives are actually representing. Lee Drutman, a political scientist, compares the current situation of

In the book, Parenti mentions the relationship that lobbyist's have with Congress. Many of these political congressmen are representing the majority's vote because lobbyists are attempting to pursuade congressmen to adopt beliefs with items like salary produce. This is the practical science behind the policies that are passed in congress. Now, this is an example of what goes behind the scenes of how policies are passed in todays day of age. A policy that relates to this topic is the attempt to spur a clean revolution. Bill gates on the other hand used his profile to influence and propose public subsidies to lawmakers. This correalates with the attempt to pass a policy because figures that are powerful undermine the voices of the public.

After reading American Government on page 397 it says, “revolving door laws, laws that require a cooling-off period before government officials can register to lobby after leaving office” which means leaving a government job for a cooperation job. The problem of the Lobbying Revolving Door is that gives corporation unfair advantage like cheating the system like if someone changes from a corporation to government and that person could create a law to help that company for example reading the CNN video “Jo Ann Emerson took his seat in Congress. During her nine terms in office after her husband died.” The lobbying revolving door laws been ineffective because anyone that can change jobs they can change the laws. A solution is to create to institute

Seattleites would soon find that public opinion was no match for the power of lobbying: “So, an unholy alliance — downtown business groups, large companies like Boeing (whose interest in Seattle transportation begins and ends with getting commuters through it quickly), the antediluvian WSDOT, craven Seattle City Council members, craven state legislators like Ed Murray (who sponsored the tunnel bill and is now mayor), and head cheerleader Gregoire — bullied the tunnel back onto the agenda, and Seattle voters, sick to f’ing death of arguing about it, finally voted in 2011 to allow it to go forward” (Roberts 1). It had been somewhat of a political miracle that it had ever passed in the first place. The so-called “Seattle process,” in which

Nowadays, lobbyists are really involved in politics; therefore, they have a strong impact on decisions the government takes. In many occasions, those decisions are only beneficial for whoever is being represented by the lobbyist. Moreover, this is unfair for citizens because taxes will not contribute to help the poor or built the country, it could be spent in different things that are going to make rich only a small group of people. Because lobbyists only protect the interest of their client should be regulations to control what lobbyists do. There should be a special department with trained people to monitor the relationship between lobbyists and governmental officers. Those people could go every meeting and they should work as a mediator.

I agree with Massura’s statement that today, most politicians are fame- and power-addicted. Once politicians are voted into office, they have to strike a balance to conform to the concerns for their constituents but also try not to alienate too many people for fear of not getting reelected. Lobbyist groups provide candidates with the most of the money for reelection campaigns that a politician considers when making important decisions. They are put in positions of honor and esteem and often feel above the law because of their positions. Unfortunately, many politicians fall to unethical lifestyles and get caught up in the glory of the position rather than sticking to the campaign platforms that allowed them to be elected in the first place.

Lobbyists meet with elected officials to resent their cases, and provide public officials with information, they try to influence those who make governmental decisions. Lobbying to ensure favorable national policies and to prevent unfavorable ones has become massive in American industry. I agree when political scientists say that lobbyists serve a useful purpose, injecting valuable information into the legislative process. I allows people to be informed. By receiving information they are able to exercise their democracy by choosing between the proposals and evaluate them more deeply, selecting the candidate that would benefit them the most or will act in a way that would create favorable impact to their situation.

Today’s government is very influenced by capital because of the way it is structured. Half of all senators become lobbyists after they retire from politics. This is a troubling statistic that reigns true due to the ludicrous amount of money to be made as a lobbyist. The mean return on investment, or ROI, for corporate lobbying is twenty-two thousand percent. This means that on average, for every dollar a corporation invests in lobbyists, they will make two hundred twenty dollars. “By comparison, a good savings account gets you about a 1% return. You’d be thrilled if your stock broker pulled in 7%”. (Is lobbying..., par 6) For this reason, corporate interests are willing to pay large sums of money for good lobbyists. Ex-senators do very well in the lobby business because they know from experience what it takes to influence a senator. These used-to-be senators also experience an average of a 1452% pay raise once they take a job as a lobbyist. For these reasons, incentives exist for the lobby business to stay very much alive, and there seems to be no end in sight for the corporate lobby short of large-scale government

These lobbyist schedule private meeting with government officials in order to promote their cause “Lobbies have an impact , when advocates for a given issue succeed, policy tends

It has come to our attention that our internal lobbying system does not allow (potential) BIO lobbyists, who engaged in lobbying support activities, and had no lobbying contacts with covered officials to “Submit” an electronic report.

IMPORTANT: If you engaged in lobbying support activities but had no lobbing contacts during the reporting period, please complete your form and for ‘Agencies Contracted” select the agency that the support activities are intended for, even if you did not engage in any direct contact. If you do not know the name of the lobbyists who engaged in direct contact, please send an email to Brenda and she will see if anyone else reported those issues.

Lobbying is done by many different people and groups organized, individual combination of individual segments, enterprise, fellow legislators or government officials, advocacy organizations action. Lobbying is also possible within the precinct of a legislator, which means that a block of voters or voters in his electoral district, or not; they likely engage in lobbying as a business, or not.

Politics, Lobbying and Government Affairs: For those who are drawn to political issues, possess marketing skills and are effective communicators, this might be a good fit. Political jobs require strong writing skills and the ability work at a high tempo and often subject to short deadlines. Opportunities include elected officials, legislative aides, community organizers, committee staff, campaign managers, media consultants, legislative directors for Congress, in-house governmental affairs representatives, and lobbyists.

Most lobbyists are known to be practicing lawyers and public relation experts that are affiliated with large firms in Washington. Most are former members of congress and administrators who have worked in the executive branch. With their knowledge and personal contacts they know how congress agencies function and that’s how they end up persuading congress members. I am sure there might be dangers to lobbyists who try to influence legislators. Some dangers have been being prosecuted for bribery and corruption. This is why they made rules so that these lobbyists could not engage in personal relations or interactions with congressmen. They are not allowed to take them out to dinner, buy them expensive gifts or lavish them with expensive trips. Back in 1946 this law was passed but had many loopholes that the lobbyists still were able to get around so they continued to shower the congressmen with these gifts in hopes of gaining more votes for the issue or causes

Americans hold sacred their freedom over all else and many have fought fervently to protect it even to their own death. Yet our freedom and our protected rights are at odds with the power and influence of money at all levels of government; none more obvious than those in Washington. It is precisely this freedom that makes the concept of interest groups and lobbyists a part of our democracy’s dilemma. In “The Interest Group Society,” Jeffrey M. Berry and Clyde Wilcox state: