Lobby Day Case Study

A way that lobbyists use their power is by taking legislators out for drinks or nice

Dating back many decades, it appears that lobbying and politics have always gone hand and hand on any political stage. Lobbying has always had a strong presence in the legislation system. Lobbying is the process of offering campaign contributions, bribes, or information to policymakers for the purpose of achieving favorable policy outcomes. Conventional wisdom suggests that lobbying is the preferred mean for exerting political influence in rich countries and corruption in poor countries. The legislation is meant to benefit society and ensure that citizens are having their voices heard, instead of hindering them in favour of the multi-national corporations. Lobbying has a negative influence on legislations in both developed and developing

Moreover, the Schoolhouse Rock presentation identified the major committees that play a vast role within legislation, but furthermore failed to acknowledge the significant influence of interest groups, lobbyist, and campaign contributors. Interest groups are pertinent to the legislation process because of their vast influence. While interest groups strive to “influence public policy” to benefit its members, it accomplishes this task by using inside strategies that “pursue a narrow policy of change and directly influence legislation” and through its relationship within the iron triangle that works to “seal off” external influencers that are irrelevant to the groups view towards public policy; thus leaving a “closed

The controversy surrounding political lobbying does not question the act of influencing public officials, but rather the ethics relating to how these public officials are influenced. It is important to distinguish the fine line between bribery and lobbying. It is illegal to bribe a public official in the United States. This would mean that an individual could not provide compensation to a public official for them to behave, or vote, in a specific manner. Lobbyists may donate money to a specific candidate’s political campaign, but they may only do so when there is no expectation that the public official will behave in a favorable way toward the lobbyist or their clients (Mackinder). Lobbyists may bring public officials, their immediate families, and staff on trips or out to dinner. While it is illegal for a lobbyist representing a corporate client from directly bringing, it is not illegal for foreign governments to sponsor for these said trips (Goldmacher). What has begun to happen is lobbyists representing corporate clients may bring public officials on these trips, if the trip is sponsored by a foreign government. The Senate Office of Public Records reported that $3.23 billion was spent on lobbying in 2013, with 12,300 registered lobbyists. Professor James Thurber, who teaches at American University, has studied congressional lobbying for over 30 years, and does not believe these figures are accurate. He believes

Many controversial topics have surfaced recently, but one that tends to fly under the radar is lobbying. Lobbying is defined as a group of persons who work or conduct a campaign to influence members of a legislature to vote according to a group’s special interests (“Lobby”). Although average citizens are not fully aware of the issue, it is quite contentious in politics. For those who are against it, they believe that restrictions should be placed on lobbying because it distorts democracy. Lobbyists use money and cost-effective strategies to sway the opinions of lawmakers. Others see lobbyists as effective, political tour guides who help pass legislation. An analysis of the lobbying process reveals the outcomes are often

In the early 20th century, progressive reformers noticed the senators representing them in congress tended to be of the rich and influential businessmen of the time, so they used political power to direct the the public pressure to their government

On November 9th 2015, a town hall meeting took place in my political science class. This meeting was a chance for students of the school to bring up concerns, or issues regarding there education. For their voice to be heard directly to the faculty that runs the school, the students could finally have a chance to get a valid answer. There was questions about safety, mathematics, community college education, and typical student issues.

Although I was not old enough to vote in this past election, I still have found ways to be active in ways other than voting. Over the summer, I represented the Tri-County Rural Electric Cooperation, my electricity provider, in Washington D.C. In order to qualify for the trip I wrote a letter regarding a current issue in electricity, the federal regulation of our electricity. On this tour I met other students from within the cooperation district and from other districts from across the United States. More importantly, I met the officials, who we elected to represent us in the House of Representatives. In this meeting with our representative, Glenn Thompson, we covered issues such as creating jobs, the upcoming election, the Supreme Court justice vacancy and other controversial topics that dominate every news channel. While we toured other major points within the District of Columbia, the national mall, the capital building, the House of Representative and the Senate House, and many others, our district’s representatives showed true citizenship for our area. We learned of many political policies and stories of our great nation, a necessity for an exemplary citizen.

Wayne, Lasser, Miller and others tend to agree that lobbyists and PACs have a great amount of influence over congress members because they may have direct connections and give campaign contributions. Recently, the airlines industry convinced congress to pass a $15 billion aid package it needs in order to survive. “The airlines had plenty of resources to draw on: 27 in-houses lobbyists, augmented by lobbyists from 42 Washington firms, including former White House aides and transportation secretaries, as well as the airlines own chief executives and corporate board members, whom all are well known in the halls of congress”(Wayne, NYT, 10/01/01. Lasser, American Politics, 1999. Miller, The American Prospect, 10/23/00. Geiger, Washington Post, 11/4-10/91.)

In this essay, I would like to reflect an online article on CBS News website, ‘‘Behind the closed doors of Washington Lobbyist” October 7,2012 by Sharyl Attkisson. According to Legal dictionary, ‘‘Lobbying is the process of influencing public and government policy at all levels: federal, state and local’’. This article describes how the lobbyist fingerprint are all over the bills coming from congress, the rules and regulation coming from the government. This means that they defeat bills and rules they don’t like or negatively affecting their clients while they promote and advocate the ones they like it. Thus, this article gives us a complete picture of the lobby business do its work in Washington DC.

Also, interest groups or partisans endeavor to keep or protect their policy goals by influencing government by lobbying government. They give a major impact on deciding where the School Fund is supposed to be used for. Therefore, CSUs or other State colleges, would be funded by the government for the purpose of purchasing materials, improving

In order to repeal the act, “Republicans could afford to lose no more than 22 votes to achieve a majority, and in a statement at the White House Friday, Trump estimated that they were 10 to 15 votes short” (Berman). This occurred, because members of the Freedom Caucus opposed the bill. The chairman of the Appropriations committee, Rodney Frelinghuysen, opposed the bill as well. After the opposition of the bill by such a powerful committee, all hope for the repeal dwindled. This reveals the inner workings of the government by demonstrating how electorally vulnerable members will turn against his or her organization to protect his or her own position of power and how others will join the ban wagon to follow the most influential organizations or individuals within the government. In this situation, the representatives would rather go against a party leader than to risk his or her own reputation and attempt to escalate in the hierarchy of government simultaneously.

The NRLC’s strategies to fulfill their goals are through education, legislation and political action. Within education, the committee uses research, pamphlets and other educational materials and leadership training to inform people on the need to protect lives. In order to properly effect legislation,, there are people who lobby for the causes, speaking to legislators on why to move forward with bills that would advance the organization’s mission. Thirdly, the committee, in any way it ca, sponsors political candidates who share their views on these issues.

As several authors this week contend, lobbying tends to carry a negative connotation in everyday language. The key issues that the authors seek to address this week, are when lobbying occurs, the nature of lobbying, and how it works. Overall, there is some agreement on the fact that lobbying is prevalent, the disagreements arise over what purpose lobbying serves, and what the strategies underlying lobbying are.

People are important for the success of democracy. After electing their representatives, some individuals wish to be more involved in legislative decisions that affect them, so they take to lobbying and joining interest groups. This often provides them with an atmosphere of individuals who think like they do, while also allowing them to play more of a role than just voting for a few people to represent them. Lobbying and interest groups also allow for issues to be brought to the attention of the legislature and provide a way for these groups to talk to the legislators, whether it is over dinner or at a concert. By voicing their opinions and placing pressures on the legislation, these groups have become successful in fighting for their passions and their views on important