Text IV. Lobbyists1

The delicate art of influencing legislation popularly known as lobbying, named for the Capitol lobbies where the backstage persuasion often occurs, has moved a great distance from the days when votes were bought with black satchels full of money.

Today's successful lobbyists are more likely to be smooth professionals, skilled in the soft sell. They seldom engage in blatant currying of favor. Well tailored and turned out, they make their pitches subtly over martinis or over golf balls. But they can also retain a Senator's law firm or deliver cash in a paper sack to those who prefer that sort of gross transaction.

If lobbying techniques have grown sophisticated, the name of the game is still the same: special interest. Lobbyists may call themselves legislative counsels or Washington representatives. They may organize write-your-Congressman pitches and spend their money on selective campaign contributions instead of outright bribes. They may discourse at length on the valuable services they provide to overworked Congressmen who would not be able to vote intelligently on complicated bills without their expertise. But they are still hired, in the final analysis, to sell their clients' special interests.

The lobbyists' role in government, to hear them tell it, is sorely misunderstood. They merely exercise their Constitutional right of petition, albeit with special vigor. The First Amendment guarantees "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Apparently the founding fathers² did not foresee that professional petitioners would bring such heavy axes to grind.

Although a 1946 law requires all lobbyists to register and to give yearly reports of their spending, the most effective lobbyists seldom do. They may be lawyers who devote most of their time to guiding corporations through the trackless wastes of government, or corporate "Washington reps" who merely follow the progress of special bills. When a little pressure is needed, they will point out the Senators and bring big names from their home states to make the personal contacts.

There are intelligent men in Washington who are convinced that lobbyists actually exercise very little power, because opposing lobbies cancel each other out on major issues, leaving the public interest as the determining factor. It is true that lobbyists come from all spectra of the American scene; they represent industries, unions, farm organizations, veterans groups, trade associations. When Big Labor clashes with Big Business, they may indeed produce a stalemate. But this would hardly be true of tax reforms, for instance, because every group lobbies for its own tax loophole unmindful of the others. The evidence is more persuasive that legislation is shaped as much by the hidden influences as by the public debates. These visible forces are constantly applied by lawyers and lobbyists, expediters, who are dedicated to the proposition that the national interest is identical with their particular interest. They do not like to call themselves lobbyists.

Certainly, the effective operators no longer hang around the Capitol lobbies. They remain above the battle, cool, convivial, and, if possible, invisible.

NOTES

1. lobbyist — a person who tries to get legislators to introduce or vote for measures favorable to a special interest that he represents

reps = reporters

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. How do today's successful lobbyists differ from those of the days when votes were bought with black satchels full of money?

2. What is the lobbyists' role in the U.S. Government today?

3. What does a 1946 law require all lobbyists to do?

4. What spectra of the American scene do lobbyists represent?