Lobbying Congress Integral Part of U.S. Democratic System
Lobbying Congress Integral Part of
U.S. Democratic System
By Wendy S. Ross
USIA Congressional Affairs Writer
This article first ran on the Washington File in 1993.
Lobbying Congress to persuade it to pass specific legislation, make changes in proposed legislation or undo legislation already on the books is central to the U.S. form of government, but it is a process that often baffles foreign governments, say political scientists, journalists and lobbyists themselves.
Under the U.S. democratic system, the president does not have absolute power, he shares it with the Congress.
"The president proposes and the Congress disposes," and the "nuances" of this interplay of competing forces is often difficult for foreign governments to decipher, says veteran Washington lobbyist John Meek.
The president can say he wants a certain policy to become law, but that doesn't happen unless a majority of the 535 members of Congress agree. "The very basic element of lobbying is to get a member of Congress to vote for you, your goal or your cause," Meek says. To do this, you have to convince that person that they can do this without losing their next election. It's that simple."
To do that, it's sometimes necessary to mobilize constituents of that member through sophisticated grass roots and media campaigns, so the public knows about the issue, and puts pressure on the politician to vote for your cause, he says.
Lobbying is "massively important" to the functioning of the government, says Thomas Mann, director of governmental studies at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank.
"We have a powerful Congress that is decentralized and highly permeable to outside interests," Mann says, "so the opportunity exists for individuals and groups to take their case to the Congress knowing that (a) they'll be listened to and (b) that it might make a difference because Congress is independently powerful in making public policy."
As government has grown and issues become more complex, overburdened members of Congress and their staffs have had to rely more and more on outside experts for information, he says.
This has led to the growth of large lobbying firms, capable not only of contacting members of Congress and their aides, but also of keeping track of thousands of regulations, placing advertisements, generating mail and telephone calls from constituents, and getting spokesmen on television shows or in newspapers.
Lobbying firms generally deal with Congress and the complexities of legislation, while public relations firms deal "more with the media, or in running advertisements at the grass roots level that would get the public to write in to their congressman," says lawyer and lobbyist Mary Lyman. Quite often, she says, a lobbying firm will subcontract with a public relations firm to do the media work.
Public interest groups like the Sierra Club and Common Cause are also involved in lobbying, she says, but "typically they have their own in-house lobbyists." They usually are tax-exempt organizations that get their funding from membership dues and contributions.
The essence of lobbying, Meek says, is embodied in the first amendment to the Constitution which states that "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peacefully to assemble and to petition the Government for redress of grievances."
But "in terms of how other governments work, our system is still quite unique," he points out.
"In much of the world you only need to know one or two people" to get things done, "and that's the frustration of people who come here -- because for some reason they think you only need to know one or two people. And that isn't true.
"You need to know thousands of people and sometimes you need to inform millions of people," through public relations campaigns targeting the media, says Meek.
The intense media blitz going on right now around the issue of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), is an example of how lobbying works, Meek says. The agreement, to open trade between Canada, Mexico and the United States, needs congressional approval to go into effect.
Joining the administration in supporting NAFTA are five living former U.S. presidents and the nation's most powerful business lobbies, including the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers.
Organized labor, on the other hand, is opposing the agreement, saying it will cost thousands of U.S. workers their jobs, hurt consumers and induce U.S. firms to move to Mexico to escape U.S. environmental regulations.
The government of Mexico has hired many lobbyists to push for the agreement's passage. Its hope is to reassure American voters and their representatives in Washington that the U.S. economy has nothing to fear from open trade with Mexico and that more jobs, not fewer, will result.
"About 30 different firms" are working for Mexico, says Kevin McCauley, senior editor of a newsletter which covers the lobbying done in Washington for foreign governments and foreign-owned corporations.
Over the last year and a half, he says, Mexico has spent $25 million on lobbying activities, many of them on NAFTA.
"Because of the complexity of our system, foreign governments are not equipped" to lobby by themselves, Meek says. "They are equipped to assist, be a part of the lobbying effort, but not to do it. They need to hire a lobbyist who can be responsive to their needs and help them achieves their objectives."
Lobbyists are especially important for developing countries, because there is so much competition among them for U.S. aid, Meek says, and "to compete for it you have to get in and get your story told."
