Most Americans wonder how the Federal government manages to waste so much money. How is it possible to pass trillions and trillions of dollars in government pork bills every year? The WaPo has a great article today explaining modern day lobbying processes. While the article focuses on the tourism industry, keep in mind that any 501c3 organization with a DC or Northern Virginia address is engaged in the exact same activities. This, my readers, is how your tax dollars are spent.

WHEN PEOPLE THINK OF LOBBYING, they generally envision shadowy operatives and their bought-and-paid-for members of Congress sneaking self-interested giveaways into law. That still happens, of course. Witness the Jack Abramoff scandal. The disgraced lobbyist pleaded guilty in 2006 to arranging all kinds of expensive outings for government officials, including free parties in skyboxes and a golf trip to Scotland on a private jet, in exchange for legislative favors.

But Abramoff was an aberration. Lobbying is much more substantive and out in the open than its ugly caricature. Lobbyists primarily woo lawmakers with facts. Making the case is what effective lobbyists do most and best. They spend the rest of their time persuading lawmakers’ constituents to back the same causes, very much in the mode of an electoral campaign. If members of Congress see merit in a position and there is a public outcry in its favor, that’s the way they tend to vote. Lobbying these days has a lot of moving parts and is, at its core, more marketing than arm-twisting or favor-swapping. It features not only the lobbyists themselves but ad executives, public relations experts, pollsters, Web site designers and other consultants.

This is why you, Average Joe American, get so many email alerts asking you to call or email your elected official. Lobbyists often meet with a targeted member, likely sitting on a crucial committee or leadership position, and offer a sales pitch. Usually these involve facts and information specific to that member’s district. If that legislation is backed up with constituent emails and/or grasstops phone calls that voice support, it is more likely that the member will support the bill.

The number of people who make their livings trying to influence the federal government runs into the hundreds of thousands, an enormous figure given the fact that most lobbying is aimed at 535 members of Congress. The exact size of this lobbying army is hard to define, however, because the 30,000 or so people who register to lobby each year do so voluntarily (there is essentially no enforcement of lobbying registration laws), and only those who meet with lawmakers and their staffs directly are required to register at all.

In my opinion, this number is hugely underestimated. The WaPo is only looking at a small percentage of DC employeers who engage in these activities. I don’t even want to think about what the actual number is when other activities are included, such as technical support for constituency relations management (CRM) , research, writing, graphic design, media relations, advertising in member districts, grassroots/grasstops outreach, web design and strategic planning. It’s impossible to track all communications that could possibly affect decisions made by a member of congress. It would also infringe on the First Amendment to try to regulate these activities. We’re never going to know the true extent to which each member of Congress is influenced by some outside group. There are a lot of crafty and creative people making their living inside the Beltway and beyond through these activities. Essentially, entire industries exist to manipulate the First Amendment into promoting the interest of their employer.

And why wouldn’t ex-lawmakers and aides gravitate to K Street? Lobbying jobs pay at least twice and sometimes three times government salaries. Serving in government is now viewed by many on Capitol Hill as a steppingstone to a lucrative career in bending government to the whims of paying clients. In many ways, lobbying now mimics the government it targets. It has become a bureaucracy, with its own language, its own peculiar ways of doing business and, most important, its own instinct to survive.

Indeed, the last thing any lobbyist wants is to win everything his or her client is seeking. That would mean an end to a retainer, the closing of the feedbag. Success for a lobbyist is not outright victory but, rather, just enough progress to justify the creation of an elaborate and well-funded lobbying apparatus. Even outright failure can underscore the need to lobby harder.

Lobbying is Washington’s version of a perpetual motion machine. Once it gets revved up, it rarely stops running. In fact, it tends to grow.

A typical job description for any “lobbying activity” in DC asks for 2-5 years of Hill experience. The average staffer is willing to live in a group home making $25-30k for a couple of years when they know that a much more lucrative future awaits them.

He hired Oxford Economics, a British research firm, to study what other countries were spending on tourism promotion. RT Strategies — a Washington polling firm whose clients included Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — was retained to survey international travelers to see if their visits to the United States made them think more highly of the country. BKSH & Associates, a Washington lobbying firm, was asked to put together options for how the federal government might foot the bill for the advertising without causing lawmakers to scatter in panic. And Fleishman-Hillard, a Washington public relations firm, would handle the media. Together, the team set out to make the industry look unselfish, even as it prepared to beg for government aid. The lobbyists offered up two basic arguments. One was an old standby: that boosting tourism would be a boon to the U.S. economy. Almost every lobbying campaign asserts that it wants to “create jobs.” Second, the partnership was determined to show that tourism was actually an adjunct to U.S. diplomacy.

You know how everyone is upset about microtargeting in electoral races? Well that same technology is widely used when designing strategic plans for legislation. I’m willing to bet that the two most useful words on any apsiring politico or lobbyists’ resume are “strategy” and “research.” Behind almost every piece of legislation that Congress passes, was a carefully designed strategic plan.

I think my “Mr. Smith” phase of living and working in the DC metro area just came to a crashing halt. It’s not as shadowy as people imagine, since many of these groups are advocating for a good cause (helping animals, cancer research, better schools). However, it’s much more widespread and pervasive than the average voter thinks.

H/T Rob Bluey

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 11:21 am and is filed under DC adventures, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.