Lawyers Seeking Lobbying Reform

By Scott Amey

Lobbyists and lawyers have endured all kinds of name-calling. But what do you call a lawyer-lobbyist? Here’s one label: a member of the American Bar Association’s (ABA’s) Task Force on Federal Lobbying Laws, a group that recently published a report entitled “Lobbying Law in the Spotlight: Challenges and Proposed Improvements.” (Legal side note: I, Scott Amey [“Blog Author”], am an active member of the ABA [“Lawyer Assoc.”], and the opinions expressed herein are those of the Blog Author and not of the Lawyer Assoc., the “Task Force,” or any lobbying entity.)

I was fully expecting the report to read like a lobbyist’s talking point memo, arguing that lobbyists and their clients are burdened by the current system. To my surprise, however, the report states:

We believe it should make a useful contribution to the public debate about ways in which the federal government can improve its system of lobbying regulation, so that transparency in lobbying can be enhanced and conflicts of interest ameliorated (while fully honoring the First Amendment right of petition).

The report focuses on three general “weak spots” in the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995: insufficient registration and reporting, separation of lobbying from the “political money machine” to prevent any bundling of contributions and pay-to-play conflicts, and a lack of vigorous enforcement.

POGO couldn’t agree more with the idea that these three areas represent significant weak spots in the current system. POGO also believes that the system should expose the many high-level meetings between senior government officials and high-ranking private sector personnel who are not registered lobbyists. I don’t think the public is any less susceptible to corruption or cozy relationships if registered lobbyists are not present during a meeting.

The ABA report adds a ton of credibility to efforts to reform the system. So long as we don’t allow the no-lobbying-reform lobbyists to win the lobbying battle, we might be able to codify the best parts of President Obama’s restriction on hiring lobbyists (sans the waiver provision) and the revolving door that spins former government officials onto K Street and vice-versa.

Scott Amey is POGO’s General Counsel.

Image by Flickr user arcticpenguin, used under Creative Commons License.

Comments

[Daniel]

This is an excellent (and funny) blogpost. For some highlights from the report, check out my blogpost, here: http://is.gd/d63QNM, on Sunlight's blog. (Disclosure: I served on the task force as a liaison.)