LOBBYIST LURE AWAY CONGRESSIONAL STAFF FOR $300,000

“The point [Lee] Drutman raises most clearly is to me the most dangerous. Business lobbyists are offering higher pay to more and more congressional staffers, thus depleting Congress of its best, most experienced analysts. Those who hold senior staff positions that bring them into constant contact with lawmakers are offered up to $300,000 a year and more, and typically lobbying firms offer double the pay of less experienced staffers. Thus, lobbyists are not so much pounding on the doors of congressional offices; staffers are welcoming them in.

“Lobbyists, writes Drutman, are now deeply involved with developing and drafting of legislation. They also help staffers develop the talking points and explanations for why the legislation makes sense, write speeches and letters in support of it, seek out co-sponsors and supporters both within and outside of government, and generally see a bill through from start to finish.

“Some analysts term this a ‘lobbying subsidy’ to Congress. Oddly, Drutman is not always alarmed at this influence. In a study he did with a colleague, for example, he found that Enron’s political e-mails made arguments on the merits, and that its great resource was ‘its monopoly of policy-relevant information.’ He was on the staff of a senator and he writes that ‘this author’s personal experiences working in the Senate found that the majority of corporate lobbyists do know an incredible amount about their particular policy area, and are indeed very helpful as researchers and analysts.’”

Jeff Madrick, “How the Lobbyists Win in Washington,” April 7, 2016, in The New York Review, a review of Lee Drutman’ The Business of America Is Lobbying: How Corporations Became Politicized and Politics Became More Corporate, April 7, 2016, pp: 50-52.