Above The Noise

- Hey, you wanna make a lot of money?

Become a lobbyist.

What up, world?

Myles Bess here, journalist, host, and someone who could use a little extra cash.

Now, you've all heard about lobbyists, right?

They get paid to schmooze with congressmen.

Congressmen, I know you wanna pass this bill, man.

Do you wanna a shrimpy?

Yeah, I'll have a shrimpy.

Yeah, you gotta pass that bill though, huh?

Yeah, totally.

That sounds like a great idea, actually, yeah.

Yeah, that's right congressman.

Pass that bill.

Enjoy that shrimpy.

Cheers.

So maybe it's not exactly like that but lobbying is a $3.7 billion industry and your average lobbyist is taking home 112K a year.

Hmm.

It's not too shabby.

Now, my gut is telling me that all this money changing hands is a little fishy.

What's that gut?

(stomach gurgles) Yeah, yeah, I hear you.

And I'm gonna get to the bottom of this just for you.

So today we're asking what the heck do lobbyists do?

And are they really that bad?

Okay.

So long story short, lobbyists are just people who talk to politicians to try to get them to pass or oppose laws and other policies.

Professional lobbyists do that on behalf of their clients.

And those clients can range from big corporations, trade associations, unions, non-profits.

It's literally a lobbyists' job to influence government officials to get them to adopt policies that are favorable to their clients.

And there are thousands of different groups that either have lobbyists working directly for them or hire lobbyists from big lobbying firms.

Even reptiles have lobbyists.

That's a true story.

The U.S. Association for Reptile Keepers has spent $10,000 on lobbying so far in 2022.

Now, the term goes way back to when people would literally wait in the lobbies of government offices to try to catch lawmakers' ears.

At its core, it's a way for citizens to petition the government for a redress of grievances which is a right that's protected by the First Amendment.

Okay so, that's what lobbyists are, but are they bad?

So a lot of the critiques of lobbying come down to how money, money, money, money is involved in the process.

It's totally legal for lobbyists to throw big fundraisers for politicians, and they themselves can actually personally donate to campaigns.

It's insanely expensive to run for office.

I mean, campaign spending for the 2022 midterm election cycle is projected to exceed $9.3 billion.

That's like buying a quarter of Twitter.

As per Politico reports, Representative Virginia Fox from North Carolina host a Brunch Bunch, which costs $1,000 to go to one, $2,500 to go to three, and $5,000 to go to seven.

Seems like a sweet deal.

Politicians raise money for their campaigns and lobbyists get to build relationships with lawmakers.

A win-win for lobbyists and politicians, and all this brings up some serious equity issues when it comes to who can afford to hire lobbyists, and ultimately whose voice gets to influence government policy.

Let me tell you a quick story.

Once upon a time, polls showed that 80-90% of Americans favored allowing the federal government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices.

I mean, the only thing that's more popular is The Rock.

So lucky for Americans, Congress was debating a bill which would do just that.

Easy win, right?

It didn't pass.

It died on the Senate floor.

Pharmaceutical companies spent big money lobbying Congress to fight this bill.

I bet y'all didn't see that coming, huh?

So I looked up who the biggest spenders on lobbying were in 2021.

Literally at the top, big business.

As in the US Chamber of Commerce, a pro-business interest group.

Next up, landowners.

Coming in number two is the National Association of Realtors, an organization who, according to it's website, has 114 years of advocating and protecting the rights of property buyers and sellers in the U.S. and around the world.

Number three, big Phrma, the pharmaceutical research and manufacturers of America.

Also at the top of the list are big tech companies.

Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook and Amazon both spent over $19 million on lobbying.

Who don't you see at the top?

Lobbyists advocating for the people or the planet rather than a business's bottom line.

Though I will point out that AARP spent over $13 million lobbying in 2021.

Dang.

Boomers, y'all got all the money, huh?

Yeah, I see what's happening here.

In 2015, the Atlantic reported that of the 100 organizations that spent the most on lobbying, 95 consistently represent business.

And a lot of this wheeling and dealing happens behind closed doors with no transparency.

Critics say lobbyists like all good salespeople, cherry pick data that makes their client's case look good and the public doesn't really know what's going on.

So it's hard for anyone to set the record straight.

And the critiques of the love affair between business and government goes way back.

I mean, check out this political cartoon from 1889 suggesting how big businesses like steel, copper and oil are the real bosses of the Senate.

Hot take.

In 1937, Congressman Alfred N. Phillips from Connecticut had a sign hanging from his door that said, come in, everybody welcome, except professional lobbyists.

So I wanted to find out, do any lobbyist score wins for non-business causes, like maybe protecting the environment?

And that's how I met Tom Cors.

He's a lobbyist for the Nature Conservancy, a giant global environmental nonprofit dedicated to conserving land.

Now, this isn't just some small and scrappy environmental group, y'all.

They're legit.

And to be honest, it sounds like he's got a pretty sweet job.

- A lot of my most successful lobbying visits are not in a suit, they're out in the field.

I take politicians out fishing, I take them out hiking.

I try to bring people together across political lines.

- And they just had a major win in 2020 with the Great American Outdoors Act.

They secured $900 million a year of the government's oil and gas revenue to permanently fund the land and water conservation fund, a pot of money for conservation efforts to offset some of the environmental damage caused by the oil and gas industry.

And I wanna know what it's actually like to lobby for this bill.

And Tom explained that a lot of lobbying is building relationships and figuring out who actually has the power and interest to help with your cause.

- And I've been working with Senator Richard Burr and his staff for many years and we'd had many great victories and I remember distinctly, we were talking about, well, let's go to the next step, let's get that $900 million fixed for conservation.

He said, I'm not your guy anymore.

I said, what are you talking about?

You've been the guy, you're the lead.

And he said, well, I don't have any political currency and you need somebody that's got political currency and those people are members that are up for reelection.

And he suggested Senator Cory Gardner a Republican from Colorado, and we shifted the land and water full funding effort over to Senator Gardner.

He went to Senator McConnell, said this is my election year, ask of you, let's get this done.

Senator McConnell agreed.

And in a very famous meeting at the White House in January of 2020, President Trump agreed to fix Land and Water Conservation Fund and also do maintenance backlog on public lands.

- That's amazing.

And I mean, it all sounds very like the political dramas that you see on TV sometimes.

After President Trump got on board with the bill, it was debated and passed in the House and Senate and signed into law with the Great American Outdoors Act in 2020.

Dang, Tom's got some serious lobbying skills but I also wanted to get his take on the equity issues when it comes to big corporations having tons of money to spend on lobbying compared to most public interest groups.

He told me that money isn't the only kind of currency for lobbying.

- How many people are calling up and pestering your front office phone.

But then you can also look at different ways to communicate where you send an email and an email might be worth a little bit more, handwritten notes worth a lot more, a personal meeting is worth even more than that and then with the member of Congress's former roommate from sophomore year in college saying you need to do this, that's worth a ton more.

- Yeah, you gotta figure out who these people are playing golf with.

Okay, so moral of the story, if you want something done, hire a lobbyist.

I wish I could hire one to negotiate a raise for me.

Hmm.

All right.

As it stands now, lobbying is pretty essential to how our republic functions.

Lobbyists have the tricks and tools of the trade to get things done in an often gridlocked Congress and money helps but lobbying isn't perfect.

To help balance some of the equity issues, there have been some cause for lobbying reform, things like banning lobbyists fundraising and increasing transparency in the industry.

So I hope you learned something from this little video.

Like my takeaway, maybe lobbyists are the real pants wearers of democracy.

No, but seriously if you could be a lobbyist for any issue, what would it be?

I'll go first.

I'd say we need a four day work week and we need the government to give us money.

Until next time, I'm your host, Myles Bess.

Peace out.