https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1314252606110412806?s=20
For next Tuesday:
- Ken Silverstein, "Their Men in Washington," Harper's, June 2007. On Sakai
- Ben Freeman, "Foreign Funding of Think Tanks in America." Center for International Policy, Jan 2020, https://static.wixstatic.com/ugd/3ba8a1_4f06e99f35d4485b801f8dbfe33b6a3f.pdf.
- JJames M. McCormick, "Ethnic Interest Groups and American Foreign Policy," in Interest Group Politics, 9th ed., ed. Allan J. Cigler, Burdett A. Loomis, and Anthony J. Nownes (Washington: Sage, 2016). On Sakai.
Another view of contract lobbyists (compare data with Drutman, p. 156)
Growth of government -- James Madison, Federalist 62: " Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue, or in any way affecting the value of the different species of property, presents a new harvest to those who watch the change, and can trace its consequences; a harvest, reared not by themselves, but by the toils and cares of the great body of their fellow-citizens. This is a state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws are made for the FEW, not for the MANY."
BUT IS IT A SUFFICIENT REASON FOR THE GROWTH OF LOBBYING? (Drutman, ch. 8)
"Once an industry engages politically, it tends to stay engaged, regardless of the ebb and flow of government attention" (p. 189)
What does it mean that lobbying is "sticky"?
Congress has given itself a lobotomy over the past three decades. It has eliminated thousands of staff positions, eviscerated its ability to carry out policy analysis, and generally has such low pay and difficult work environments that it relies on inexperienced and overstretched 20-somethings for the vast bulk of its work.
Why they call it "the revolving door."
In July 2017, [Agriculture Secretary Sonny] Perdue named Maggie Lyons, a former lobbyist for the National Grocers Association, as chief of staff to the acting deputy undersecretary of Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services; and Kailee Tkacz, most recently food policy director at the Corn Refiners Association and previously a lobbyist for the Snack Food Association and National Grocers Association, as a policy advisor. (Perdue also tapped Brandon Lipps, a former counsel at the House Agricultural Committee under Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK), as acting deputy undersecretary of Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services.)
...
In September 2017, lobbyists from the Corn Refiners Association and the Sugar Association secured a meeting with Lyons and Lipps to discuss both the dietary guidelines and a potential Dietary Reference Intake for carbohydrates, such as fiber and sugar. A Dietary Reference Intake is a standard established by an expert committee convened by the National Academy of Medicine and sponsored by public agencies including USDA. The standards the committee establishes then inform other recommendations, such as nutrition labeling requirements and the dietary guidelines. The meeting demonstrates the degree to which these top USDA appointees were willing to meet with industry groups—one of which had recently employed their colleague, Tkacz.
CNN and POGO on Food lobbying:
The National Grocers Association provides talking points to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue: In his February speech to the association, Perdue echoes the talking points, telling the grocers that "your stores many times are the only stores available for food for miles around, and we don't acknowledge that very often, but I ... appreciate you sticking it out. I appreciate you sticking it out not because you are certainly getting rich in doing that, I understand that you're not ... there for the money, you're living there because you know it is supportive to the community ... you're not driven by Wall Street, certainly, you're driven by Main Street, and you are making a difference there where you serve."
Axios on PhRMA: "Tens of millions in grants were funneled to patient advocacy groups that often stay silent about rising drug prices. Some of the largest PhRMA-funded patient groups were the Addiction Policy Forum, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the AIDS Institute."
Citing your own ghost-written letter: "On Tuesday, Mother Jones reported that a lobbyist for the Financial Services Institute, an industry trade group whose members stand to benefit from weaker investor protections, secretly wrote a letter signed by 32 progressive House Democrats aimed at scaling back new regulations the Department of Labor (DOL) wants to impose on retirement investment advisers. Now, in an only-in-Washington twist, FSI is citing the letter its lobbyist ghostwrote to bolster its case against these protections, including in a recent missive to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) urging a delay in implementing them." Note a cameo in the story.
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