Should members of Congress and their staff disclose information about their meetings and contacts with lobbyists?

Yes

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by Barbara Ehrentreu

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Currently members of Congress need to disclose all of the contributions to their campaigns according to how much and from where it came. Yet during the time these same members of Congress are in Washington and doing government business in Congress, they do not have to disclose the meetings and contacts with lobbyists. What does this mean? It means that a member of Congress could be meeting with a lobbyist and though they are not contributing to the Congressperson's campaign they are doing something just as influential.

As a member of a citizens' lobby group for the State Legislature the group met with several local legislators. The meetings were cordial and since these legislators were from the same party as the delegation it was a very successful trip. This lobbying influenced these legislators to continue to work on the issues that the lobbying group had discussed. Imagine how a Congressperson feels when one of them meets with someone from their home state and district that is in agreement with their policies? Yes, money is important and is probably the best way to sway opinion, but several meetings with a Congressperson where he or she is given free food or other complementary gifts will influence them too.

The top lobbying firms spent from over $13.000,000 all the way up to over $91,000,000 by a group one would not think would have to lobby at all, The Chamber of Commerce. Each firm must disclose how much they spent quarterly with a separation of funds used for lobbying from the non-lobbying funds. However, these firms don't have to disclose where they spent the money and on which issues or Congresspersons. The fact that groups such as The Center for Responsive Politics with its website: OpenSecrets.org is able to post these figures are a big step forward for transparency in government. Groups like these are the watchdogs for Congress and the government.

However, though it is broken down by political figure and campaign spending and the amounts from each lobbying group are given for each campaign, this is only for campaigns. Everyday lobbying is not shown here, though definitely some of these funds have been used for lobbying. There is a great deal of pressure put upon certain targeted Congresspersons depending on what legislation is desired or in a great many cases not desired to be passed. Many of these groups use funds for videos that are posted on websites and also use the funds for petitioning and sending out emails to gain support from constituents of the Congresspersons they are targeting. This kind of pressure sometimes works better than funding a campaign. Constant pressure with phone calls and emails clogging their inboxes and tying up the switchboard cause problems for Congresspersons and they therefore need to pay attention to the issue.

Some lobbyists hire people to work on passing a specific bill. Yet when these funds are used to influence the votes of particular Congresspersons they do not have to disclose how these funds were used. Looking at the list of the Top Spenders as mentioned before it is The Chamber of Commerce. When you look at this group further you notice that this group includes all of the states' Chambers of Commerce plus some foreign ones too including one from Columbia. These groups have a reason to be lobbying their Congressperson. Each one of these groups probably has a pet project that they want to be included in a bill. So they will continue to lobby using all of the tools at their disposal to influence each Congressperson from individual states that want things done. Looking on the OpenSecrets.org website uncovers information that is withheld from the normal voter.

When you realize that each lobbyist has the ear of at least the Congressperson of their own state and others who agree with their point of view the idea that lobbyists can control the way Congress votes doesn't sound so wrong. A good example is the amount of oil companies who are in the top spenders. These oil companies do not want to be replaced by green energy such as wind and solar power. Could this be why though President Obama has been talking about this kind of power being used, it is so slow to get bills through Congress on it?

In conclusion, think how much better it would be for the public if members of Congress needed to disclose any meetings with any lobbyists. Wouldn't it be better for voters to know that their Congressperson was meeting with various groups and being lobbied by these same groups? It would bring the kind of transparency that government reformers have been calling for over the years. It would be a way to regulate the lobbying that has threatened the thread of democracy for so many years.

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