236 CHAPTER 8|INTEREST GROUPS
RESTRICTIONS ON INTEREST GROUP LOBBYING
In 2005, a major lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, was accused of using
“golf junkets, meals at his restaurant, seats at sporting events,
and, in some cases, old-fashioned cash” to lobby members of
Congress.a Abramoff was convicted in 2006 of conspiracy, fraud,
and tax evasion. Representative Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and several
aides and high-ranking bureaucrats were also convicted of
accepting Abramoff’s bribes or making false statements about
their relationship with him.b The case suggests that some inter-
est groups and lobbying fi rms are not playing by the rules.
Rather than just making their case to offi cials, they are offering
money and other inducements in return for policy change.
It seems that to solve this problem, interest groups and
lobbying fi rms should be regulated to ensure that they cannot
unfairly dominate the policy process by buying support from
members of Congress and bureaucrats. This proposal raises
two questions. First, would new regulations prevent abuses
of power? Second, are such abuses of power commonplace
enough to justify a new regulation?
Consider the six-point lobbying reform proposal offered after
the Abramoff scandal by a coalition of six public interest groups.c
- Place low limits on interest groups’ contributions to
candidates. - Ban interest groups from providing subsidized travel
to people in government. - Ban gifts from interest groups and their staff to mem-
bers of Congress and congressional staff. - Establish an independent ethics review board to over-
see interactions between lobbyists and both Congress
and the bureaucracy, and increase penalties for ethics
violations. - Ban former members of Congress, legislative staff,
and bureaucrats from lobbying for two years after
leaving offi ce. - Require electronic fi ling of lobbying registration forms
and congresspersons’ fi nancial disclosure forms.
Most of these proposals seem unobjectionable. Even so, there
are three fundamental problems with these restrictions. First,
some of them violate freedoms that many Americans value. The
campaign fi nance restrictions in point one would make it harder
for people to organize to infl uence elections. For example, the
amount that groups such as the NRA or AARP contribute to polit-
ical campaigns would be severely limited compared to the cur-
rent rules. A second problem is that it is diffi cult to tell whether
these regulations would work as intended. As discussed in this
chapter, interest groups are already highly regulated in terms of
who can lobby, how they can lobby, and what kinds of gifts and
assistance they can offer to government offi cials. Giving legisla-
tors, staffers, or bureaucrats gifts in return for policy changes
is already against the law, and if those laws aren’t working, it is
hard to see how new, similar laws will solve the problem.
Finally, this chapter shows that these reforms are, to some
extent, based on a misunderstanding of how interest groups oper-
ate. The case of Jack Abramoff is interesting precisely because it
is a glaring exception. Most interest groups are small and have
such limited resources that they couldn’t offer gifts or threaten to
withhold large campaign donations even if they wanted to. More-
over, interest groups tend to focus on offering advice and infor-
mation to people in government who already support their goals.
None of the reforms described here would change anything about
those practices, except to add some additional reporting require-
ments and further limit their (already restricted) ability to hire
people who used to work in government. (Moreover, additional
restrictions on electioneering might not be possible given the Citi-
zens United decision discussed in Chapter 7.)This cartoon summarizes public assumptions about lobbying and
its impact on members of Congress. In reality, Jack Abramoff ’s
conduct is the exception rather than the rule among lobbyists.You Decide
236 CHAPTER 8|INTEREST GROUPS
Critical Thinking Questions
- To what extent do you think these laws will curb
illegal behavior by interest groups—especially in
light of the fact that existing laws do not? - Are these laws aimed at exceptional cases or at
average interest groups?