From The Seattle Times, 6/23/05:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002345288_lobby23.html
Republican control, business interests lead to legions of lobbyists in
capital
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON --
To the great growth industries of the United States such as health
care and home building add one more: influence peddling.
The number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled
since 2000 to more than 34,750, while the amount that lobbyists charge
new clients has increased by up to 100 percent.
Few other businesses have enjoyed greater prosperity in an otherwise
fitful economy.
The lobbying boom has been caused by three factors, experts said:
rapid growth in government, Republican control of the White House and
Congress and wide acceptance among corporations that they need to hire
professional lobbyists to secure their share of federal benefits.
"There's unlimited business out there for us," said former Rep. Robert
Livingston, R-La., who was chairman of the House Appropriations
Committee and now is president of a thriving, 6-year-old lobbying
firm.
"Companies need lobbying help."
Lobbying firms can't hire people fast enough.
Starting salaries have risen to about $300,000 a year for the
best-connected aides eager to "move downtown" from Capitol Hill or the
Bush administration.
Once considered a distasteful post-government vocation, big-bucks
lobbying is luring nearly half of all lawmakers who return to the
private sector when they leave Congress, according to a study by
Public Citizen's Congress Watch.
Political historians don't see these as positive developments for
democracy.
"We've got a problem here," said Allan Cigler, a political scientist
at the University of Kansas.
"The growth of lobbying makes even worse than it is already the
balance between those with resources and those without resources."
In the 1990s, lobbying was largely reactive.
Corporations had to fend off proposals that would have restricted them
or cost them money.
With pro-business officials running the executive and legislative
branches, however, companies are hiring well-placed lobbyists to go on
the offensive and find ways to profit from the many tax breaks,
loosened regulations and other government goodies that increasingly
are available.
"People in industry are willing to invest money because they see
opportunities here," said Patrick Griffin, who was President Clinton's
top lobbyist and is now in private practice.
"They see that they can win things, that there's something to be
gained. Washington has become a profit center."
The price of success
Take the example of Hewlett-Packard.
The California computer maker nearly doubled its budget for contract
lobbyists to $734,000 last year and added the elite lobbying firm of
Quinn Gillespie & Associates.
HP's goal was to pass Republican-backed legislation that would allow
the company to bring back to the United States at a drastically
lowered tax rate up to $14.5 billion in profits from foreign
subsidiaries.
The lobbying paid off.
The legislation was approved, and Hewlett-Packard will save millions
of dollars in taxes.
"We're trying to take advantage of the fact that Republicans control
the House, the Senate and the White House," said John Hassell,
director of government affairs at Hewlett-Packard.
"There is an opportunity here for the business community to make its
case and be successful."
Microsoft had little presence in Washington, D.C, until the late
1990s.
It employed few lobbyists during the Clinton administration.
That changed, when the U.S. Justice Department brought its antitrust
case against the company in 1998.
The company, known for keeping its lobbying and public-relations
tactics private, has spent more than $61 million on lobbying since
1998, says the Center for Public Integrity, a political-watchdog
group.
The majority of Microsoft's 20 registered lobbying companies are law
firms that deal with legal and tax issues, the center says.
Republicans in charge aren't just pro-business, they also are
pro-government.
Federal outlays increased nearly 30 percent from 2000 to 2004, to
$2.29 trillion.
Despite the budget deficit, federal spending is set to increase again
this year, especially in programs that are prime lobbying targets such
as defense, homeland security and medical coverage.
In addition, President Bush has signed into law five major tax-cut
bills, and his administration has curtailed regulation.
The number of new federal regulations has declined by 5 percent to
4,100, according to Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., a vice president of the
Competitive Enterprise Institute.
The number of pending regulations that would cost businesses or local
governments $100 million or more a year has declined more, by 14.5
percent to 135 over the period.
Companies have had to redouble their lobbying merely to keep track of
it all.
"Much of lobbying today is watching all the change that's going on in
Washington," Cigler said.
"Companies need more people just to stay apprised of what regulators
are doing."
Can't live without them
At the same time, government activism has presented potential problems
for businesses.
"As government grows, unless you're right there to limit it, it can
intrude in just about any industry," Livingston said.
"There are agencies that love to do things and acquire new missions.
People in industry better have good lobbyists or they're going to get
rolled over."
But whether it's to protect themselves against harm or to win more
benefits, executives and insiders said they have no choice but to hire
lobbyists who are deeply rooted in official Washington and its
complexities.
"Hiring a lobbyist is part of [the] system these days," said Kent
Cooper, co-founder of PoliticalMoneyLine, a nonpartisan compiler of
lobbying and campaign-funding information.
Jonas Neihardt, vice president of federal-government affairs for
Qualcomm, the San Diego technology company, agreed:
"Without professional lobbyists, I don't see how a company can monitor
everything that's going on or provide the inputs that are necessary to
explain why rules and laws have to be changed."
The result has been a gold rush on K Street, the lobbyists' boulevard.
Quinn Gillespie has added at least 16 clients and six professionals
since its co-founder, Ed Gillespie, said in November that he was
returning after a stint as chairman of the Republican National
Committee.
Barbour Griffith & Rogers, another lobbying firm, increased the number
of lobbyists to 15, from eight in 2003.
The owner of a large lobbying shop said he could hire veteran Capitol
Hill staff members for $200,000 a year or less five years ago.
The going rate now is closer to $300,000, and the most-sought-after
aides can expect more.
In 2002, Susan Hirschmann, chief of staff to House Majority Leader Tom
DeLay, R-Texas, had so many lobbying offers that she enlisted Robert
Barnett, the attorney for Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., to
filter them.
The bidding can get even more fevered for retiring members of Congress
and senior administration aides.
Well-regarded top officials lately have commanded employment packages
worth upward of $2 million a year. Marc Racicot, a former Montana
governor who chaired the Republican National Committee, soon will
collect an annual salary of $1 million-plus as president of the
American Insurance Association.
The fees lobbyists charge clients also have risen substantially.
Retainers that had been $10,000 to $15,000 a month for new corporate
clients before Bush took office now are $20,000 to $25,000 a month or
more, lobbyists said.
All-Republican lobbying firms have boosted their rates the most.
Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock and the Federalist Group reported that at
the end of the Clinton administration, $20,000 a month was considered
high.
Now, they said, retainers of $25,000 to $40,000 a month are customary
for new corporate clients.
Corporate clients accept the extra cost as the price of success.
The American Ambulance Association this year decided to step up
lobbying and switched to Patton Boggs, the Capitol Hill powerhouse,
from a smaller lobbying shop, boosting its lobbying budget by about
one-third, to more than $300,000 annually.
"It is essential we have a very strong presence," association
President Robert Garner said.
"It's pricey, but it's the cost of doing business in the federal
environment."
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And remember that greed is good.
Harry
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