Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 16, 1995 TAG: 9507180025
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID SEGAL THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
The hired guns that have long plied their trade on Capitol Hill have been joined by representatives from scores of Main Street groups boasting millions of members, and new trade and professional groups have been flocking to Capitol Hill for years. There are 7,400 national associations with headquarters in Washington, according to the National Trade and Professional Associations of the United States.
The upshot is that if you are employed, active in community groups or just a functioning member of society, then you probably have at least a handful of lobbyists toiling on your behalf.
Take John Cloyne, for instance. Cloyne, a salesman who lives with his wife and three children in Oakton, Va., considers Washington lobbyists ``wheeler-dealers,'' but because of his affiliations it turns out that quite a number of them are wheeling and dealing for him.
Cloyne is a member of the American Automobile Association, a group that lobbies Congress on behalf of its 34 million members to spend more money on roads. He and his family attend nearby St. Mark's Church, which is part of the United States Catholic Conference, a group with four full-time lobbyists. And he earns his living as a sales representative for Datatec, a company that belongs to the National Retail Federation, the International Mass Retail Association and the Food Marketing Institute, all of which employ lobbyists.
Cloyne typifies one of the more noticeable paradoxes in the American body politic.
``People are constantly saying that we should get rid of lobbyists, but they have memberships that support lobbying,'' said Wendy Mann, a spokeswoman for the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives. ``The average person doesn't make the connection between the benefits they receive from associations and the fact that it took someone working on Capitol Hill to get those benefits.''
That doesn't mean that the influence of highly paid representatives for big special interests, such as foreign governments and major U.S. corporations, has waned. There still are plenty of those lobbyists roaming the halls of the Capitol, but they're not alone.
How did we become a nation of lobbyists? To begin with, just about any group - from nudists to bowling alley owners - that could come to Washington and ask for some benefit has arrived. The Encyclopedia of Associations has been adding organizations at a rate of 10 a week since 1970.
Membership in these groups has been booming. A 1990 Hudson Institute study found that seven of 10 Americans belong to at least one association, the vast majority of which engage in lobbying. Comparable figures from decades past aren't available, but one can get a sense of how many people are joining these organizations by looking at the American Association of Retired Persons, one of the most powerful groups in the country. In 1967, the group had fewer than 1 million members; today, it has 33 million members.
Henry Ernsthal, former head of George Washington University's association management program, said the growth parallels the growth of government's role in our lives - the more government does, the more Americans want a say in how it does it. And in 1990 the Internal Revenue Service, following Congress's lead, issued regulations that made it easier to spend money on grass-roots lobbying, a move that has all but encouraged people to start their own groups and make the rounds on Capitol Hill.
Nonetheless, few of us include ourselves when we denounce lobbyists. Last year a Harris poll found that 79 percent of those surveyed believed that Washington lobbyists wield too much power.
``It's fairly typical for Americans,'' Ernsthal said. ``People love their doctor, but don't like doctors; they love their member of Congress, but don't like politicians; the groups that represent our interest aren't special interest, it's the other guy.''
Then again, many of us became lobbyists unwittingly. For years we've been giving money to organizations that few would think of as pressure groups.
If you receive Consumer Reports magazine, for example, you are contributing money to Consumer's Union, which lobbies on banking, insurance and product safety laws.
Is your child farming with the National 4-H Council? The council lobbies Congress and the Agriculture Department for additional dollars.
Do you have a daughter in the Girl Scouts, or have you bought any Girl Scout cookies lately? If so, you're subsidizing a group that has been fighting against taxing charitable contributions for years. The Boy Scouts, meanwhile, have hired a local law firm to handle their lobbying.
If you are one of 6.7 million members of the Parent Teacher Association, 75 cents of your annual dues goes to the national office to help the group weigh in on issues that range from dropout prevention to drug labeling.
The YMCA has a lobbying group in Washington for its 14 million members as well. ``We call it advocating,'' said Jan McCormick, the group's director of association development.
Joining the National Guard makes you a member of one of the most effective lobbying forces in the country, a group that years ago won an extraordinary deal from Congress. Guard members are paid at the same daily rate as full-time soldiers, but anyone working for one day in the Guard gets paid for two days.
Foundations such as the Ford Foundation and Carnegie Foundation lobby on Capitol Hill. Then there are groups like the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association that seek government funding to fight various diseases.
``When people think of lobbyists, they think of the back room cigar-chomper of 30 years ago,'' said Bob Smucker, vice president of Independent Sector, an umbrella group for public-interest groups. ``The typical person giving to the American Cancer Society doesn't think he's giving to a lobbying group. But that's lobbying, too.''
These public-minded organizations differ little from other lobbying groups in their overall strategies. Most are simply scrapping for a bigger slice of the federal pie, and nearly all of them are ardent foes of lobbying reform. Last year a coalition of nonprofit groups organized by Independent Sector joined a group that helped to snuff out a lobbying reform bill, which would have added a number of disclosure requirements. Members of the coalition included the American Foundation of the Blind and the Child Welfare League of America.
``The fact is that you'll have a hard time getting your calls answered on Capitol Hill if you call up and say `I'm Jane Doe and I want to bring this to your attention,''' said Nan Aron, head of the Alliance for Justice, an association for public interest advocacy groups, which fought last year's lobbying reform bill. ``And more nonprofits are realizing that they can't afford to sit on the sidelines while Congress acts on, or doesn't act on, issues that affect them.''
For those who have avoided associations, consider this: You don't have to join these groups to receive benefits. If you fit their member profile, associations fight for you whether you've paid your dues or not. If you run a truck stop, for example, the National Association of Truck Stop Operators is in your corner, even if you don't pony up the $700 annual membership fee. The same is true for home-appliance manufacturers, advanced life underwriters, federal veterinarians and gifted children. A group is doing their bidding, even for nonmembers.
``Associations face a classic freeloader problem,'' said Ron Shaiko, a government professor at American University here. ``You can do nothing and get all the benefits. Which is why so many associations offer tote bags and discounts on hotel rooms and things like that. It's not always economically rational to spend the money for membership.''
by CNB