Lobbying Carries a Negative Connotation, Essay Example

Lobbying carries a negative connotation, in which most people think of them as greedy members of major corporations that bribe members of Congress to pass legislation that are beneficial to them. Unbeknownst to many, is that the First Amendment protects lobbyist rights to influence legislation, by giving them the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. The laws that regulate lobbying stems from the passage of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 and the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. The latter law was passed to make lawmakers that accept gifts from lobbyists and clients disclose information on their funding for projects. Lobbying works by two methods, lobbyists can be direct or indirect. Direct lobbying is seen more by Congress, and indirect is used in local and state levels. Before lobbyist meet with congress members, they must first do their homework, and have knowledge of the person they are approaching, the way they have voted in the past, and where they would stand on the issue. The direct approach is applied when lobbyists meet face to face with the congressional members to show how serious issues are.

Grassroots is seen on more local level that is considered an indirect approach which the lobbyist go public, in helping to influence the elected officials vote. This is more common as the public is more involved in writing letters, calling elected officials, and making public demonstrations for the causes. Lobbyists that take the indirect approach emails, write newspaper editorials, fundraise, hold public meetings, and advertise the issues. Those are considered to have the most impact in created legislative influence. Lobbyists are work by filing amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs, which help to influence cases, and help to influence the political attitudes of the local or national government.  Lobbyist can be bad or good, dependent on the cause, those that show passion in their cause are those that influence the most change.