Talking Lobbying

Five government experts pool their expertise to answer everything you always wanted to know about lobbying, but didn’t know enough—or were too afraid—to ask.

Lobbying.

It’s a familiar term to most, yet few outside government circles truly understand what lobbying means and what the process is all about.

The term “lobbying” was coined to describe attempts by individuals and groups to influence elected representatives through personal contact in the lobbies of legislative and other buildings. Since then, some have broadened lobbying’s scope to also include efforts to influence civil servants, state institutions, and public opinion.
For the scrap recycling industry, both professional and nonprofessional, or grass-roots, lobbying have been critical tools in its regulatory and legislative battles. Yet, more recyclers must be willing to assume a lobbying role if the industry is to emerge victorious on its most important issues.

That was just one conclusion reached by five of ISRI’s government experts, who offered insights on lobbying in a roundtable discussion in January. Here, Herschel Cutler, executive director; Clare Hessler, director of federal and state policy; Scott Horne, director of state and local programs; Mark Reiter, manager of legislative and international affairs; and former congressman Al Swift, currently an ReMA consultant, discuss why lobbying is a good New Year’s resolution.

What is lobbying and what is its purpose?

Swift: Lobbying is essentially the exercise of the constitutional right to petition your government. The reason it’s necessary is that legislatures are made up of laymen who don’t come with specific knowledge of all the issues on which they are asked to legislate. They know the big political issues of the day, but they don’t know the details about legislation involving the telephone industry or crop subsidies or—in our case—how the scrap industry is affected by environmental laws. If we don’t tell them how what they’re doing is going to affect the scrap industry, how are they going to know? They won’t.

Cutler: Or they will hear from people who have an erroneous concept of what you do or your position on a given issue, or who have a proprietary interest in making sure your position isn’t understood.

Swift: If no one were allowed to lobby or talk to legislators, they would decide in total ignorance of the specifics. If only one side were able to talk to them, then you’d have a skewed legislative process. As long as all interests can access legislators and make their cases, you have an inherent balancing of those interests that makes lobbying appropriate.

Who lobbies?

Horne: In its purest form, you’d prefer to have the affected party do the lobbying, but that’s not always possible. That’s one reason there are associations that have a presence in Washington. ReMA has taken that one step further by having both professional staff lobbyists as well as members who serve as grassroots lobbyists.

Reiter: You can call the expertise we have here “inside-the-Beltway” lobbying, which uses an organization’s staff and consulting lobbyists. “Outside-the-Beltway” lobbyists are the citizen lobbyists, our members. We inside the Beltway know Washington, we know government, and we know legislative tactics and strategies. We can help organize a lobbying effort, keep it on track, and work with our members, who are meeting with their legislators in their home areas. Together we get a very focused, directed way to educate legislators, wherever they may be.

Cutler: Another way to look at lobbying is to consider its two functions. One is teaching legislators what your problem is, why it exists, and how it impacts you, your industry, and the country. The other is how to correct it. These are two distinctly separate functions—one to make the problem understandable and one to fix it. So lobbying is a combination of citizen lobbyists and professionals, depending on who can best do each function at a particular time.

How does one get started in lobbying?

Swift: The beginner has to understand that lobbying is like any other form of salesmanship. Legislators need information, and you can give it to them. People think you have to meet with a guru wearing a strange hat with stars and moons on it to tell you the secret to lobbying. But the secret of good lobbying is the secret of good human relations. You say please, you say thank you at appropriate times, you try to be brief and not waste somebody’s time, and you try to get your message across as best as possible.

The second point to learn is that, in any legislative body, there are certain rhythms. In the legislature, for instance, when are lawmakers on the floor, when are they in their offices, when can they meet? The best way to find out is to ask someone you know in some business that lobbies. Frankly, if you sit down with your legislator and say, “I need to know how I can best make my case,” they or their staff are usually delighted to tell you.

People argue that they don’t have time to lobby, they don’t understand the process, or they’re afraid their legislator will be unapproachable. What are the consequences of not lobbying?

Horne: You lose, plain and simple. Lobbying isn’t that time-consuming, first of all, and it’s not hard. Sure, it’s natural to be scared as you’re waiting to speak before a committee, but once you’ve done it and once you realize that the officials on the other side are human beings who will show you respect, it becomes very easy to do.

Hessler: At the local and state levels as well as Congress, you’re talking about a minimal amount of time. Time commitment to local town council meetings isn’t significant, perhaps one night a month. Writing a letter every month or two to your legislator takes little time, and a short note with good news about your facility—a period of time without an industrial accident or an award for your operations—is the type of thing you can quickly share. It’s also very easy to meet legislators a few times a year at area business organization meetings such as the local chamber of commerce.

Horne: You also don’t have to carry the burden alone, especially when you’re part of a group. Take ISRI, for instance. You’ve got 15 or 20 members in a state, so one member doesn’t have to meet with every legislator. You target a committee or a couple of committees, and you go speak to them. You split it up so the time commitment isn’t too burdensome. Also, you can see a lot of legislators back in your districts. And one other point—I think people have a fear of calling and a perception that it’s hard to get an appointment. In many instances, you call a state legislator and they answer their own phone. You don’t even get stopped by a secretary.

Reiter: The real consequence of not lobbying, of not informing and educating legislators about your company and your industry, is that they will legislate in the absence of information. And that could result in overly stringent regulations. It could result in micromanaging the industry through statutes. It could result in the government becoming an unwanted partner in your business.

Cutler: As people become aware of the cost of being legislated or regulated against, at some point the cost of not participating in the process is equal to or greater than the cost of conducting normal operations. If a large scrap generator or new consumer came into your locale, you could rationalize exactly the same way: I don’t know these people, they’re too important, I don’t know how to talk to them. But you’re not going to walk away from those possible accounts. You’re going to find a way to meet and talk with the scrap purchasing or sales manager. Once you recognize that the cost of regulation and legislation is certainly as important as finding a new consumer or supplier, those excuses should disappear.

Could you discuss the different types of lobbying?

Hessler: There are introductory, maintenance, and crisis modes of lobbying. In the first case, you introduce yourself and perhaps invite local, state, or federal officials to tour your recycling facility. Then you need to maintain regular contact with these officials so they’re aware of improvements or positive events at your plant or if you have problems that they might be able to address. Remember, elected officials are there to help you.

Swift: The whole point of introductory and maintenance lobbying is that when you have a crisis, you’ll be able to get through to your legislator or their key staff. Trying to create the relationship at the time of a crisis is very difficult. You don’t have to be on the legislator’s doorstep every Monday morning to establish that kind of relationship. They just need to know where you fit into the community, and then periodically remind them who you are.

In light of the new lobbying rules on the Hill, which—in part—limit how professional lobbyists can spend money, what’s appropriate lobbying behavior?

Swift: First of all, constituents are freer than professional lobbyists. In a broad context, anything that would be appropriate in a normal business relationship is fine. You want to be honest, polite, thorough yet brief, and friendly, but you don’t want to talk money in the same conversation that you’re discussing your issue.

Horne: Al said “Be honest,” and that bears repeating in a different sense. Never, ever lie because your credibility is at stake. If you don’t have the answer, it’s OK to say, “I’ll get back to you.”

Reiter: If you don’t know the answer, tell them either you or your staff in Washington will get back to them. That gets you a two-fer. You provide an answer to the legislator’s question, and it introduces your inside-the-Beltway lobbyists to him or her. So now you and your Washington staff can work together to help educate the legislator.

Swift: And besides being honest, you must be accurate. When I was a congressman, I had professional lobbyists call me and say they’d found out that what they told me earlier wasn’t accurate. They wanted to give me the right information. They didn’t want me to think they were prevaricating. Keeping your relationship on a very factual and accurate basis is what assures a good relationship, and it’s what assures that they’ll talk to you the next time you call.

Cutler: And part of your homework is to make sure you know both sides of your issue well.

Swift: That’s a test a lot of legislators use. They’ll ask what your opposition is saying about the issue to see if you’ll give them a straight answer. If you say, “Well, they’ve got a bunch of lies and inaccuracies, so don’t pay any attention,” you haven’t passed the test. You’ve got to tell them what the other side’s going to say. This not only gives you a chance to rebut, but it also gives the legislator a quick sense of what the opposition is without having to seek out their position. If you can give the legislator a good idea of who’s going to be unhappy if they side with you, they can sometimes evaluate the situation, if not on the spot, then very quickly.

You mentioned the issue of money. What role does money play in lobbying?

Swift: “The opportunity to participate,” as a friend of mine used to put it, will come your way. If there’s a legislator you’ve been voting for all along and have never given them anything, get off your butt and give ’em some money! If you don’t particularly care one way or another about the official, but they’ve been helpful, you can give them something or see that they receive something through a political action committee. But if there’s somebody who’s been helpful on your issue but most of their voting record is appalling to you, you don’t have to contribute.

Horne: If you have people willing to give some time and work on a legislator’s campaign, particularly at the local and state level where they don’t have professional campaign staff, that becomes an effective way to make yourself known to them and provide essential support to the official.

Reiter: I think the whole concept is to find a way to become a supporter, if not a friend. It’s hard to try and compare the level of appreciation for volunteering time in someone’s campaign with money. I think they are both appreciated in different ways. The key is letting legislators know that you are a supporter who is fair and appreciative of their efforts.

What can scrap recyclers do now to get involved in lobbying? What else, besides sending form letters to their legislators?

Cutler: We’ve given ReMA members a letter that has some ideas and concepts in it, but the one thing you don’t want to do is have a form-letter campaign. You’ve got to personalize it so legislators understand it’s you talking and not some coordinator 1,000 miles away.

Reiter: When we provide a model letter, we ask our members to think about what it says and rewrite it, perhaps adding some paragraphs about themselves or their company that personalize the letter. The point is to use your own words so the legislator feels that you, not an organized campaign directed at him or her, is explaining the situation.

Swift: The general rule is: If you measure what you’re sending by weight, the legislator will measure his or her reception of it by weight. In other words, if you get 5,000 of the same letter, it doesn’t mean much. A letter that demonstrates someone cared enough to spend their own time, their own stationery, and their own ink to express their own thoughts is still the most valuable letter that comes into any of the congressional offices.

Reiter: My advice for every scrap recycler who lives in the district of a newly elected official is to begin the process of introductory lobbying. Whenever there are freshman legislators, they are ripe for new contacts. And recyclers should remember that local and state politicians often become federal politicians. So getting to know them is making a real investment not only in local and state issues, but ultimately in federal issues.

Horne: Even one step back from that, recyclers should think about becoming active in community organizations like Kiwanis and Rotary because that’s where you meet people who could later become legislators. All recyclers can afford to invest an hour once every week or two and make that commitment. And it doesn’t have to only be the business owners. Employees can lobby too and be very effective, particularly marketing people who are accustomed to this kind of activity.

Hessler: Or take advantage of retirees.

Horne: Or a spouse who might have some free time. Or your lawyers.

Reiter: Recyclers should also know that ReMA is investing in grass roots lobbying training programs, sending staff across the country to address local, state, and federal grassroots lobbying. One way to get started and feel more comfortable about lobbying is to attend those seminars.

What difficulties should recyclers be prepared to face when lobbying?

Hessler: They have to remember to be persistent. If legislators or their staff don’t know you, it may take several phone calls or letters before you get a response. At the local and state levels, your response may be more immediate, but in any case you shouldn’t give up.

Reiter: You might be in an office asking for cosponsorship when a legislator says, “I’m with you but I can’t—or won’t or don’t—cosponsor.” Don’t take that as a rejection. At a minimum, take it as support and think about other ways at another time to convince the legislator that now is the time to cosponsor this bill. And there are times when your legislators are occupied and you may wind up speaking to a staffer. Don’t be upset about that. Instead, use the discussion with the staff person as an opportunity.

Swift: You should also keep in mind that the legislative decision-making process is frustrating. You have to go through the process twice—once in the House and once in the Senate—and then those two have to do it a third time in a conference committee. The system is stacked against things happening quickly. And many businessmen say, “My God, can’t somebody make a decision? Let’s get going!” But there isn’t any single person who can make a decision. You’re dealing with a process that was designed to protect our liberties, not to be efficient. So don’t get impatient because the system is stacked against moving anything quickly.

Any final words of lobbying wisdom for recyclers?

Hessler: They have to absolutely, positively do it because they have to consider it an investment in the business.

Cutler: I’d say there’s no choice.

Reiter: I’d say you might be surprised and find it’s a lot of fun, especially when you see you can affect the process.

Swift: There’s no magic. You’ve done things similar to this many times before or you wouldn’t be successful in the scrap business. There’s no reason to feel inexperienced or shy about it.

Horne: Do it now for the future. •