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"Stealth lobbying occurs when lobby groups make hidden requests for low-salience legislation. The politician has an interest in doing the things that will help secure reelection while avoiding things that might generate negative attention. Stealth lobbying achieves this by facilitating microlegislation - very short pieces of legislation requested by lobby groups and added to amendments, bills, and committee reports. Microlegislation helps lobbyists obtain benefits that can easily mean millions of dollars for the client, especially if the client is a business. For Becton Dickinson, encouraging hospitals to check for infections before discharge (or even before admission) would, the company must have hoped, result in a significant increase in sales of its BD-Max testing devices. The potential financial benefit to the company far exceeds the value of lobbyists' paychecks. But importantly, the long-term effects of microlegislation are much less important to the individual lobbyist relative to the short-term benefit of securing written evidence that the lobbyist successfully persuaded a senator to introduce the microlegislation on the company's behalf. Lobbyists can point to this success in efforts to renew their contracts or to make pitches to potential new clients. For Senator Menendez, there was little reason to expect that anyone would notice any of the following events, all of which had to occur together for people to suspect a quid pro quo: (1) BD requested microlegislation that was (2) offered by Senator Menendez as an amendment to the Chairman's Mark and (3) was associated with campaign contributions from BD executives or lobbyists for BD to the Menendez campaign"--
Sommario
1. Identifying the Hidden Influence of Lobbyists in Public Policymaking; 2. Scheduling Influence and Buying Access; 3. The Strategic Behavior of Individual Lobbyists and their PACs; 4. Stealth Fundraising and Legislative Favors; 5. Stealth Lobbying, Stealth Contributions, and the Affordable Care Act; 6. Conclusions About Money in Politics.
Info autore
Amy Melissa McKay is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Exeter.
Riassunto
This book provides new insight into how and when lobbyists influence the American policy-making process, presenting compelling evidence that members of Congress provide greater access to, allow more influence from, and even insert legislation requested by the interest groups and lobbyists who provide financial assistance to their campaigns.
