Warren's Plan to Check Lobbyists' Influence? Make Lawmakers Smarter

[BeyondGeography]

With too many lawmakers lacking in expertise, lobbyists have filled the void. Warren wants to reverse the trend

WASHINGTON — A recovering lobbyist once told me a story about how he did his job. He said he would sometimes stand outside of a committee room before a hearing, and when a friendly member of Congress would walk by, he’d slip them some talking points to use in the hearing. Then he’d walk inside the hearing room, take his seat in the gallery, and watch as those talking points were spouted by the elected officials and put into the official record.

It’s an extreme example of an all-too-familiar phenomenon in Washington: Powerful industries and their well-paid lobbyists press their case with lawmakers and, over time, those lawmakers come to rely on the technical expertise and perspectives of the industries they oversee to make legislative decisions. As Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) puts it, “Today, members of Congress don’t have access to the latest science and evidence, and lobbyists working for corporate clients are quick to fill this vacuum and bend the ears of members of Congress to advance their own narrow interests.”

The newest plan rolled out by Warren’s presidential campaign is meant to shift the expertise back to Congress and the federal government and to wean lawmakers off of industry-funded research and talking points.

In “Strengthening Congressional Independence from Corporate Lobbyists,” Warren calls for reviving the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, increasing funding for the Congressional Research Service and making salaries for Capitol Hill staffers more competitive to attract subject-matter experts who might otherwise go work in the private sector.

In her announcement, Warren recounts the 2010 legislative battle to reform Wall Street and create a consumer-protection bureau. She describes how the bank lobbyists “bombarded the members of Congress with complex arguments filled with obscure terms,” seeking to swamp lawmakers and their staffers with jargon and technical language in an effort to water down regulations aimed at preventing the next Wall Street crash. “While a big part of the problem is a broken campaign finance system, members of Congress aren’t just dependent on corporate lobbyist propaganda because they’re bought and paid for,” Warren explains. “It’s also because of a successful, decades-long campaign to starve Congress of the resources and expertise needed to independently evaluate complex public policy questions.”

More at https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/warren-lobbyists-corruption-office-technology-assessment-891544/

[DrFunkenstein]

1. Yet Another Brilliant Plan!

The kind that makes you think, "Damn, why don't they do something like that for real?"

Warren's inspirational message is not about soaring rhetoric. It is about the inspiring thought that somebody in power could actually clean all this depressingly corrupt garbage.

Big. Structural. Change.

[LincolnRossiter]

2. This reminds me of the time she introduced such a bill in the Senate...

Oh wait.

[Green Line]

4. Yup

[Fiendish Thingy]

3. Congress needs funds for more staffing to do research

So they don't have to rely on lobbyists.