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Why Are Lobbyists Effective

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The Effectiveness of Lobbyist The act of influencing legislation in government is called “lobbying”. The right to lobby is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. It states “Congress shall make no law abridging the right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances” (APUS, n.d). Besides, this is considered to be part of the Freedom of Assembly and Petition Clause in the First Amendment. This essay will discuss the impact of lobbyist on legislation in Washington, DC and the amount of dollars spent to influence federal policies. Throughout a normal day in Washington DC, the hustle and bustle of lobbyist is taking place in the Capital building, White House and along K Street, which is the home of many of the lobbying firms. There are special interest groups, corporations and industries that hire in-house lobbyist or lobbyist firms to influence legislation to benefit their cause. For example, some of these causes may include, but are not limited to tax breaks, subsidies and changes to current regulations or laws. According to (APUS, n.d) there are approximately 12,000 lobbyists registered with the federal government and they are guided by the Honest Leadership and …show more content…

According to an article in the Journal of Organizational Moral Psychology, Bennington and Grant (2011) “US dollars spent on lobbying members of government nearly tripled from 1998 to 2008” (P.85). To conclude, the amount spent lobbying during the following six years steadily ranged between 3.30 billion and 3.52 billion dollars (Opensecrets.org, n.p). Amazingly, the amount of money spent on lobbying is just mere pennies compared to gains they will receive from their successful lobbying campaigns. Thus, with all the money spent on lobbying; are lobbyists very successful at changing federal

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