10-26-2002

LOBBYING: K Street for October 26, 2002

Keeping the Soft Money Flowing


With time running out before the national party committees are barred from
accepting soft money, the Democratic National Committee hosted a meeting
of some 20 party donors who were told about a new group that can legally
accept soft money after Election Day. Party stars at the recent
get-together included DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe; former top Clinton
aide Harold Ickes, who is now a DNC consultant; and Joe Carmichael, who
runs the new group, the Democratic State Party Organization. Such big
party donors as trial lawyer Stan Chesley, longtime patron Elizabeth
Bagley, and several K Street fundraisers learned that the DSPO will be a
key vehicle for receiving soft dollars after the restrictions take effect
on November 6. The DSPO was set up to help advise and train state parties
to register and turn out voters. Under new campaign finance rules, it
would also be among several organizations working to ensure that tens of
millions in soft dollars that have gone to the DNC and the Democratic
congressional campaign committees don't disappear. The meeting "was
an opportunity for the state parties to make their pitch, which is what I
did," says Carmichael. -Peter H. Stone


You've Got to Have Connections


Colleges and universities should think twice about the money they spend on
lobbyists to try to win funding from Washington. That's according to a
recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the
University of Toronto, which says institutions of higher learning don't
cash in unless a lawmaker from their state sits on either the House or
Senate appropriations committee. According to MIT economist John de
Figueiredo and Toronto professor Brian Silverman, universities without
appropriations committee representation spent an average of $125,481 on
lobbying from 1997 to 1999, but won only $76,543 in so-called federal
earmarks. Appropriations bills often include money earmarked for specific
projects and not vetted by an agency, as is most federal spending on
higher education. Stewart Van Scoyoc, a successful university lobbyist,
says the main point about appropriations committee connections is obvious
but numerous other factors also contribute to success.


The findings run counter to the thinking of most universities, which have
dramatically increased their spending on lobbying in recent years.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, 294 academic institutions
in the United States lobbied Congress in 2001, up from 191 in 1998. The
colleges and universities also nearly doubled their spending during those
years to $42 million per year. For universities with representation on
appropriations committees, it would be smart to keep up their lobbying
efforts, according to the study. Universities with representation on the
Senate panel took in nearly $12 in earmarked funding for every $1 they
spent on lobbying. Schools with representatives on both the House and
Senate committees enjoyed a windfall of more than $46 in funding for every
dollar spent on lobbying. -Shawn Zeller


Accounting Reforms Become a Target


Now that the ink has been dry on the accounting-reform bill for a few
months and corporate-accounting scandals no longer dominate the headlines,
lobbying shops are lining up clients to try to undo portions of the
measure, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The law firm of Butera &
Andrews has announced plans to set up the Reciprocity in International
Accounting Coalition, hoping to win some exemptions from the new law for
foreign and international companies. Among the coalition's likely goals,
said firm principal James Butera, is to exempt CEOs of foreign companies
from requirements that they certify the accuracy of company financial
statements and that they face criminal penalties for knowingly certifying
inaccurate or misleading ones. The group hopes to change the law to allow
foreign auditors of companies traded on U.S. exchanges to operate under
their home countries' standards rather than follow U.S. standard setters,
such as the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the new accounting
oversight board created by the law. Butera said there are "three or
four" Canadian and European government and business members in the
coalition, including trade associations. -Julie Kosterlitz


Engineers Lobby for More Fed Work


The American Council of Engineering Companies is running a grassroots
campaign against a measure that would bar government agencies from
outsourcing more work to private firms. The 6,000-member group has asked
executives at its member companies to write to their senators urging
opposition to an amendment sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.,
chairman of the Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government
Appropriations Subcommittee. Dorgan's proposal would stop federal agencies
from implementing a Bush administration plan to increase government
outsourcing to the private sector. The American Federation of Government
Employees, the Federal Managers Association, and the National Treasury
Employees Union have opposed the move, and the House has already passed
legislation that would block agencies from moving ahead with the Bush
plan. Dorgan's amendment, which would accomplish the same thing, has
passed the Senate Appropriations Committee. "Much of the work that
the federal government does in engineering and design can be readily
performed by the private sector," said Steve Hall, the ACEC's
director of government affairs. Hall said the Army Corps of Engineers, the
U.S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the National Park
Service employ in-house engineers who "directly compete with our
member firms." The Treasury-Postal bill is one of 10 spending bills
the Senate has not yet passed. Congress approved a continuing resolution
to maintain government spending at current levels through November 22.
-Shawn Zeller




National Journal