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Each Thursday, I'll give you the scoop on the good news coming out of Washington, and how you can get involved with this thing called democracy. Welcome back to another episode of the Oregon news podcast. Congress is out for the next couple of weeks for the July 4 recess, they'll be back in their districts working and I wanted to take a moment to dive into a piece of Washington that we maybe talk a little bit about, or you've seen in the news or you've seen in popular culture and dig into deeper, you've likely heard the term lobbying before or lobbyists, you've seen it represented, like I said, in a number of shows, House of Cards, Veep or maybe even the movie, thank You for Smoking. And those aren't always the best representation of what lobbying or lobbyists is. So I want to take some time today to discuss what is lobbying? What is it not. And I'm going to say at the outset, I am a lobbyist. I'm a registered lobbyist for my company. And I'm going to share a little bit of my why. So what is lobbying? The term lobbyists refers to an individual who engages in advocacy activities aimed at influencing decisions of government officials, particularly legislators, lobbyists really work to shape public policy by providing information expertise, persuasive arguments to policymakers and the original the, where the origin of the word lobbyists come from, goes back to the early 19 centuries in the US where lobbyists would congregate in the lobbies of maybe legislative chambers, hotels, waiting to meet with lawmakers, and engage in conversations about pending legislation. And over time, the term lobbyists just stuck. And the practice of lobbying itself has a far longer history. Think back to ancient Rome or Greece, there's always people that are debating on the floor, and there's people that are sharing their insights, it's kind of even goes into a little bit deeper. But for our kind of thoughts, it really in the US starts in that 19th century where folks were hanging out in lobbies of hotels, legislative chambers to try to grab that member of Congress tried to grab that President to try to influence a decision. I'm going to transition though into what lobbying isn't because I think, okay, we know a lobbyists is seeking to influence a decision. But is that on its face bad, I think what is bad is probably what we've seen in popular culture of, and this probably seeks to go a little bit further towards campaign finance, which campaign finance is completely separate than official action. But, you know, people sometimes think that lobbying is you're paying for insert piece of legislation. And I will say that lobbying is far more regulated far more transparent of your reporting, who you're talking to, when you're talking to them. on a quarterly basis, you're also sharing who you're giving money to, may that be individual lobbyists or company PACs. It's way more transparent than I think it's given credit for. And I know, it's really important that a practice or a job that I have is aboveboard. And, you know, I think lobbying is so much more than what you see in the TV. It's, I'm 10, spending a lot of time and I guess I'm delving into why I do it. I spend a lot of time educating members, educating staff talking about issues, sharing experiences of my company. And I think it's, we should all want a policy to be well thought out. And so I think of lobbying as an opportunity to really share more about one perspective but it's on staff and members to distill down okay, I'm hearing from this person this I'm hearing from this person, maybe something completely different. We're in the middle, can we create good policy and I Think that's the role of staff and members, but lobbyists need to bring to bear the ideas of many people. I'll also say, think about maybe a really good example is, you know, disease research. So maybe like the American Cancer Society or a group like that. They have lobbyists that go on the hill and talk about the patient perspective, talk about how policies are going to impact those patients. That's a good thing that's important that members are thinking about that. And so whatever the issue is, however we feel about it, I think we should want a mechanism by which people can go and share their grievances, share their successes, share things they want to get in the minds of members and staff as they're creating new policy, because not everyone lives in DC, I have the opportunity to live in DC, but not everyone is living in DC and breathing this and having someone that can go in and say, Hey, think about insert issue and how it impacts maybe rail workers or maybe teachers, or maybe it's, you know, this, you know, college students, whatever the issue is, and whatever issues you're passionate about, there's likely someone on the Hill educating and engaging with members of Congress and their staff, because policy issues now are so much more complex than they've ever been. And so lobbying should really be that that mechanism, far too often the negatives are highlighted more than the positives. And I will say, as a profession lobbying, there have been some bad apples. And I think that's in every profession. And I think it's important to know, what is lobbying, it's engaging with members and staff. What is it not? It's not a quid pro quo. It's not giving money to get a policy. It is not just fully having undue influence. It's a part of the conversation. And why I do it is I think it's important that we have people who are really passionate about, you know, this, our government or US government and passionate about issues, sharing it and asking questions and saying, You know what, I don't know this. I'm going to come back or, Hey, I was really thinking about this issue. Have you thought about it this way? It should be the start of a conversation. Lobbyists should start the conversation, and members and staff should decide what is best for policies. I hope this little primer on lobbying is helpful. Let me know. I'm always on Instagram. My handle is Katherine Getty. I want to dive into issues that are important to you. Next week, we're going to talk about the Fourth of July holiday and what it means I think it's something that I hope people really enjoy and have a safe holiday. If this is your first time listening to your good news podcast. Thank you so much for coming. As always, like subscribe, where you listen to podcasts, because each Thursday you will have another episode. And as always, thank you so much for spending your time listening to the organ news podcast. CSM
