There are already a couple of posts about campaign finance and gun lobbies. What interests me is the broader effect that lobbying has, and how it got to be this way. My understanding is that we defunded federal budget accountability and support offices, leaving most congresspeople with insufficient funds to write most of their own legisl…
There are already a couple of posts about campaign finance and gun lobbies. What interests me is the broader effect that lobbying has, and how it got to be this way. My understanding is that we defunded federal budget accountability and support offices, leaving most congresspeople with insufficient funds to write most of their own legislation, which effectively forces them to "outsource" that to lobbies, which are cash rich and highly incentivized.
Some amount of that spending is publicly visible, some is not. It would be very interesting to see the real impacts of that cash flow on the bills that get written and outcomes produced. Many complain about the influence of the lobbies, but nobody does anything about it.
There is also a well-known rotating door through congressional offices of staffers who are egregiously underpaid but do the job to make the connections and learn the game, then go off to work on K Street to make multiples. Why not pay congressional staff more, so they can write their own bills that reflect the will of their constituents?
Former congressional staffer here. The pay is outrageously low -- staffers of the lowest rank often have to share apartments to survive in DC on their pittance. Even more senior staffers don't get paid enough. So at one point my son, a Navy LT, and I, a senior military legislative assistant with a boss on the Armed Services Committee (and with a big hand in crafting laws that the military must obey) had the same salary, only his was worth a lot more, with all the health and rental support benefits that accompany active-duty military service. The military deserves their good salary and benefits--but surely lawmakers' staff, at-will employees who work long and irregular hours on weighty matters that affect all Americans--deserve to be fairly paid for their efforts? I don't blame staffers for learning the ropes at taxpayer expense and then taking the knowledge to the private sector. That would stop if they were paid what they were worth. Legislative Branch pay is a fraction of Executive Branch pay. It's abusive of both staff and taxpayers. It needs to stop.
There are already a couple of posts about campaign finance and gun lobbies. What interests me is the broader effect that lobbying has, and how it got to be this way. My understanding is that we defunded federal budget accountability and support offices, leaving most congresspeople with insufficient funds to write most of their own legislation, which effectively forces them to "outsource" that to lobbies, which are cash rich and highly incentivized.
Some amount of that spending is publicly visible, some is not. It would be very interesting to see the real impacts of that cash flow on the bills that get written and outcomes produced. Many complain about the influence of the lobbies, but nobody does anything about it.
There is also a well-known rotating door through congressional offices of staffers who are egregiously underpaid but do the job to make the connections and learn the game, then go off to work on K Street to make multiples. Why not pay congressional staff more, so they can write their own bills that reflect the will of their constituents?
Increasing pay for congressional staffers is I'm sure a very unpopular idea that would do a lot of good.
Former congressional staffer here. The pay is outrageously low -- staffers of the lowest rank often have to share apartments to survive in DC on their pittance. Even more senior staffers don't get paid enough. So at one point my son, a Navy LT, and I, a senior military legislative assistant with a boss on the Armed Services Committee (and with a big hand in crafting laws that the military must obey) had the same salary, only his was worth a lot more, with all the health and rental support benefits that accompany active-duty military service. The military deserves their good salary and benefits--but surely lawmakers' staff, at-will employees who work long and irregular hours on weighty matters that affect all Americans--deserve to be fairly paid for their efforts? I don't blame staffers for learning the ropes at taxpayer expense and then taking the knowledge to the private sector. That would stop if they were paid what they were worth. Legislative Branch pay is a fraction of Executive Branch pay. It's abusive of both staff and taxpayers. It needs to stop.