History of Lobbying

Everyone from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons to the American Nazi Party employs lobbyists on Capitol Hill.

The controversial act of lobbying the federal government on behalf of a company or other interest group has been a subject of debate for much of the 20th and 21st centuries in the U.S. - but it's been a part of our politics since shortly after the nation was founded.

The history of lobbying in the United States is a chronicle of the rise of paid advocacy generally by special interests seeking favor in lawmaking bodies such as the United States Congress.

The purpose of our lobbying laws is to tell the public who is being paid how much to lobby whom on what. That purpose is not being served under the status quo as we now see it.

As calls for “lobbying reform” resound through the halls of Congress this spring, we do well to remember this piece of wisdom from Ecclesiastes: there is nothing new under the sun. Influence peddling, lobbying scandals, and the reporters and newspapers that expose them, have been a part of American political life since the beginning.

The following documents are the Federal Register notices announcing the current and previous versions of the LSC regulations. The supplemental information found in these notices may be useful in understanding the regulations. They are provided for research purposes. Please make sure that you are using the current version of the regulation if you want to know the rules that apply today.

Lobbying is generally protected by the First Amendment "right to petition the Government."

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A new analysis of sugar-industry documents finds companies worked with U.S. government researchers to soften recommendations against eating too much sugar.

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British media covers Microsoft's abuse in the UK, but there are many similar incidents, and not just in the UK.

A Cincinnati-born, Wellesley-educated magazine writer and author of children's plays, Mrs. Drew lives in Washington with her lawyer husband and writes as a freelancer. A former staff member of the Congressional Quarterly, she has had ample opportunity to study that Americanized Byzantine process by which the United States Congress deals with issues before it.