Lobbyist for a Day

Many years ago the company that I worked for was invited to send a representative to a series of meetings in Washington DC with representatives from the Department of Commerce, the Department of Defense, and staff members of one of the California Senators. These meetings were organized by companies within the American semiconductor equipment industry for the purpose of discussing the unfair administration of NATO rules controlling the exportation of high tech semiconductor processing equipment to China. Of specific concern was the fact that other NATO countries, notably France and the United Kingdom, interpreted the agreed upon rules more leniently, allowing the shipment of much higher tech equipment than was allowed from the U.S. This gave manufacturers of such equipment in those countries an unfair advantage over American manufacturers simply because the Chinese customers could buy the features they wanted from companies in France and England, but not from American companies. Our goal was to have the regulations made the same for all NATO participants.

I was chosen to represent my company at these meetings and had the opportunity to observe a bit of government in action; I was a lobbyist for one day, and what I took away from the experience is that legislators and regulators often do not understand the fundamentals of that which they are charged with controlling. In fact it would be impossible for them to be familiar with the vast array of subjects that they regulate? That’s why lobbyists exist, or more accurately, that’s the legitimate reason for them to exist.

Indeed, like the legislators themselves, lobbying should not be a full-time, career-long job. Legislators should be sent off to Washington for a legislative session and then go back to their jobs; lobbyists should be businessmen or experts on particular subjects that legislators call on when knowledge is needed, not full time employees of special interests that have influence over politicians.

It’s not wrong for companies, unions, environmental groups, or any other entity to hire lobbyists; it’s wrong for them to have any influence as opposed to providing information. They have influence over politicians only because politicians give them influence. Blame the politicians, not the lobbyists.

I don’t know how much effect we had that day in 1987. Over time the regulations regarding trade with China changed, but that was no doubt due to the much larger world picture. The minor roll I played along with several others was one of attempting to inform regulators on a subject of some importance to our respective companies; we were just people from a particular industry pointing out a regulatory mistake. And yes, our companies would have benefitted from the correction, but we were performing an honorable lobbying function and then we went back home to our jobs. And that’s as it should be.