Ex-Lawmakers Face Limits on Their Lobbying

For former Rep. Gene Snyder (R-Ky.), retirement from Congress meant anything but financial hardship.

Within months of leaving the House in 1986, he was back in his old haunts, earning $90,000 by lobbying former colleagues against banning radar detectors in automobiles and trucks. The former top-ranking Republican on the House Public Works and Transportation Committee takes credit for keeping the provision off a bill that raised the speed limit on rural interstates to 65 m.p.h.

“I made contact with everybody on the conference committee, Senate and House,” he said, acknowledging that friendships spun over two decades in Congress had helped him gain access to the legislators. “If somebody they have confidence in comes knocking, obviously it will be beneficial.”

Snyder’s is no isolated case. More than 80 former members of Congress are registered lobbyists. And, unlike former high-level Administration officials, they do not have to wait a year before seeking to cash in on their connections with former colleagues.

Critics of the practice contend that lobbyists fresh out of Congress, such as Snyder, unduly influence the legislative process. A bill passed by the Senate last week would extend the one-year restrictions on lobbying to senators, representatives and senior congressional staff members.

Advocates of the legislation maintain that it is only fair Congress subject itself to the same ethical restraints imposed on Administration officials, especially now that former presidential aides Michael K. Deaver and Lyn Nofziger have been convicted on charges related to lobbying former colleagues within a year of leaving the Reagan White House.

“For the first time, Congress will be able to say we are willing to abide by the same rules as everybody else,” said Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), co-sponsor of the bill that cleared the Senate by voice vote last Tuesday. “Congress throws a lot of stones, but it’s time to put its own house in order.”

If the bill had been law a year ago, former Sen. Mark Andrews (R-N.D.) could not have come off his 1986 defeat for reelection by lobbying for CSX Corp., a railroad firm, and Martin Marietta Corp., a large defense contractor. Those clients had millions of dollars at stake before the Senate Appropriations subcommittees on transportation and defense, where Andrews had only recently sat.

Similarly, former Rep. Don Fuqua (D-Fla.), who retired in 1986 as chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee to head the aerospace industry’s lobbying office, could not have testified before congressional committees, as he did last year, nor could he have mentioned to former colleagues at receptions that “we’re concerned” about bills affecting aerospace firms.

And a one-year lobbying ban on top staff aides might have slammed shut the revolving doors at Congress’ two tax-writing committees, Senate Finance and House Ways and Means. Over the last seven years, as Congress passed a string of major tax bills, no fewer than four majority staff directors and three minority staff directors left the Senate panel to become well-informed, well-connected, well-paid lobbyists for clients seeking tax breaks.

“Working for those committees has become a shortcut for guys who want to strike it rich at Washington law firms,” said a fellow lobbyist and former congressional aide who requested anonymity. “There is an unhealthy relationship between the people they want to go to work for and the business they conduct while in office.”

No wonder that grumbling about the measure can be heard all the way from Capitol cloakrooms to K Street lobbying suites.

Former Rep. Thomas L. Ashley (D-Ohio), once a member of the House Banking Committee and now a lobbyist for bank holding companies, would not be covered by the lobbying ban. But he sympathizes with opponents because of what the bill would have meant for him when he was defeated for reelection in 1980.

“To work for 26 years and get thrown out unexpectedly and not be able to go to work--well, enough yet,” Ashley exclaimed.

Many other congressional alumni in Washington’s 3,200-member lobbying corps question the need for new restrictions--though some quip that it would cut down on competition.

“I don’t think an inordinate amount of influence is being exerted or an extraordinary amount of inside information is being used,” said Stephen E. Bell, who left as director of the Senate Budget Committee’s Republican staff to oversee lobbying for Salomon Bros., an investment-banking firm.

Like many lawmakers-turned-lobbyists, former Rep. William M. Brodhead (D-Mich.) says that former Administration officials naturally carry more lobbying clout with their one-time colleagues than do former members of Congress.

“You may have only one decision-maker to reach in an executive agency,” Brodhead argued. But 535 members of Congress vote on most every issue, he said, “and the ability of (a lobbyist) to have an undue impact on that process is relatively slight.”

“Sure, there’s a potential for abuse,” said tax lobbyist William Diefenderfer, former majority staff director of the Senate Finance Committee. “But actual malfeasance, I think, is damn little.”

But Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), whose Judiciary subcommittee is drafting a bill similar to the one approved by the Senate, insists that on all but the most high-profile issues such as Contra aid and civil rights, Congress follows the lead of one or two key legislators.

‘Very Personal Business’

“We’re a very personal place,” he said, “and legislating is a very personal business. “We’re used to accommodating each other. There should be a period during which (congressional retirees) cannot go back” to lobby former colleagues. “It would be good to have a little bit of getting out of that habit.”

Existing Senate and House rules already deter some lobbying by ex-members. On pain of losing a bagful of post-employment perquisites such as access to parking, dining and gymnasium facilities, retired senators are not supposed to lobby in the Senate for a year. Retired representatives, who unlike other citizens are permitted to roam the House floor, are asked to refrain from lobbying there.

But that leaves a lot of room for lobbying elsewhere. It has flourished.

Former Rep. Thomas N. Kindness (R-Ohio), who went into lobbying after losing a 1986 election challenge to Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), has plied most of his new profession before erstwhile colleagues on the House Judiciary Committee.

Focus of Lobbying

Representing an alliance of defense contractors, Kindness seeks legislation that would compensate contractors who are sued over federally procured products--such as weapons--that cause accidental injury. His lobbying has focused on the Judiciary subcommittee on administrative law and governmental relations, where Kindness once served as senior Republican. It happens to be the same panel, chaired by Frank, that is working on the ban against lobbying by future congressional retirees.

As a member of that subcommittee, Kindness fought against the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, which restricts lobbying by former executive branch officials. Now he opposes extending its reach to former congressmen.

“You don’t see any undue influence exerted by former legislators unless it’s on a buddy or close friend,” he said. “But that could happen regardless of who the lobbyist is.”

Brodhead, soon after becoming a lobbyist in 1983, was pushing a client’s cause before the House Ways and Means Committee, where he had played a major role in shaping the 1981 tax cut. On behalf of postal workers, who had their own pension plan, Brodhead sought to prevent Congress from bringing government employees under Social Security.

Knew the System

“I knew the issue, I knew the people, and I knew the system,” he said. “But we lost. As I said, Congress is a large and ponderous animal and does not yield to the prodding of any one person.”

Snyder, who earned $75,100 in his last year as a congressman, was paid $50,000 by USAir Group, $60,000 by Norfolk Southern Corp., and $90,000 by Cincinnati Microwave Inc. in his first year as a lobbyist, according to federal registration files.

It was Cincinnati Microwave that hired him to lobby for radar detectors, and Snyder made the case that the devices were good for the country. “Knowledge of the presence of police causes traffic to drive slower,” he argued, adding that “every American has a right to know if he is under surveillance.”

He insisted that former congressmen have no unfair advantage against other lobbyists. Many of those lacking Snyder’s experience disagree.

One lobbyist demanded: “Are you telling me I can compete with a Dawson Mathis, who can hobnob in the House gym with his old buddies?” Mathis is a former Democratic congressman from Georgia who lobbies for insurance, energy and electronics firms.

On the other hand, a lobbyist who believes that he can go head-to-head with any former member of Congress said confidently: “For the most part, they make horrible lobbyists. They’re used to being waited on. They don’t do their homework.”

The bill approved by the Senate last week would bar retiring members of Congress from being paid to lobby Congress, Cabinet members, their deputies or top White House aides for one year. Departing senior staff aides would be prohibited for a year from lobbying the chamber that they once served.

To dampen opposition to the ethics bill on the Senate floor, its sponsors exempted members of Congress and senior aides who will depart by the end of this year. In addition to the new curbs on congressmen and their staffs, the bill would tighten longtime restrictions on former Administration officials.

Frank, a leading force behind a similar measure in the House, predicted grudging approval there as well.

“A lot of people don’t like this, but they don’t want to vote against it,” he said, alluding to election-year jitters about the erosion of public trust in the government’s decision-making process.