Now that I have provided you with some basic information about the public policymaking process and told you a bit about who public policy lobbyists are, what interests they represent, and what they do in addition to lobbying, I can move on to a general discussion of what public policy lobbyists do when they lobby government.

In the broadest sense, public policy lobbying entails attempting to affect laws, regulations, court decisions, nondecisions, and other types of public policy decisions. How precisely do these lobbyists attempt to affect public policy decisions? In this chapter, I answer the question by summarizing what my respondents told me about the process, beginning with a discussion of legislative lobbying. From there, I discuss executive branch lobbying, grassroots lobbying, and electoral lobbying. I conclude by asking: What does public policy lobbying look like?

LEGISLATIVE LOBBYING

Surveys of lobbyists consistently show that the legislature receives an enormous amount of attention from lobbyists. For example, surveys show that almost all lobbyists testify at legislative hearings. Similarly, many studies show that lobbyists regularly meet personally with legislators and legislative staff. My data support the general conclusion that the legislature is the primary target of public policy lobbying. The reason is obvious: The legislature has considerable power over public policy by dint of its power to pass laws and confirm executive appointments, among other things. Moreover, the legislature is very accessible. At the federal level, there are 535 members of Congress and thousands of legislative staff members.