ABSTRACT
This chapter explores executive branch advocacy and focuses on whether Howard Marlowe is right or whether President Barack Obama's proposed restrictions are, as the pro-ethics group Campaign Legal Center says, "long overdue". In 2011 the American League of Lobbyists, an interest group representing lobbyists, announced its opposition to President Obama's ban on executive branch employees in the White House and the bureaucracy accepting gifts from lobbyists. The president and executive branch agencies are often more influential in policy making than Congress, and as such are attractive lobbying targets. Congressional registration records for 1996 showed that only 8 percent of lobbyists working with Congress also contacted the White House. The White House also supported the creation of conservative groups to develop alternative visions for public policy that Ronald Reagan's aides could incorporate into policy proposals, budget priorities, and even State of the Union addresses.
