ABSTRACT
In almost every Congress since 1911, lobby laws have been on the congressional agenda, but only one comprehensive (and terribly flawed) lobby regulation law has been enacted by the Congress. l Since the 1970s there has been a protracted battle in Congress over the enactment of a more stringent and effective law to expose or control certain lobbying activities. In late 1995, a part of that battle was finally won when some revisions to the 1946 lobbying registration law were enacted. The key elements of this battle constitute the central points of analysis in this chapter on lobby laws. We present first the proponents' case for more effective lobby laws and then discuss some of the problems inherent in the design of such legislation. We then analyze each of the existing laws that purport to regulate lobbying and note their major weaknesses. Our survey concludes with an examination of several of the proposed laws Congress has been debating since 1975, a discussion of their strengths and weaknesses, the 1995 changes, and a survey of the efforts being made to control lobbying in the various states.
