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Lobbying has been accepted as legitimate practice and played an important part in the U.S. It helps to raise the voice of special interests as well as inform them of the legislative process. In order to be successful in doing business with U.S. enterprises the number of which is increasingly high, it is essential to understand lobbying thoroughly. Thus, this study was conducted with the hope of providing some fundamental concepts relating to lobbying in the U.S. as well as current laws on lobbying in the Obama Administration. The results were achieved through analyzing, synthesizing, comparing as well as contrasting and evaluating documents. The findings revealed that there were three basic firstever lobbying polices in the Obama Administration, namely the revolving door bans, stimulus funds lobbying restrictions and lobbyist gift ban. Also, it was found that those policies got highlevel criticism from the public, especially from interest groups, concerning their effectiveness,. Besides, they were believed to cause negative effects on the U.S. politics, respectively mass deregistration, diminished transparency, and, lack of information and experienced staff in the government. In a nutshell, it was concluded that though the Obama Administration desired to advance the goal of increased transparency, the results were not as high as the President had expected before.
ABSTRACT Lobbying has been accepted as legitimate practice and played an important part in the U.S It helps to raise the voice of special interests as well as inform them of the legislative process In order to be successful in doing business with U.S enterprises the number of which is increasingly high, it is essential to understand lobbying thoroughly Thus, this study was conducted with the hope of providing some fundamental concepts relating to lobbying in the U.S as well as current laws on lobbying in the Obama Administration The results were achieved through analyzing, synthesizing, comparing as well as contrasting and evaluating documents The findings revealed that there were three basic first-ever lobbying polices in the Obama Administration, namely the revolving door bans, stimulus funds lobbying restrictions and lobbyist gift ban Also, it was found that those policies got high-level criticism from the public, especially from interest groups, concerning their effectiveness, Besides, they were believed to cause negative effects on the U.S politics, respectively mass de-registration, diminished transparency, and, lack of information and experienced staff in the government In a nutshell, it was concluded that though the Obama Administration desired to advance the goal of increased transparency, the results were not as high as the President had expected before TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENT PAGE Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………… i Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………… ii List of tables, figures and abbreviations……………………………………………… vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study……………………… 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study ……………………………………………… 1.3 Scope of the study …………………………………………………………… 1.4 Significance of the study ……………………………………………………… 1.5 Methodology of the study………………………………………………………… 1.6 Organization of the ………………………………………………………… CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND AND BASIC CONCEPTS 2.1 Lobbying study 2.1.1 Definitions of lobbying of lobbying …………………………………………………… 2.1.2 Process ………………………………………………………… 2.2 Lobbyist 2.2.1 Definitions of lobbyist of lobbyist ……………………………………………………… 2.2.2 Types ……………………………………………………… 10 2.3 Revolving door …………………………………………………………… 12 CHAPTER 3: LAWS RELATED TO LOBBYING IN THE PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATIONS 3.1 The Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 …………………………… 15 3.2 The Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of 1946 ………………………… 18 3.3 The Byrd Amendment and Miscellaneous Disclosure Laws of 1989 ……… 21 3.4 The Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 ………………………………… 22 3.5 The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act ………………… 25 CHAPTER 4: LOBBYING IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION of 2007 4.1 Policy changes ……………………………………………………… 27 4.1.1 Revolving door bans ……………………………………………… 28 4.1.2 Restrictions on contacts between lobbyists and executive branch officials 30 4.1.3 Lobbyist gift bans ……………………………………… 33 4.2 Public responses to changes 4.2.1 Responses to the revolving door bans ……………………………… 35 4.2.2 Responses to stimulus fund lobbying restrictions ……………………… 38 4.2.3 Responses to lobbyist gift bans …………………………………… 40 4.2.4 Effects …………………………………………………………… .43 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSSION 5.1 Summary of main findings 5.1.1 Changes ……………………………………………………………… 46 5.1.2 Responses to changes ………………………………………………… 47 5.2 Limitations of the study further study …………………………………………………… 48 5.3 Suggestions for …………………………………………… 48 REFERENCES APPENDICES LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS List of tables Table 1: Different definitions of lobbying Table 2: Timeliness of quarterly reports filed for 1989 Table 3: Incomplete Responses in Quarterly Reports for 1989 List of figures Figure 1: Simplified diagram for lobbying process Figure 2: New registrations and terminations during calendar years 1960-1972 and active registrations at the end of calendar years 1960-1972 Figure 3: Registrants, Clients and Lobbyists Registered Under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, 1996-2004 Figure 4: Number of unique, registered and active lobbyists List of abbreviations OGE: Office of Government Ethics OBM: Office of Budget and Management ALL: American League of Lobbyists LDA: The Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 FARA: The Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 FLRA: The Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of 1946 HLOGA: The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 GAO: The United States General Accounting Office CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study It can be said that lobbying is one of the most typical characteristics of American politics It has been a legal practice since it was acknowledged by the Constitution The right of people to lobby is protected by the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law […] abridging the freedom of speech […] or the right of the people peaceably […] to petition the government for a redress of grievances Madison, J (n.d.) Lobbying began to be used intensely in the U.S between 1869 and 1877 With such a long history, it has increasingly played a fundamental part in enhancing American democracy Claimed by Biggs & Helms (2006), lobbying is “an inextricable part of policy production process” (p.113) In other words, lobbying plays an indispensable role in the U.S politics After Vietnam joined WTO in 2006, the number of U.S partners has increased greatly One of the most important things to business successfully with them is having a thorough understanding of lobbying – a legal practice which plays a crucial role in influencing government policies to support the interests of companies Despite such great influence and significance, lobbying is little known to Vietnamese people In Vietnam, there are no laws concerning lobbying; thus, lobbying activities are “not officially recognized” (cited in Trung Kien, 2007) Moreover, lobbying in Vietnam is often bound with negative meanings and misunderstood People usually think about “bribery” or “to get in by the back door” when mentioning lobbying (cited in Doan Trang, 2010) In this situation, there is a need to give a clear and precise definition of lobbying to replace those misperceptions Furthermore, there are a number of new rules and regulations in lobbying policies addressed by the incumbent President Barack Obama that Vietnamese enterprises need to know and understand Therefore, it is necessary to research on lobbying in the U.S to help Vietnamese companies get fundamentals as well as current laws on lobbying At the Faculty of English Language Teacher - University of Languages and International Study (FELTE – ULIS), American Studies has been included in the syllabus recently to provide the English majors background knowledge, so that they could work with the U.S partners in the future Therefore, understanding American politics and society, including lobbying, is very important not only for their study but for their future jobs Yet most of them lack basic knowledge about lobbying which is a key factor of U.S business According to a survey by Phung (2009), 80% of the students not understand exactly what the aims of lobbying activities are while 36% think that lobbying activities are connected to corruption, which is not true Hence, it is urgent to provide information about U.S lobbying, especially current lobbying laws, to help students understand this essential component of American politics and society All the reasons above encourage the researcher to carry out a study on the topic: “Lobbying in the Obama administration: changes and public responses” 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study This thesis paper aims at investigating the outstanding features of lobbying policies addressed by President Barack Obama It then goes further exploring public responses to those changes To reach these aims, the research is specially designed to answer the three following questions: What are the lobbying laws prior to the Obama Administration? What are the changes in lobbying policies addressed by President Barack Obama? What are the responses from the public to these changes? 1.3 Scope of the study There are many aspects related to lobbying, such as lobbying activities, strategies, cases and so on However, in this thesis, lobbying is only discussed in terms of Barack Obama’s policies and the responses to those policies To be more specific, it focuses on the changes in the law on lobbying and the reaction from the public In America, lobbying occurs at both local and national level However, this study only explores lobbying at the level of federal government There are a number of sources that provide valuable information about the topic Nevertheless, because of the limited time, this paper mainly draws upon the major resources of books, articles, magazines and websites 1.4 Significance of the study Once the study is completed, it is expected to have some decent benefits In the first place, it will partly fill the gap in the literature and serve as a reference source for other researchers who are interested in the same or related topics Secondly, this paper can serve as a supplementary material for both teaching and learning at FELTE – ULIS The findings from the study can provide the teachers with an overall picture of lobbying in the U.S with focus on the presidency of Barack Obama, which can help them improve the course book in order to make it more informative Furthermore, the researcher also hopes that this study, to some extent, can help students widen their knowledge by providing them information about lobbying in the U.S., especially current laws relating to lobbying English majors, especially those who wish to business with U.S partners in the future, can use it as a supplementary material not only in their learning but in their careers Moreover, the study can help those who may concern have clear and precise perception of lobbying practice 1.5 Methodology of the study This is a secondary research which is conducted in comparative document analysis approach The very first phase is collecting data Documents related to lobbying reforms in Obama administration are gathered from books, magazines, internet and other relevant sources These documents are then analyzed, synthesized, compared, contrasted and evaluated to find the answers to the research questions Overall, this paper is carried out through following phases: Phase 1: Collecting data Phase 2: Processing data: the data are analyzed, synthesized, compared, contrasted and evaluated Phase 3: Summarizing and concluding 1.6 Organization of the study Chapter I – INTRODUCTION – introduces the rationale, aims, objectives, scope, significance and methods of the study Chapter II – BACKGROUND AND BASIC CONCEPTS – provides the background for the research by exploring the key concepts of lobbying and lobbyist Chapter III – LOBBYING LAWS IN THE PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATIONS – presents the laws related to lobbying before the presidency of Barack Obama Chapter IV – LOBBYING IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION – describes the policies on lobbying issued by President Barack Obama and discusses responses from the public to those policies Chapter V – CONCLUSION – ends the study by summarizing major findings, mentioning limitations as well as making suggestions for further study APPENDIX APPENDIX REGISTERED LOBBYIST CONTACT DISCLOSURE FORM This form is to be completed by Executive Branch employees who are contacted by registered lobbyists regarding the Recovery Act This report includes a written description of each contact, the date and time of the contact, and the names of the registered lobbyist(s) and the employee(s) with whom the contact took place The information on this form will be available to the public on the Executive Branch agency’s recovery website Written materials prepared by registered lobbyists should be attached to this form for posting on the website Date and time To be completed by the employee contacted Name(s) of the employee(s) Brief description of the contact: of contact: contacted (Name and Title) Name of the employee(s) who prepared this (attach separate sheet if necessary) Date: form: Registered lobbyist(s) name: Title: Firm or Organization, if applicable: Client: APPENDIX ... lobbying before the presidency of Barack Obama Chapter IV – LOBBYING IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION – describes the policies on lobbying issued by President Barack Obama and discusses responses from the... questions: What are the lobbying laws prior to the Obama Administration? What are the changes in lobbying policies addressed by President Barack Obama? What are the responses from the public to... get fundamentals as well as current laws on lobbying At the Faculty of English Language Teacher - University of Languages and International Study (FELTE – ULIS), American Studies has been included