Making Your Case

How to Win in the Legislature

First Things First

Organize For Action

Getting to Know the Legislature

Political Factors

Basic Information About the Legislature

Legislative Procedures

Working with the Legislature

The Legislative Staff

The Legislators

The Budgeting Process

Basic Points to Remember

The Executive Budget

The Legislative Budget

Some Essential Intangibles for Survival

Patience

Perseverance

      Conclusion

Making Your Case

How to Win in the Legislature

To lobby successfully requires knowledge of the legislative process that relatively few people possess.   The best lobbyists are those who bring to their work an appreciation of the intangibles; to suggest a few: the personalities of the legislators they seek to influence, the importance of timing, a perception of the makeup of the legislature’s inner circle and a willingness to compromise.

The average citizen has neither the time nor the inclination nor the knowledge to be actively involved as an individual in the lawmaking process.  Collectively, however, individuals can influence the course of legislation.   The best way to win a case according to the Florida Senate rule is for groups, associations, and registered lobbyists to understand their obligations which states to:

“Supply facts, information, and opinions of principles to legislators from the point of view from which he openly declares.  Do not offer or propose anything to improperly influence the official act, decision or vote of a legislator.”

“Do uphold the honor of the legislative process by the integrity of his relationship with legislators.”

“Do not knowingly and willfully falsify a material fact or make any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation or make or use any writing or document knowing the same contains and false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements or entry.”

Groups, associations and registered lobbyists who operate within those parameters have become an integral part of the legislative process, serving a useful purpose.

First Things First

Organize For Action

Don’t even think about working with the legislature until you have become familiar with the lobbing statutes for your state, as well as the relevant rules of the legislative chambers and administrative rules that apply to lobbying.

When trying to make an impact as groups, associations and registered lobbyist it is critical  to get organized by establishing good communications with decision makers.  Build on this collectively to develop a plan for action and to establish effective lines of communication with, not only the decision maker’s, but also the organization’s leaders and membership.  Getting organized in this manner is essential for a realistic chance of success.  The following suggestions offer a practical approach for working with groups, associations and registered lobbyist:

¨      Identify individuals within the association or organization who are willing to work cooperatively on legislative issues.

¨      Consider holding workshops on the legislative process and current issues that affect the associ9ation or organization. 

¨      Develop a regular means of communication like a newsletter or scheduled ongoing meetings.

¨      If there are internal disagreements, they must be ironed out before going to the legislature.  Legislators do not appreciate being put in the position of having to contend with warring factions within an interest group.

¨      Realize the necessity for compromise is not generally understood, but it is at the heart of the legislative process.  Legislation is rarely enacted without change from the form in which it was introduced.

Getting to Know the Legislature

Political Factors

Politics, the interplay between political party agendas and ambitions of individual legislators and the role that party politics plays in determining where legislators are coming from, is one of those intangibles all should be attuned too.  Some elements to consider:

¨      Getting a feel for the political climate in both the state and the legislature may determine the approach to a lobbying effort and provide a realistic assessment of its chances.  Are they basically conservative, liberal, middle of the road, conservative on some issues and liberal on others?

¨      What are the current issues that may affect the legislation that is your major concern, including those outside your interest area that may have a peripheral affect on the legislation on which you are working?

¨      What is the makeup of the legislature in terms of party divisions: does one party have a heavy majority or a slender majority?  Are both houses controlled by the same party, or is there a split?

¨    Is the governor likely to veto the legislation on which you are working?  Under what circumstances?

Basic Information About the Legislature

¨    Become familiar with your legislature’s schedule.  Understand the frequency with which they meet, whether there are annual or biennial sessions and whether sessions are limited to a specific number of days.

¨      Be aware that in some states members are limited in the number of bills they may introduce; in others there is no limit.

¨      Learn how to gain access to information.  Are bills, status sheets, calendars, journals readily available?  Where can they be obtained?  Is there a fee for legislative documents that you will need?

Legislative Procedures

Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedure is the most widely used version of parliamentary procedure ~ it is the official manual of 70 chambers.  To be successful you must be thoroughly familiar with the rules and parliamentary procedure of each chamber.

¨      Learn the elements of the legislative process: assignment of bills to committee, committee meeting schedules, staff assignments to committees, committee reports, conference committee procedures; floor action ~ including the amendment process and voting procedures.

¨      Effective lobbying involves identifying the power structure, which is not a simple matter.  The obvious place to start is with the electe4d leaderships: the House speaker, Senate president or president pro tem, majority and minority floor leaders, assistant floor leaders or whip, and caucus chairs.

¨      Other ways to find out more about the power structure of the legislature include: the lobbyist’s own experience, information from other groups, associations and registered lobbyist and constant reading of the newspaper that has the best statehouse coverage (caution: the legislator frequently in the news may not necessarily be the most influential)

¨      Learn about the kinds of blocs that may exist ~ urban, suburban, rural, labor, single issue.  Are there coalitions among these blocs?  Becoming knowledgeable about blocs and their voting strength is obvious: the support of a bloc with significant clout can be a plus for your legislation.

¨      Become familiar with the committee system, including committee procedures, conference committees, meeting times and deadlines.  In this area of legislative operations, some committees are more equal than others, most often judiciary, rules and the money committees ~ appropriations, ways and means, revenue and taxation, and finance.  Interim committees play a significant role in developing legislative proposals, devoting the time between sessions to consideration of specific subjects.  Assume, for example, that the legislation on which you were working had some support during the regular session, but not enough for enactment.  Consider a proposal for an interim committee study to develop legislation for the next session.

Working with the Legislature

The Legislative Staff

Never underestimate the importance of getting to know, and working with, legislative staff.  Ultimately, decisions are made by legislators, but those decisions may be influenced by the input of staff.  Although no two state legislatures operate in precisely the same manner, there are similarities in the way all legislative staff operations are structured, as the following indicates:

¨      The chief legislative staff officer in each chamber ~ secretary of the Senate; clerk of the House ~ is responsible for staff support for consideration of bills by full membership.

¨      Research on public policy questions under consideration by the legislature is the responsibility of a separate, nonpartisan, full-time career staff.  They provide background information on bills that have been introduced or that may be under consideration for introduction.  Research staffs are identified by a variety of names, including Legislative Council, Legislative Services, Legislative Reference Bureau, Legislative Commission and others.

¨   A number of states also have partisan staff for the Republican and Democratic caucuses of both chambers.  Their function is to provide research aimed at developing party positions and legislation on issues before the legislature.

¨      Bill drafting is, obviously, a major staff function that requires technical expertise.  In many legislatures bill drafting is the responsibility of a separate staff of attorneys ~ an Office of Legislative Legal Services, for example.

¨      The appropriation of funds to operate state government and the levying of taxes to produce revenue are the prerogative of the legislature.  In larger states with full-time legislatures, members are provided with personal staff for their offices.   As might be expected, a legislator’s personal staff are those closest to the member and who may have considerable influence on an individual legislator’s actions.

¨      To succeed means understanding the value of identifying key people in the executive branch and recognizing the role they may play in the enactment or defeat of legislation.

¨      It’s always good to maintain good relations with other groups, associations and registered lobbyist even when they happen to be on the opposite side of the proposal.

The Legislators

¨      Consider the following when working one-on-one with individual legislators:

¨      Serve as a competent, accurate source of objective and timely information.

¨      Beware of over-promising or developing expectations that cannot be fulfilled.

¨      Remember that legislators come from a variety of backgrounds, with differing levels of expertise in a range of areas.

¨      Continuity is important.  Establish an identity. Be tactful.

¨      Don’t bury every member with mountains of information.  Do provide all members with information, but succinctly, preferably in no more than one page that emphasizes major points and offers more detailed information to those who request it.  Provide sponsorship of the legislation you are working on.

¨      Avoid stereotyping members, especially when it is based on preconceived notions because of party or philosophical or geographic labels.  Understand that everybody isn’t going to vote the way you want. 

¨      Ask for advice. 

¨      Do your homework.

¨      Do not ignore members of the minority party. 

¨      Disarm the opposite party.

¨      Avoid tying yourself or your program too closely to one personality who may not have the respect of other members.

¨      Maintain a positive attitude about legislators and politicians.

The Budgeting Process

Every bill, of course, does not require funding.  For those that do, however, it is essential to understand the budgeting procedure and with some basic factors that influence the allocation of funds.

Basic Points to Remember

¨      It servers no purpose to get legislation passed if funds needed to implement it are not appropriated.

¨      No state ever has enough money to do everything everybody wants government to do.

¨      Funding is an especially competitive world.  Every program has to compete with every other program for the number of dollars available.

¨      State legislatures have relatively little flexibility in appropriating funds.  They are already locked into funding existing programs.

¨      Even in prosperous times, there is not much new money available.  Money for new programs ~ or substantial increases in existing programs ~ may have to come, at least partially, from other programs.

The Executive Budget

¨      This is the governor’s budget.  It is usually an in-house process, with individual state agencies responsible for developing and defending request to the governor’s budget office.  Final decision are made by the governor, obviously, with much reliance on budget staff recommendations.

¨      The executive budget process normally begins eight to 10 months ahead of the next legislative session.  Input from those outside state agencies must be made well in advance and through appropriate agency personnel and the governor’s budget staff.

¨      The governor’s budget may be drastically altered by the legislature.  Even in states where this is standard practice, however, an appropriations request included in the governor’s budge will have a better chance of being granted by the legislature.  

The Legislative Budget

¨      The legislature’s role in the budgeting process has been strengthened through the use of full-time staff, detailed consideration of the budget request of each state agency, and in a few states, the formation of a joint budget committee with jurisdiction over the legislative budge process.

¨      The time frame varies, but in states where the legislature takes a strong role, committee hearings may begin several months before the legislature convenes.  Even in smaller states, it is becoming a continuing, almost year-round process.

Some Essential Intangibles for Survival

Patience

Legislative and political work is often frustrating, especially when you know you have the answers to all the world’s problems.  Bills normally move through the legislature with the speed of a tortoise, so stay on your game until the end.

Perseverance

It is difficult to remake the world overnight; you may have to outlive everybody.  But never give up.  Some legislation, especially if it represents a new approach or a significant departure from the way things have always been done, can take several years to win the support necessary for enactment.

Conclusion

Any successful and respected lobbying will have all the essential ingredients for success:

Integrity

Honesty

Truthfulness