Lobbying and Corruption
Lobbying provides valuable knowledge to societal issues and directs its possible solutions. However, when the reform become too close to money, it can result in corruption. Its attachment to corruption can, therefore, lead to possible reforms. Meaningful lobbying reforms consider the rights of every individuals to lobby but try to do away with the hypothetical corrupting nexus amid lawmakers, lobbyists, and money. In a democratic society, undue influence-peddling with distinct welfares may workout too much sway over public policies for self-centered purposes. A democratic administration necessitates legitimacy, which comes from citizenry support and trust, to function properly — any extensive undue influence-peddling perceptions in a government poke hole in legitimacy’s fabric.
The Lobbying Disclosure Act
After several years of deciding changes for the issues created by the Federal Regulation’s Lobbying Act of 1946, the Congress came up with Lobbying Disclosure Act. The Lobbying Reform Act of 1995 perused to lock out the revolving ingress of twisted lawmaker lobbyist. The law ensured that all lobbyists are registered and have transparency to the public who received payment for their tasks to sway lawmakers. Generally, the act provided disclosure of lobbying activities to sway the Federal Government. It was legislation aimed at increasing liability to the federal lobbying live out in the states.
Limitations of Lobbying Reform
Its critical fall included lobbyists who have met the three requirements, namely, be a lobbyist who should earn more than $3000 in three months, the person should lobby for more than one contract, and should spend more than 20 per cent of their lives lobbying for more than one contract. In the process, the three requirements allowed many get-outs for persons to exclude themselves from being termed lobbyist as well as subsequent legislation. Many government officials and lawmakers moved from various political positions to industries and even to political positions (Gerstein, 2015).
The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 reformed the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974 that regulates political campaign financing processes. The law was design to addresses the increased roles of easy fund in campaigns and the proliferation of subject sponsorship advertisements. The law prohibits the nationwide political party committees from outlaying or raising monies that are not federal limits’ subject ever for issue discussion, local races and state. Concerning ads, the law prohibits any ads sponsored by non-profit organisations or paid by any unincorporated entity using union or community generated treasury funds. It includes the 30-day caucus and 60-day general election restrictions where the electioneering communication broadcast ads of a federal candidate.
Implementation and Manipulation of Laws
In Obama’s administration, the two acts were implemented successfully. Philp Bumb (2013) writes that Obama's had plans to crackdown political dirty money. In Obama’s effort to expose secret political spending, he announced new rules to limit tax-exempt for political organizations and their related activities. As a result, organizations which wanted to collect anonymous contributions for political purposes started to organize as 501(c) (4) non-profit in the 1RS tax code. In Donald Trump’s era, however, there is a dark story on campaign finance laws. Michael Cohen, a former Trump’s lawyer, offered himself to federal prosecutors of tax evasion investigations among other crimes in 2011 (The Conversation, 2018). He was plagued guilty of various laws violation including finance laws: a prohibition of corporate contributions to political contenders for federal positions as well as individual campaign contribution ban.
Political Manipulation Continues
The two laws are not only being implemented practically but also are being manipulated politically. President Trump is not showing any signs of resigning even after being directly linked to Cohen’s case.
References
Bump, P. (2013). Obama's Plan to Crackdown on Political Dark Money. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/11/obamas-plan-crackdown-political-dark-money/355548/
There's a dark history to the campaign finance laws Michael Cohen broke — and that should worry Trump. (2018). Retrieved from The Conversation (2018). http://theconversation.com/theres-a-dark-history-to-the-campaign-finance-laws-michael-cohen-broke-and-that-should-worry-trump-102024
