In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which usually involves direct, face-to-face contact, is done by many types of people, associations and organized groups, including individuals in the private sector, corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or advocacy groups. Lobbyists may be among a legislator's constituencies, meaning a voter or bloc of voters within their electoral district; they may engage in lobbying as a business. Professional lobbyists are people whose business is trying to influence legislation, regulation, or other government decisions, actions, or policies on behalf of a group or individual who hires them. Individuals and nonprofit organizations can also lobby as an act of volunteering or as a small part of their normal job. Governments often define "lobbying" for legal purposes, and regulate organized group lobbying that has become influential.
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terrorism, border security, immigration and customs, cyber security, and disaster prevention and management.
Mark Lunsford Pryor is an American attorney, politician and lobbyist who served as a United States Senator from Arkansas from 2003 to 2015. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to becoming senator, he was Attorney General of Arkansas from 1999 to 2003.
James Lee Witt is a former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), during the tenure of U.S. President Bill Clinton and is often credited with raising the agency's level of professionalism and ability to respond to disasters.
James Steven "Steve" Griles was an American coal industry lobbyist and the United States Deputy Secretary of the Interior during the George W. Bush administration from July 12, 2001, until his resignation on December 7, 2004.
William David Delahunt is an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts. He is a former U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 10th congressional district, serving from 1997 to 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Delahunt did not seek re-election in 2010, and left Congress in January 2011. He was replaced by Norfolk County District Attorney Bill Keating. He is currently an attorney with the firm of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott.
Young Timothy Hutchinson is an American Republican politician, lobbyist, and former United States senator from the state of Arkansas.
John Vincent Weber is an American politician, lobbyist and former Republican Congressman from Minnesota.
William Asa Hutchinson II is an American attorney, businessman, and politician who is the 46th and current governor of Arkansas. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U.S. attorney for the Fort Smith-based Western District of Arkansas from 1982 to 1985, U.S. representative for Arkansas's 3rd congressional district from 1997 to 2001, administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from 2001 to 2003, and the first undersecretary for border and transportation security at the United States Department of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2005.
The Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal was a United States political scandal exposed in 2005; it related to fraud perpetrated by political lobbyists Jack Abramoff, Ralph E. Reed Jr., Grover Norquist and Michael Scanlon on Native American tribes who were seeking to develop casino gambling on their reservations. The lobbyists charged the tribes an estimated $85 million in fees. Abramoff and Scanlon grossly overbilled their clients, secretly splitting the multi-million dollar profits. In one case, they secretly orchestrated lobbying against their own clients in order to force them to pay for lobbying services.
Lobbying in the United States describes paid activity in which special interest groups hire well-connected professional advocates, often lawyers, to argue for specific legislation in decision-making bodies such as the United States Congress. It is a highly controversial phenomenon, often seen in a negative light by journalists and the American public, with some critics describing it as a legal form of bribery, influence peddling, and/or extortion. While lobbying is subject to extensive and often complex rules which, if not followed, can lead to penalties including jail, the activity of lobbying has been interpreted by court rulings as constitutionally protected free speech and a way to petition the government for the redress of grievances, two of the freedoms protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. Since the 1970s, lobbying activity has grown immensely in the United States in terms of the numbers of lobbyists and the size of lobbying budgets, and has become the focus of much criticism of American governance.
The Jack Abramoff CNMI scandal involved the efforts of Jack Abramoff, other lobbyists, and government officials to change or prevent, or both, Congressional action regarding the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and businesses on Saipan, its capital, commercial center, and one of its three principal islands.
Preston Conrad Bynum was a lobbyist in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States, who served as a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from January 1969 to December 1980.
Robert D. "Robbie" Wills, Jr. is an American attorney and former politician residing in Conway, Arkansas. He is the former Speaker of the House of the Arkansas House of Representatives and former State Representative representing House District 46, which consisted of the western half of the City of Conway and a section of rural Western Faulkner County, Arkansas. Wills was sworn in as Speaker of the House of the 87th General Assembly on January 12, 2009. Wills was named to the Arkansas Business Power List in 2008 and the Arkansas Business 40 Under 40, also in 2008. Wills was elected as a Democrat. Wills was first elected in 2004 and was reelected without opposition in 2006 and 2008.
Hogan Lovells is an American-British law firm co-headquartered in London and Washington, DC. The firm was formed in 2010 by the merger of the American law firm Hogan & Hartson and the British law firm Lovells. It employs about 2,400 lawyers across 40 offices in the United States, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
The Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) is a state agency of Arkansas, headquartered in Donaghey Plaza South of the Donaghey Complex, a five-story building on the southwest corner of Main Street and 7th Street, in Little Rock. The state agency is in charge of maintaining social services for Arkansas by providing assistance to families and monitoring/inspecting health facilities.
Direct lobbying in the United States are methods used by lobbyists to influence United States legislative bodies. Interest groups from many sectors spend billions of dollars on lobbying.
William B. Broydrick, was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, serving in the 16th Assembly District. He graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in Government in 1970 and attended Johns Hopkins University 1970–1971. Broydrick is married with one child.
CGCN Group is an issue advocacy and lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. The all-Republican firm has ties to GOP leadership and the party's conservative wing. Its clients include banks, finance, and oil companies, in addition to companies such as Microsoft, MasterCard, and Boeing. The firm was formerly known as Clark Geduldig Cranford & Nielsen.
Mary Mayhew is an American lobbyist, former Maine commissioner of Health and Human Services and candidate for Governor of Maine in 2018. A lobbyist for hospitals prior to her appointment as Commissioner by Republican Governor Paul LePage, Mayhew spent more than 6 years pursuing conservative welfare policies.
