The National Forensic League Education Staff is pleased to present debaters, coaches, and teachers with the following annotated list of research resources available on the Internet. It is important that students use this as a starting point for their research, investigating additional resources in print and online.

Inclusion on this list does not imply any favored status on the part of these articles or arguments but rather to serve as a research guide for competitors as well as anyone interested in the issues of political lobbying.

NEW
Lobbying Imperils Overhaul of Student Loans
February 4, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/us/politics/05loans.html?hpw

Federalist #10 is an essay by James Madison and the tenth of the Federalist Papers, a series arguing for the ratification of the United States Constitution. No. 10 addresses the question of how to guard against “factions,” or groups of citizens, with interests contrary to the rights of others or the interests of the whole community. In today’s discourse the term special interest often carries the same connotation.
http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa10.htm

Celebrating our 25th anniversary in 2008, the Center for Responsive Politics is the nation’s premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. Nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit, the organization aims to create a more educated voter, an involved citizenry and a more responsive government. In short, CRP’s mission is to:

* Inform citizens about how money in politics affects their lives
* Empower voters and activists by providing unbiased information
* Advocate for a transparent and responsive government

We pursue our mission largely through our award-winning website, OpenSecrets.org, which is the most comprehensive resource for campaign contributions, lobbying data and analysis available anywhere. And for other organizations and news media, CRP’s exclusive data powers their online features tracking money in politics—counting cash to make change.
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobbyists/

American League of Lobbyists is the preeminent national organization that represents government relations and public affairs professionals. Our mission is to “enhance the development of professionalism, competence and high ethical standards for advocates in the public policy arena, and to collectively address challenges which affect the First Amendment right to ‘petition the government for redress of grievances.’”
http://www.alldc.org/

Victoria McGrane, a staff writer for Politico, reviews 2009′s record-setting lobbying efforts.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30882.html

This page serves as a directory for cause lobbyists. All national “cause lobbyist” organizations are considered for this list. As defined by Alan Rosenthal in his 1993 book The Third House: Lobbyists and Lobbying in the States a “cause lobbyist” advocates for or against a particular cause like environmentalism or feminism instead of on behalf of a corporation. Limiting this list will enable it to be updated more often and provide information to interest the general public as a whole.
http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/kfountain/

The “Clean Up Washington” website is the on-line face of a grassroots campaign undertaken by Public Citizen, a national public interest organization, that seeks to rid our nation’s capital of entrenched special interest influence-peddling. The following link is a good summary of the Lobbying Disclosure Act.
http://www.cleanupwashington.org/documents/LDAhistory.pdf

“The Lobbying Manual: A Complete Guide to Federal Law Governing Lawyers and Lobbyists”
Limited excerpts available on Google Books, or you can purchase the book through Amazon.

The text of United States v Rumely, 1953, which narrowly defined organized political lobbying in the United States.
http://supreme.justia.com/us/345/41/case.html

An annotated Foreign Affairs syllabus on lobbying created by Robert C. Lieberman, Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs at Columbia University.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/features/readinglists/what-to-read-on-lobbying

Jeffrey Berry is a professor of political science at Tufts University and provides an in-depth look at lobbying in the non-profit sector.
http://www.icnl.org/knowledge/ijnl/vol6iss2/special_6.htm

A Skeptical Look at Grassroots Lobbying Disclosure

Featuring: Marvin Johnson, Legislative Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union; Mark Fitzgibbons, President, Corporate and Legal Affairs, AmericanTarget Advertising, Inc.; Stephen Hoersting, Executive Director, Center for Competitive Politics; and John Samples, Director, Center for Representative Government Cato Institute.

The House of Representatives will soon consider proposed ethics regulation that requires disclosure of the people and funding involved in grassroots lobbying efforts. “Reform” organizations are pushing such mandatory disclosure by claiming that “this lobbying disclosure reform would not in any way restrict” political speech. That is not so. For over 60 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that stripping citizens of their rights to speak anonymously to each other about issues chills their rights of speech and association, and the Court has upheld such compelled disclosure only in narrow circumstances. Please join us for a discussion of the downside of this new effort to regulate political speech.
http://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=3623

Best Practice in Internal Oversight of Lobbying Practice
by Robert Repetto, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
http://envirocenter.research.yale.edu/uploads/workingpapers/WP200601-Repetto.pdf

The Campaign Finance Institute is a non-partisan, non-profit institute, affiliated with The George Washington University, that conducts objective research and education, empanels task forces and makes recommendations for policy change in the field of campaign finance.
http://www.cfinst.org/

National, nonprofit organization that helps charitable organizations increase their effectiveness and impact through advocacy. Civic participation is the essence of democracy, and nonprofit organizations are one of the most effective vehicles for engaging people in the democratic process. CLPI trains nonprofits and promotes increased advocacy within the nonprofit and philanthropy sector in order to create systemic change on the critical issues of our day.
http://www.clpi.org/

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting ethics and accountability in government and public life by targeting government officials — regardless of party affiliation — who sacrifice the common good to special interests. CREW advances its mission using a combination of research, litigation and media outreach. CREW employs the law as a tool to force officials to act ethically and lawfully and to bring unethical conduct to the public’s attention.
http://citizensforethics.org/

Common Cause is a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization founded as a vehicle for citizens to make their voices heard in the political process and to hold their elected leaders accountable to the public interest. Common Cause strives to strengthen our democracy by empowering our members, supporters and the general public to take action on critical policy issues.
http://www.commoncause.org

Daniel Kaufmann, Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development for the Brookings Institution, reports on “Corruption and the Global Financial Crisis.”
http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2009/0127_corruption_kaufmann.aspx

Democracy 21, and its education arm, Democracy 21 Education Fund, work to eliminate the undue influence of big money in American politics and to ensure the integrity and fairness of government decisions and elections. The organization promotes campaign finance reform and other political reforms to accomplish these goals.
http://www.democracy21.org/

An Introductory Essay by Don Wolfensberger For the Wilson Center’s Congress Project Seminar on Congress, Lobbyists. and the Public Interest Friday, May 18, 2001.
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/events/docs/lobbyintro.pdf

Cato’s executive vice president David Boaz offers his insights in: “Lobbying: A Booming Business in a Politicized Economy.”
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/08/04/lobbying-a-booming-business-in-a-politicized-economy/

From the Foundation for Economic Education’s The Freeman publication, this older, but well-researched article offers in-depth analysis from an economics perspective on the timeless issue of lobbying in the United States.
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/the-political-economy-of-the-us-constitution/#