Incoming congressman Richard Ojeda wants to crack down on corruption in government, and he’s got a radical idea for doing so: body cameras for lobbyists.
“If you could get on your computer and watch every conversation that your member of Congress is having with lobbyists, I can guarantee that they’d be far less likely to sell you down the river,” Ojeda told The Washington Sun. “And make no mistake about it, there are people that sell you down the river.”
Ojeda, a Democrat, upset Rep. Richard Hudson (R-North Carolina), the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, in last week’s election. Ojeda won on a platform of bringing accountability to Washington, and come January, he intends to turn his lobbyist body cam idea into a bill.
Lobbyists are presently required to disclose the clients and issues for which they lobby under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995. The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, passed in the aftermath of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal that sent several people to prison, further strengthened federal lobbying rules.
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But domestic lobbyists and government officials generally are not required to publicly disclose who they meet with or specifics of what they discuss.
This is where the body cameras come in. Ojeda proposed a similar measure when he was a state senator in West Virginia. He did not specify on what part of their bodies lobbyists would wear the cameras.
“Does it pass? I don’t know.” Ojeda said. “But it will make a lot of people realize, ‘You know what? That guy’s right.’ If we want to end corruption in this country, that’s how we do it. We stop allowing people to do things in the dark.”
Lobbyists who spoke with The Washington Sun thought that the proposal was absurd. One pointed out an obvious workaround: Lobbyists would take meetings off Capitol grounds.
“In the Obama White House, staff ended up having coffee with lobbyists across the street. If it’s spring, summer or fall, they’ll just sit outside,” said a senior Democratic lobbyist of when President Barack Obama tried to implement strict rules for lobbying his staff. The lobbyist was granted anonymity to speak candidly to maintain professional relationships.
Lobbyists who spoke with The Sun described themselves as educators and representatives for groups that may not have a voice in government, a voice that is protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment right to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
“I don’t think the public’s concern right now is about lobbying. It’s about people drawing government salaries,” the senior Democratic lobbyist said, referencing lawmakers and administration officials.
“Me going into a member of Congress’ office and talking about veterans’ issues isn’t shady,” said Paul Miller, board chairman for the National Institute for Lobbying & Ethics. “It’s not me buying anything. It’s me having the opportunity to share a point of view that is important to a group of people within that congressperson’s district.”
Miller’s group, known as NILE, has proposed measures to bring more transparency to lobbying. NILE says that who must register as a lobbyist should be better defined. This would require people who call themselves “consultants” or “strategists,” but who still engage in lobbying activities, to register.
Federal law requires someone to register as a lobbyist if they meet three main criteria: they’re paid by a client or employer to lobby on their behalf, they make more than one contact with government officials about issues of concern to their client, and they spend at least 20 percent of their work time engaging in lobbying activities or lobbying preparation.
There are more than 13,500 registered federal lobbyists at work this year, according to an analysis of federal records by nonpartisan watchdog organization OpenSecrets.
Miller suggested lobbyists should have to wear identification badges at the Capitol, like congressional staffers and members of the press do. NILE also proposes that federal lobbying disclosure records, which lobbyists file with the government on a quarterly basis, list details about the specific legislation for which they are lobbying.
“These aren’t sexy steps, but they’re important steps,” Miller said, “You should have to be more specific on the issues that you’re lobbying for.”
Ojeda knows his body camera proposal is unconventional and potentially difficult to enforce.
Motivated by the opioid crisis that has devastated his home state of West Virginia, he says he wants to find a way to hold big corporations and “dark money” groups accountable.
“This is something that I come up with because I’m sick and tired of realizing that we got people that, behind the scenes, don’t care about the people, and all they do care about is how much money they can jam in their pockets,” Ojeda said. “Nobody sends anybody to Washington, D.C., so they can become multimillionaires.”
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