IP: Re: you should be outraged that a few members [I know I am djf]

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

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Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 16:41:14 -0700
To: farber@cis.upenn.edu
From: "Joseph C. Pistritto" <jcp@jcphome.com>
Subject: Re: IP: you should be outraged that a few members [I know I am
  djf]


I addition to being outraged, its important to note this form of attack is
almost
impossible to defend against because there's so little visiblity beforehand.
One of the *least* transparent parts of our government is the conference
committee process.  I certainly know I never heard about it in civics class...

I dont know how long the conference to floor-vote interval was on this bill,
but a casual reading of the Thomas system records on another bill I was
involved with shows about 36 hours from conference report to the full House
till passage by BOTH houses.  Not a lot of time to influence the process.

This is one reason people have lobbyists ON the Hill.  To catch things like
this
in flight (or in the decision process leading up to conference) and
influence them
on the spot.  Given the fact that stuff like this tends to happen at
end-of-session,
when everyone is distracted (especially this year, with both Clinton and
the budget
late in the session)  I kind of suspect a bumper-crop this year of this
stuff.  Lobbyists
*know* when this stuff is likely, thats what they're paid for...

Like i say, this process is pretty un-transparent.  One might even say opaque.

Best regards,
   -jcp-