Then they hire a grassroots lobbying company to do a targeted mailing to sympathetic voters. Sure enough, a bunch of citizen letters begin flooding Congress. This gives them the cover to vote for the bill that will also mean a large campaign donation. Under the lobbyist reform bill, this doesn't change. The only difference is that every six months, lobbyists will have to list the names of the companies they hired and how much they paid them.
Lobbyists hate that.
Their biggest weapon is secrecy. There are over 40,000 lobbyists in Washington, and right now, this bill is all they have to defeat before Congress adjourns. Let's go for a minute inside the mind of a lobbyist trying to kill this bill. No, that will never do. I need something that will make me look like a hero.