WP: Clients' Rewards Keep K Street Lobbyists Thriving

[Pirate Smile]

Clients' Rewards Keep K Street Lobbyists Thriving

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 14, 2006; Page A01

A few years ago, a coalition of 60 corporations -- including Pfizer, Hewlett-Packard and Altria -- made an expensive wager. They spent $1.6 million in lobbying fees -- a hefty amount even by recent K Street standards -- to persuade Congress to create a special low tax rate that they could apply to earnings from their foreign operations for one year.

The effort faltered at first, but eventually the bet paid off big. In late 2004, President Bush signed into law a bill that reduced the rate to 5 percent, 30 percentage points below the existing levy. More than $300 billion in foreign earnings has since poured into the United States, saving the companies roughly $100 billion in taxes.

Although not every political battle yields $100 billion, the return on investment in lobbying is often so substantial that experts and insiders agree that Washington's influence industry will continue to thrive no matter how lawmakers decide to rein it in.

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As a result, "lobbying will continue to grow," said Stephen J. Wayne, a political scientist at Georgetown University. The principal reason, said James A. Thurber, a lobbying expert at American University, is that "the investment in lobbying is minimal compared to the outcomes."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/13/AR2006021302239.html