Page Ten-8 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, September 6,.1974 Page Ten-B THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, September 6, 1974 r..... ................................................::..::. :::::::.:.:::::::::::::::::::::::::, :. .smaum ....m n .E .. . SHADOW GOVERNMENT? Lobbyists shape legislation 6ato~4cr c46dft(f~geI/ By .KAY BARTLETT sults of 'existing legislation. WASHINGTON (P) - Andrew They bring important insights Biemiller, chief lobbyist for the into the operation. They know AFL-CIO, was testifying before whether or not a piece of legis- a House committee recently on lation needs to be continued or legislation in which organized whether we're just spinning our labor had an interest. Rep. Cle- wheels." ment Zablocki (D-Wis.) was a LOBBYING has been called member of the committee. the fourth branch of govern- "Congressman Zablocki .. "," ment. It is pervasive; part of Biemiller began in his gravely t syste Te iratepro- voice. tesse.Teiaepo "Andy," the congressman in- nouncement that "I'm going to terrupted, "why don't you call write to my congressman," is, me Clem like you always do."1 AN ANTI-LABOR lobbyist wit-, nesses the exchange.- "My guys tell me that poor When I go back son of a gun jumped out of his skin when Clem said that," .o, chortles Biemiller.Im alobyist, its m And chortle he might. Good old Clem had served with good I'm a pimp," says one old Andy when Andy was Con- gressmen Biemiller, also a Wis- consin Democrat. devoutly in anonymi "I helped get him elected," dvul nao m Biemiller notes in passing. ' ..::; s... is the American Petroleum In- stitute, representing 8,500 to 9,000 companies directly or in- directly related to oil..There are, the people lobbies - Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, the NAACP, Ralph Na-, der - and t h o s e representing causes: pro and anti-abortion,. population control, world peace'. F Almost anyonenis free to "lobby. But the name of -the game is good connections and. expertise.. home and tell people uch the same as saying ' lobbyist who believes .. \ .. . It' V/C?, ; You not only reduce co know what a few do So we have elimin NATIONAL CITY T $1000 in savings or buil 4 f} *~Ann Arbor Federz money, so you increz winner? Take advantag We can handle the transfer .......... 'RNELERS NEY ORDE ITH $1/OO( I SAVINGS sts when you save at AAFS, you also increase y llgrs saved here and a few there can do for a fam nated charges for MONEY ORDERS and for FIF RAVELERS CHECKS for all AAFS customers d the balance in their savings to $1000. Remer al Savings you receive the highest interest on yo ase your income while you reduce your costs.S e of it. of your _hnds to an AF l 1account with no inconveni "ur "ncome. We jRS - our income. We < .°.f nily budget. RST:tp who have ,nber, too, that at iur Sound like a ence to you. ty. Women Voters seemed to care," Stafford said. In the climate of Watergate morality, Stafford has re-sub- mitted his refordi hill. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), has introduced another, similar bill and there were five before the House at the beginning of the summer. L0BBYISTS, in inter- views, say the 1946 law is so vaguely worded that the re- quirements to register and to list expenses probably could be bypassed. The reform legis- lation would remove the vague- ness, as well as requiring lob- byists to keep logs of their daily contacts and their sources of income. The public thus would be able to know how much time and money went into influencing a specific piece of legislation. Common Cause, which listed $934,835.67 for lobbying ex- penses last year - the high- est of all lobbies - strongly supports reform legislation. "WE WANT IT on public view. The public should know who is going to see whom, why, what they are being paid for do- ing and by whom," says Fred Wertheimer, chief lobbyist for Common Cause. Beimiller grumbles: "It can get pretty absurd if I"have to record every call I make. I work pretty well on the tele- phone. I might make 30 calls a day. I'd have to log each of those calls? That's noisense." And Smith adds: "Vhat good is the new legislaiton going to do anyway? If soMtone slips a congressman a $10,000 cam- paign contribution, do you think he's going to list that on his lobby form?" "TT'S JUST THE kind of thing politicians do for each other. I' mean, you're part of the club. It's that simple." Biemiller, 67, is indeed part of the club. Some might say he's president. He is one of nearly 2,000 registered Wash- ington lobbyists, a band of men and women who have advanced the First Amendment's right to netition Congress to a high art form. But the very word lobbyist conjures up vision of Dita Beards, laundered money, milk industry campaign contribu- tions, oil company influence. "When I go back home and tell people I'm a lobbyist, it's much the same as saying I'm a, pimp," says one lobbyist who believes devoutly in anonymity. AT LEAST SEVEN bills are' before Congress to revise the 1946 law which still regulates lobbying. A chief revision would require lobbyists to keep logs of whom they see, why they are seeing them and who is paying them for their efforts. The 1946 law specifies only registration and listing of expenses. Even in the nation's capital, where everyone knows what everyone else is doing, there! are euphemisms for lobbyists: "legislative liaison man," "leg- islative counsel," "vice presi- dent in charge of government relations." On the other hand, elected officials speak freely about the invaliable role the lobbyist of- ten plays. Mike McPherson, ad- dministrative assistant to Rep. William Clay (D-Mo.) gives an illuistration: "When there is any educa- tion bill up, the National Edu- cation Association is, of course, vitally interested. They're as knowledgeable about any educa- tion act as any member of the committee. Th e y're able to bring in information we don't have. They have resources not available to us in terms of sta- tistics, field interviews, the re- after all, lobbying. Not that your letter would have exactly the same effect as when Bie- miller tells a senator how or- ganized labor feels about a given issue. Biemiller speaks for 14 million members. That's 14 million po- tential voters, 14 million poten- tial campaign contributors and 14 million potential foot soldiers when it's time to tack up your picture on telephone poles. Who are these myriad lobbyists? BIG BUSINESS is there in force. Many companies have their own lobbyists. Some oper- ate only through trade associa- tions such as the Air Transport Association, which represents 27 scheduled carriers. Another Nearly everyone seems to agree that the 1946 lobbying law still in force is a poor one. "There were never any hear- ings on it" says Milton Smith, chief counsel for the U. S. Chamber of Commerce. "It was tacked on to a congressional reorganization bill . . . Nobody is even sure who wrote it and nobody paid any attention to it." PE R I O D I C ATTEMPTS have been made to pass a new law. Until Watergate, no one showed much interest. Sen. Robert Stafford (R-Vt.), for ex- ample introduced reform legis- lation several years ago. But no one came to the hearings on his bill, and it died from ne- glect. "Not even the League of masavsi . ,omes.. mgia 1 Ad execs look eastward: Japanese sell U.S. good's CQI . ............ ........... .......... ......... ................. ......... '.i.t :aEi 30 By ROBERT HOLDER NEW YORK (P)-Everybody knows the Japanese are masters at making things small and com- pact, right? That's why gentlemen appar- ently from Japan are now ap- pearing on your television screen to sell the idea that small American products are better than those ubiquitous Japanese imports. "IF TOYOTA can use Ameri- cans why can't Pontiac use Japanese," one advertising ex- ecutive said of this recent strategy to combat the "Made in Japan" manufacturing wave. So now actor Saab Shimono is pulling a small surprise on viewers in a commercial for the Pontiac Ventura. The network spot starts out like a routine pitch for one of the competing ANN ARBOR FEDERAL SAVINGS ANN ARBOR OFFICES: Downtown, Liberty at Division; Westside, Pauline at Stadium; Eastside, Huron Parkway at Platt; Northside, Plymouth at Nixon; CHELSEA-Main Street near Old U.S. 12; DEXTER-8081 Main Street: YPSILANTI-Hewitt at Packard; MANCHESTER-111 East Main Street. Member: Federal Home Loan Bank Systemi Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation Japanese imports in the family compacthautomobile class, but after the kimono-clad actor praises the car's craftsmanship, the camera reveals it to be a Pontiac. Meanwhile, actor Pat Morita is saying "We have been most successful in making things small. Radios small, TV's small ." as the lead-in to a com- mercial for Fedders Corp.'s new lightweight rotary-powered air conditioner. He is flanked by two solemn and silent business- men recruited from the ranks of Japanese living in New York. "WE FELT THAT if we were going to use Japanese, they must be proper businessmen, said Ted Anson, Fedders' ac- count supervisor at Keyon & Eckhardt, Inc., advertising agency. "We weren't going to disparage the Japanese people in any way, shape or form." Russ Linabury, Pontiac ac- count supervisor at D'Arcy, Macmanus and Masius in Bloom- field Hills, Mich., said 'the agency has two women art di- rectors of Japanese descent and neither found the commercial the least bit offensive. "If the ads had been offen- sive, you would have heard about it by now," said a spokes- person for the Japanese Cham- ber of Commerce of New York.- A man at the Japan Trade Center found nothing unusual about the approach. commercials use Americans or other foreign actors intelevi- sioin rn.mn.ercials," he said. "I think it's time that some for- eianPr might be used on U.S. tetQ ision." .Tames Kellev, director, of the -lanan America Institute where Tananse huinessmen learn English. said the students who have seen the commercials comment only that they swere amused by them. Snokesnersons at Fedders and the Pontiac division of General Motors Coro. sav early response to the commerc'ials which were rlPe eofed independently but re- leased around the same time in Jame, has been gratifying. "UAT.ERS ARE our custom- ers, and we're always -glad when they accept ourefforts as enthusiastically as they have this one," said James Graham, director of marketing for Pon- tiac. A Fedders spokesperson said the firm couldn't keep up with orders on its new air condition- er. Will the home screens soon be filled with Japanese pitch- men for all American products that compete with Japanese items? "I don't think so," said an art director at the . J. Walter Thompson Co. ad agency, who hadn't seen either commercial. "It's the kind of thing that can really make a point for one or two manufacturers, but lf it's picked up by others, 'it could quickly become a cliche." 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