Why Are Interest Groups Important To Congress?

Congress is organized hierarchically and lobbying for Congressional policy involves an interest group’s active attention and participation throughout the entire process that a bill of interest is in the process of becoming law. A bill must make it through its specific committee before it can make the floor debate in the second stage. In the committee stage, committee chairs hold substantial power and can kill a bill by refusing to put it into the meeting agenda or advocate for a bill by calling meetings and forming subcommittees to discuss the bill. A successful lobbyist working on behalf of an interest group would attempt to influence the bill from this very first stage by either trying to influence the committee chair or a number of committee
First and most common and effective way of lobbying is through personal contacts, often done by lobbyists, where the interest groups socializes with the policymakers at banquets, parties, lunches, etc (Clyde and Kim 2005). Interest groups hire people who know their way around the policies and politicians, oftentimes these are lobbying firms who utilize former government officials to help navigate the system (Clyde and Kim 2005). Interest groups also employ expert testimony where they provide testimony and expertise during congressional hearings and debates within the committees. They also draft legislation, and provide information to lawmakers from which to base their vote, sometimes even when the information may not help the cause (Clyde and Kim 2005). In the long term, this builds a more trusting and reliable reputation and relationship between the interest groups and government (Clyde and Kim 2005). More importantly, interest groups often make campaign contributions to electoral candidates and aid them in the electoral process (Tenpas
Any group with enough resources turns towards the courts to appeal policies made by the other branches of government. Perhaps an even more attractive possibility is the fact that courts can even change the rules that other branches of government operate under (Berry and Wilcox 2009). Judicial policymaking is popular because of several reasons. First and foremost, many interest groups have effective access to the courts. More important, courts are also insulted from already “captured” executive agencies (Berry and Wilcox 2009). Supreme Court decisions are also significant in that they can affect both state and local governments. For sensitive issues that elected officials are unwilling to decide on due to concerns of decline in voter popularity, the courts are the go-to agencies to take the blame (Berry and Wilcox