Thursday, January 22, 2009

No economic downturn for lobbying industry

Even though Barack Obama's executive order eliminates the lobbying future for those in the executive branch, the lobbying industry is expecting good times ahead, according to an article in the Washington magazine, The Hill:

Corporations also recognize, however, that they can’t afford to cut expenses on K Street. They need lobbyists to grab their piece of the government-spending pie and to make sure that Obama and his Democratic allies do not enact policies that would disadvantage them.

“People are being cautious, but they’re also alert to the fact that things can happen,” said James Christian, a partner at Patton Boggs.

“In a lot of cases, they can’t afford to disengage from Washington,” Chesson said.

Smith Davis, a partner at Akin Gump, said the broader economic downturn may end up being good for the lobbying industry.

“In a time of crisis, policy is a lot more important. It just is,” Davis said. “Big decisions are going to be made, and corporate America is aware of it.”

As for 2009, Davis said, business “looks very good so far.”


It will be interesting to see how much money companies that are cutting workforce right and left are spending to keep high-priced lobbyists living in style.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Business must be good for Roy Temple. He sold his soul to Roy Blunt and will be actively involved in his campaign and not Robin Carnahan's.

Guess all that guy's talk was pretty worthless. He has no principles and obviously no soul.