For the first time, a member of the American Nazi Party has become a Washington lobbyist with the purpose of helping pass favourable legislation through the US congress, US-based ABC News reported.

The television network said party activist John Bowles, 55, had registered as a Washington lobbyist, and that was something the American Nazi Party planned to "try out for the first time and see if it flies."

"I always tell my fellow Americans that they need to practice their constitutional rights or their rights will one day be eroded," Mr Bowles told the network.

"Lobbying is one way to do that, to try to get your point across to the elected officials in congress."

He said he wanted to focus on issues such as ballot access, unemployment, immigration and budgets.

"I'm not going to go in and shove a swastika in their face," Mr Bowles said, according to ABC News.

"I use a very careful and objective approach. There might be some congressmen who crumple up the paper and some who say 'this is interesting.'"

The American Nazi Party (ANP) was founded in 1959 by veteran US Navy Commander George Lincoln Rockwell and is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

It says on its website that it is involved in "a very serious struggle ... for the very existence of our White Nation of people."

The new lobbyist said he would not use derogatory language and was open to working with members of congress from all parties.

"If they don't hold my politics against me, I won't hold anything against them," he said.

AFP