Deirdre Shesgreen

dshesgreen@usatoday.com

WASHINGTON — Rep. Thomas Massie says early in his congressional career he got a startling lesson in the money-and-influence ways of Washington.

Massie, a Republican who represents Northern Kentucky, said he was approached by a lobbyist who told him he could help the congressman raise enough money to get on the Ways and Means Committee. That's a powerful committe which oversees tax policy and is one of the most coveted panels in Congress. Massie declined to name the lobbyist but said he represents the medical device sector.

“He pulled me and my chief of staff into a meeting,” Massie told The Enquirer. “He offered to raise the money that would be required to get me on Ways and Means. This is a lobbyist telling me he can get me on Ways and Means.”

The unstated implication, Massie said, was that if the lobbyist succeeded in helping Massie get a seat on that panel, the congressman would return the favor with legislative goodies.

“It was one of the scummiest meetings I’ve ever been in,” Massie said. “I left just reeling, thinking about the implications for how this place works, when you realize that the lobbyists pick who goes on which committee.”

Other lawmakers and lobbyists said they were equally shocked by Massie’s account and had never heard of such offers being made.

“That’s just crazy,” said Steven LaTourette, a former GOP congressman from Ohio who is now a Washington lobbyist. He said any “super-uber lobbyist” who made that kind of pledge was lying, because no one, no matter how politically wired, could secure a committee seat for a specific lawmaker.

Committee assignments in the House are divvied up by “steering committees,” set up by each party. The GOP Steering Committee has about 30 members, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and other leaders.

The panel also has lawmakers who represent each region of the country, along with committee chairmen and others. They vote on committee assignments, chairmanships, and subcommittee chairmanships in closed-door sessions.

"Members work together with each other to make those decisions," said Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Genoa Township, a member of the GOP Steering Committee. "Period."

But others said that while lobbyists don’t exert any overt influence in the committee selection process, they can play a role behind the scenes.

Meredith McGehee, policy director at the Campaign Legal Center, which supports campaign finance and ethics reform, said she had never heard an “explicit” proposal like the one Massie described. But it’s hardly surprising, she said, that a lobbyist would offer to help a lawmaker raise money.

She said the “dues” system puts enormous pressure on lawmakers to raise money for the party committees, and they naturally turn to lobbyists for help. Lobbyists have the ability to “organize and direct money” from their clients, she said, and it’s in their interest to help ambitious lawmakers secure positions of power.

“There’s an enormous amount of pressure on the K Street-type lobbyists to deliver, and if you don’t your clients get hurt,” she said. She and others said it’s also common for lawmakers to rely on lobbyists for advice and assistance as they try to move up the congressional ladder.

That was clear during last fall’s race for the gavel of the Ways and Means Committee between Tiberi and Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas. As they were campaigning for the post, both lawmakers quietly wooed a cadre of Washington lobbyists to support their respective candidacies.

Tiberi said he consulted with lobbyists, including one of his own former staffers, to get advice and support.

“It’s not something nefarious,” Tiberi said. They offered “some suggestions on marketing myself” to the steering committee, he said. And they had “relationships that I don’t have” with key lawmakers.

Others said it’s not unusual for lawmakers to ask lobbyists to weigh in with party leaders on their behalf for plum committee posts.

“You just can’t run (for a committee chairmanship) and say ‘I’m a nice guy and I should get this because I’m qualified’,” David Hobson, a former Ohio congressman who is now a lobbyist, said in an interview last fall. Hobson said lobbyists can make or break a committee chairman’s campaign by whispering nice or negative things into the right ears.

LaTourette agreed that lobbyists can have some sway in committee decisions.

“Every committee has a constituency, and if you’re trying to be the chairman of Ways and Means, there are lots of businesses and corporations and hospitals who are really dependent on what sort of product the Ways and Means Committee produces,” LaTourette said.

It’s no wonder, he said, if lawmakers like Tiberi and Brady asked lobbyists for those interest groups to put in a good word for them with the GOP Steering Committee.

For example, LaTourette said, say there was an undecided steering committee member from Michigan as Tiberi and Brady were campaigning for the Ways and Means gavel. Tiberi might then ask the lobbyist for General Motors to make a pitch on his behalf to that Michigan lawmaker.

“More candidly, the 800-pound gorilla in the room is the speaker, so what you would really be interested in is someone who could pull the speaker aside and say “We’d like Tiberi’ or ‘We’d like Brady’,” LaTourette said.

AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, said: "Speaker Ryan gives zero thought to K Street's preferences for committee assignments."