Bill Lobbying 101
A Quick How-to Guide
A Simple 5-Step Guide to Pushing Bills Through the Legislature.
Example: Energy Independence Act
STEP ONE
Identify a bill you want to support, and get a copy of it. www.ncleg.net has copies of all pending bills, or you can ask the staff of a sponsoring legislator to forward you a working copy.
The Energy Independence Act is at: http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2005/Bills/Senate/HTML/S2051v1.html
STEP TWO
Identify where the bill is in the process. This is usually identified at the very beginning of the copy of the bill you can get at www.ncleg.net You can often get more information from the office of one of the bill sponsors. Often you can sign up for email updates.
The Energy Independence Act has been referred to the Agriculture/Environment/Natural Resources Committee.
Sen. Janet Cowell’s office indicates that the bill should be heard in committee in the next week or two.
STEP THREE
Identify the decision-makers. They are usually the designated committee members early in the process, but will eventually include the entire General Assembly. Often you can find out from the office of one of the bill sponsors who is “persuadable”.
Here is the make-up of the Agriculture/Environment/Natural Resources Committee from the www.ncleg.net website, which contains links directly to members’ contact information:
Agriculture/Environment/Natural Resources
|
Meets Tuesdays, Thursdays at 11:00 AM in 544 LOB |
|
|
Chairman |
|
|
Vice Chairman |
|
|
Vice Chairman |
|
|
Vice Chairman |
|
|
Vice Chairman |
|
|
Vice Chairman |
|
|
Vice Chairman |
|
|
Ranking Minority Member |
|
|
Members |
Sen. C. W. "Pete" Bland, Sen. Andrew C. Brock, Sen. Harry Brown, Sen. Janet Cowell, Sen. Don East, Sen. John A. Garwood, Sen. Fletcher L. Hartsell, Jr., Sen. Robert Lee Holloman, Sen. Clark Jenkins, Sen. Jeanne H. Lucas, Sen. Fred Smith, Sen. John Snow, Sen. Jerry W. Tillman, Sen. Hugh Webster |
STEP FOUR
Start making phone calls and visiting legislator’s offices – with special priority on your own representatives. If you are part of a group working together and the number of decision-makers is large, split up your list to cover the maximum amount of ground that you can.
Keep good records of what decision-makers tell you, with an eye towards identifying decision-makers that you think could support the legislation if they had more information, or were asked by the right person.
Then find more information and forward it to the decision-makers, or identify the right person to follow up with that decision-maker.
STEP FIVE
Repeat as often as needed in order to build a majority of decision-makers who will support your identified bill.
