Lobbyists fighting the good fight

By Lisa Sieren

The term "lobbyist" often solicits a strong reaction from people. And usually that reaction isn’t positive. Last weekend while out with friends, a gentleman asked me what I did for a living and I replied that I worked in public policy. He looked at me like I was gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe and said, "You’re not a lobbyist are you?" I replied no, but that I work with lobbyists and they are great people.

There are certainly lobbyists out there who engage in unethical practices to advance their issues. But there are also a great deal of lobbyists out there "fighting the good fight," and I am proud to say that United Way works with some awesome lobbyists. United Ways in Iowa collectively contract with the firm Eide & Heisinger to represent us at the State Capitol. I can honestly say that our lobbyists do a great job of working with both political parties to gain support and advance our work in the areas of Education, Income and Health.

How do they do it? Here is a just a little sampling of how our lobbyists advance our work:

1) Relationships and who you know is often the name of the game at the capitol. Lobbyists spend years developing relationships with legislators, government staff and the executive branch. It is important to know the priorities of the legislators to identify support for our issues, such as which legislators are champions for early childhood or after school programs. Our lobbyists are great at identifying who United Way can partner with to advance our work.

2) Have you ever looked at a budget bill making state appropriations? One paragraph and it can give you a headache. As appropriations bills were introduced over the few weeks, our lobbyists spent a considerable amount of time deciphering funding for various programs and ensuring United Way’s key agenda items were not cut. Over the course of the session as bills are introduced, our lobbyists review the bills and look at the potential linkages to our legislative agenda. It takes a great deal of time to monitor all the bills that are introduced, and our lobbyists are key in making sure we are aware of bills that impact our work.

These are just two of the many ways our lobbyists advance our work. I am proud to say United Way works with the good guys (and gal, in deference to our female lobbyist). Our lobbyists are committed to representing United Way and our work in Education, Income and Health at the capitol. Feel free to contact me if you have questions about our work with our lobbyists.