By Brody Mullins and John D. McKinnon
WASHINGTON -- President-elect Donald Trump's victory has sparked
one of the most pitched lobbying efforts in Washington in years as
the prospect of business-friendly policies has companies from the
airline industry to Wall Street launching new blitzes.
Oil and gas firms are pressing to roll back federal regulations
on drilling. Verizon Communications Inc. and other large
telecommunications firms want changes to the net neutrality rules
championed by President Barack Obama's administration .
Airlines are seeking stronger enforcement of an aviation
agreement in hopes of stopping foreign carriers from getting an
unfair advantage on the most prized international routes. Boeing
Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and other defense contractors are
scrambling to protect against cuts in the Pentagon's budget.
"People are getting out the agendas that they have had for
years, but never thought could happen," said Ed Kutler, a longtime
Washington lobbyist. "Now, all of a sudden, people are firing with
real bullets because things can be passed and go to a president who
has his pen ready to sign."
Mr. Trump, a Republican, said on the campaign trail that he
wants to "drain the swamp" in Washington and curb the influence of
lobbyists and special interests. But his election has been a boon
for Washington's influence sector as airlines, defense contractors,
tech companies, retailers, manufacturers and others seek to advance
their agendas.
Lawmakers are getting "a lot of contact and a lot of outreach"
from hopeful businesses seeking regulatory relief and other
changes, said Rep. Tom Cole (R., Okla.), a senior House member.
Business-focused initiatives in Congress this year are likely to
include repeal and replacement of Mr. Obama's signature health-care
law, a sweeping tax-code rewrite and repeal of a range of
environment and energy rules.
Lobbyists for Wall Street already are pressing Congress to
rescind a range of Dodd-Frank financial regulations that they say
are too onerous.
McDonald's Corp., Choice Hotels International Inc. and other
restaurant, hotel and retail companies are pushing to overturn a
decision by Mr. Obama's administration to make it easier for unions
to organize employees at franchises like McDonald's.
Led by a Washington trade group, the International Franchise
Association, the industry is seeking legislation to overturn
permanently the 2015 decision by the National Labor Relations
Board. That effort stood little chance of overcoming the opposition
of national labor unions and a Democratic president, but gained new
life with Mr. Trump's win.
"It's a whole new opportunity to go on offense in a way that we
had not expected," said Matthew Haller, a senior vice president at
the trade group.
The franchisees got another boost when Mr. Trump nominated
Andrew Puzder as Labor secretary. Mr. Puzder served on the
International Franchise Association's board and resigned his seat
last week.
Mr. Trump isn't the first president to come to Washington with a
pledge to rein in the influence-peddling industry. Mr. Obama, a
Democrat, made a similar promise when he took office eight years
ago.
Companies, labor unions and interest groups spent a total of
$3.2 billion on lobbying in 2015, the last year for which complete
figures are available, down slightly from $3.3 billion in 2008, the
year before Mr. Obama took office, according to lobbying data
compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
However, the decline likely had more to do with lobbyists reducing
the activity they reported on disclosure forms, rather than a real
decline in lobbying activity.
Companies must disclose new lobbying hires, but due to a time
lag in the disclosure rules, it is too soon to determine the
precise number of lobbyists who have been hired since Mr. Trump's
election.
To be sure, Washington's lobbying industry gets a boost every
time there is a shift in power, as companies and industries build
lobbying teams to deal with the uncertainty of a new administration
and defend their issues.
Many industries said Mr. Trump's statements on the campaign
trail should translate into new momentum for their causes. U.S.
airlines said Mr. Trump's concerns about inequitable trade policies
means his administration should enforce an aviation agreement to
prevent foreign carriers, such as Qatar Airways of Qatar and
Emirates of the United Arab Emirates, from getting an unfair
advantage on some lucrative international routes.
American Airlines Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc. and United
Continental Holdings Inc. say the Gulf carriers are violating the
agreement, known as Open Skies, by using government subsidies to
fly newer planes at cheaper prices.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian said last month that the agreement should
be the first test of Mr. Trump's promise to use trade policy to
protect U.S. jobs. "We should be the poster child in terms of the
opportunity for this administration to enforce trade agreements,"
he said. "We're very encouraged by our new president's platform to
enforce American trade agreements and to bring back American jobs,"
Mr. Bastian said.
Defense contractors, Detroit auto makers and some manufacturing
firms are building lobbying campaigns to protect themselves from
possible unwanted changes from the new administration. Defense
contractors have come under attack from Mr. Trump, who has
frequently criticized expensive government contracts with Boeing
and Lockheed Martin involving both Air Force One and the Pentagon's
newest jet fighter.
"The defense industry began the Trump transition expecting a
sizable increase in defense spending, however some of his
appointments and tweets have left the industry confused and a bit
worried," said Loren Thompson, a defense-industry consultant in
Washington.
Oil and gas firms, for example, are preparing a broad effort to
roll back regulations they said make it hard to drill for oil and
gas and build new pipelines. They hope to wrest control of the
issue from environmental groups, who had successfully blocked key
projects, such as the Keystone Pipeline, during Mr. Obama's
term.
Verizon and other major U.S. telecommunications firms want to
roll back net-neutrality regulations put in place by the Obama
administration. The Obama administration was much more closely
aligned with Google, Netflix Inc. and other internet firms that
favored the rules, which require internet service providers such as
Verizon to treat all web traffic equally.
"We're going to see spending like we've never seen before" on
overhauling net neutrality and related telecommunications rules,
said Michael Copps, a Democratic former member of the Federal
Communications Commission who now advises Common Cause, a
nonpartisan watchdog group.
Write to Brody Mullins at brody.mullins@wsj.com and John D.
McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 10, 2017 20:11 ET (01:11 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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