Wyche Fowler Jr. Quotes
I'll get 30,000 post cards on an issue before I can even find out that a bill has been introduced.
Referring to the efficiency of lobbyists:
Wyche Fowler Jr., U.S. Congressman (Democrat, GA), Quoted in The Washington Post, July 11, 1988
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Barbour was himself a lobbyist before he became a politician.
What makes this quotation meaningful is the fact that Roosevelt and other Presidents before had not as a rule contacted or lobbied, much less pressured individual members of Congress about specific legislation. While today this is so common that many members of Congress would feel insulted if they did not get a personal appeal from the President to vote for a bill. This was another “first” for TR. The historical bill in question was the National Reclamation Bill.
The WWI veterans lobby was formed and they pressured Congress into authorizing a bonus of between $1 and $1.25 for each day of wartime service. However, the catch was that they would not be paid until 1945 unless they did, Hence the name for the bonus. The Bonus March on Washington would eventually march on Washington to get their pay while they were still alive. Finally, the bonuses were paid immediately after Franklin Delano Roosevelt assumed the Presidency even though he personally opposed paying it early. Congress passed the law over his veto.
This resolution passed and remained in effect for one session. It was one of the first attempts to limit and regulate lobbying.
The George W. Bush administration was a very ideological one as opposed to pragmatic. They would not tolerate public officials who would say anything that might undermine an administrative ideological position. In particular, they did not want government scientists releasing any data or information that was not totally consistent with their ideology and program. They introduced a new policy within the government whereby no one could talk to a reporter or make a public speech or deliver a professional paper without first getting approval of administration “public affairs” agents first. Government scientists and other officials had never before been censored like this. Important scientific studies were not made public where they might not support the administration ideological positions. See {614691}.
William Wyche Fowler Jr. is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat. He is a member of the Democratic Party and served as a U.S. Senator from Georgia from January 1987 to January 1993. He had previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987.
