There Ought to Be a Law?
There Is a Law!

Here's one law the White House must surely be violating: the Anti-Lobbying Act of 1919, which prohibits money appropriated by Congress to be used to "influence in any manner a Member of Congress, to favor or oppose, by vote or otherwise, any legislation or appropriation by Congress." If this law were followed literally, the dozen-person White House lobbying shop and the 16 or so lobbyists at cabinet agencies would be illegal. The President would be committing a crime every time he asks for a lawmaker's vote. But remember, this is Washington, where laws are made and broken. In 1995, in order to allow the administration to lobby Congress directly, the Justice Department used the excuse that the law might impinge on the First Amendment right to petition government for redress. But it nixed costly, indirect lobbying through outsiders. That would be too conspicuous--even for Washington.