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		Congressional Caucuses: Beyond the Smoke and Mirrors EXECUTIVE UPDATE, November 2003 Congressional caucuses have that infamous, smoke-filled back room mystique where the powerful plot the course for the country. In reality, the smoke is gone and caucuses are often overlooked, underestimated legislative breeding grounds that play an important role in educating, uniting, and influencing legislators. No government relations strategy is complete without giving caucuses their due. By: Peter Farnham, CAE

Autism. California. Fatherhood. Korea. Gambling. Hispanics. Our northern border. Steel. A nonexistent interstate highway — and the trucks that will drive on it if it's ever built. Textiles. Lewis and Clark. Minor league baseball.

You might not think that a common denominator could possibly unite these highly disparate topics, but every one of them — and several hundred more — has a caucus to promote it in the 108th Congress.

A caucus is an organized but informal group of legislators established to promote or advocate a specific shared interest, and as the list here shows, that interest can be most anything. Along with congressional committees and political parties, caucuses are an often-underestimated third component of congressional policymaking.

A Brief History
Caucuses have been fixtures of the American political scene since colonial times, and for most of that history, caucuses have had an unsavory air about them. Consider this description of a caucus meeting in Boston from a diary entry in 1763 by founding father John Adams:

"The Caucas Clubb meets at certain Times in the Garret of Tom Daws...There they smoke tobacco till you cannot see from one End of the Garrett to the other. There they drink Phlip [a potent mixture of beer, rum, and sugar] …and Selectmen, Assessors, Collectors, Wardens, Fire Wards, and Representatives are regularly chosen before they are chosen in the Town."

This early association of caucus meetings with smoke-filled rooms and undemocratic political decision making colored the public view of such groups until the mid-20th century. That view began to change in the late 1950s. The first modern congressional caucus, the Democratic Study Group (DSG), was established in 1959. The DSG was an outgrowth of the frustration liberal House Democrats felt when faced with the power held by conservative southern Democrats who chaired most of the committees at the time. The DSG soon became a power in its own right, using paid staff to develop legislative proposals and produce research and policy analyses. The quality of its work was so trusted that even Republicans used DSG reports.

While only a handful of other caucuses were established in the 1960s and early 1970s, their numbers have exploded in the last 20 years. Today, while caucuses are not necessarily permanent — some disband or go dormant every Congress — usually around 200 exist at any given time.

Caucuses can be large, involving literally hundreds of members of Congress, or small, with only a handful. They also can be bipartisan or limited to one party and can exist in the House, Senate, or both. However, they are far more common in the House.

"Senators typically have more staff, so caucuses are more useful in the House as sources of information," says Matt Zonarich, who staffed the Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus for former Rep. George Gekas (R-PA) in the 1990s.

Zonarich also noted that while caucuses do not have their own money appropriated from public funds, almost all of them receive support of one kind or another from an interest group that shares its vision — and herein lies the key reason caucuses should interest you and your association. Working together, your association and a congressional caucus can advance the public policy goals you share to your mutual advantage.

According to Susan Webb Hammond, professor of government at American University and author of Congressional Caucuses in National Policymaking (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), caucuses "can be organized into six categories: party affiliation, personal interest, national constituency, regional issues, state interests, and district industrial interests. ...Within the caucuses, members share information, coordinate legislative plans, seek ways to influence colleagues, and even strategize on agenda setting."

Of course, caucuses must comply with ethics rules (see the sidebar, "Are You Sure This Is Ethical?"), but in general, your association has numerous ways it can work with congressional caucuses.

Making the Match
With so many caucuses available, finding the right one to forward your cause might seem daunting, but resources are available that make the task easier.

First, a list of caucuses can be found in the Congressional Staff Directory. The Summer 2003 edition contains contact information for 166 House caucuses and 20 Senate caucuses (since caucuses form and disband all the time, this list, while as current as possible, is probably not complete). Included in each caucus listing is its name, mission statement and purpose, names of the chair and co-chair, the caucus mailing address and Web site, and the contact information for the chief staffer.

If you do not have access to the Congressional Staff Directory, surf the House and Senate Web sites. Almost every representative and senator belongs to at least one caucus — many are members of a dozen or more — and their personal sites usually link to one or more caucus sites. If a member of Congress is a caucus chair, even better; his or her office usually provides the staff support to manage caucus affairs.

Once you have found an appropriate caucus, call or meet the staff and discuss how your association and the caucus might be able to work together. Common ways that associations work with caucuses include providing speakers at caucus functions, helping generate signatures on "dear colleague" letters, and reviewing and commenting on legislative proposals of mutual interest.

Speakers
Many caucuses have no avowed legislative goals and exist primarily to educate legislators and staffs about particular policy issues. Outside speakers are often featured at public meetings held by such caucuses.

Once your association has begun to work with a particular caucus, you can offer to provide speakers, either occasionally or as part of a regular program. However, due to House and Senate ethics rules, your association will have to pick up most expenses, including lodging and travel, associated with the speaker's visit to Washington.

You also must provide most of the event publicity, although typically the chair's office will publicize the speech within Congress itself through announcements in internal newsletters or through a "dear colleague" letter. In addition, many caucuses announce upcoming public meetings in Congress Daily, a daily newsletter published that lists all Capitol Hill events when Congress is in session.

"Dear Colleague" Letters
A "dear colleague" letter spreads the word within Congress about any matter that a legislator wants distributed to all other members. In addition to being publicity vehicles about an upcoming event, these letters can be sent by a friendly legislator to advance your association's public policy goals.

For example, if your association supports particular legislation on which the House will soon vote, consider suggesting to the bill's sponsor that a "dear colleague" letter be circulated to describe the bill and ask for other legislators' support, perhaps even recruiting cosponsors. Your association could help generate these signatures by activating your members in key congressional districts to contact their elected officials, urging them to sign the letter.

Once an impressive number of signatures has been collected, the letter can be sent to the member of Congress or group of legislators that would be key players in the bill's consideration process. For example, the letter might go to a chairman whose committee is debating the bill or perhaps to House and Senate conferees, if getting an amendment in the final version of the bill is your association's goal.

Legislation
Although many caucuses exist strictly to educate, others organize around specific legislative proposals. For example, the Interstate 69 Caucus is organized around a highway that does not even exist yet. According to its mission statement, the caucus "is dedicated to the establishment of the Mid-Continent Highway. The highway's proposed route would stretch from Port Huron, Michigan, through Indiana to Laredo, Texas." Caucus organizers believe that a highway connecting Canada, the United States, and Mexico would facilitate commerce that various trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement are intended to bring about.

Your association can, of course, promote legislation whenever it wants, but if a caucus exists that shares your goals already, your chances of success are even better. According to former caucus staffer Zonarich, caucuses are "a ready-made group likely to vote as a bloc on an issue and can serve as a jumping-off point to get bills passed." Thus, working with a caucus to advance your legislative goals is a logical element of any smart association's government relations strategy.

The Setup
If no currently existing caucuses exactly match your association's legislative and policy interests, consider approaching a congressional ally about establishing one that does. The first critical step in establishing a caucus is finding a legislator to serve as chair. Mention the idea to members of Congress who seem to share your goals and then arrange meetings to discuss the proposed caucus and what support your association can provide. Once a legislator has agreed to take the lead on establishing a caucus, your association should support him or her as much as possible, both with the launch and ongoing management.

Be forewarned, though, that not everyone is a fan of caucuses. Although these entities can improve planning and coordination efforts, says Hammond, "they also tend to fragment the congressional system, because they serve as alternative sources of information, communication, and voting coalitions outside the formal structure of Congress. In fact, caucuses have survived recent attempts at elimination by doing away with legislative service organizations." Some leaders also charge that caucuses do not have appropriate fiscal accountability.

Despite the grumbling, caucuses remain a powerful tool that associations should not ignore. "Interest groups value caucuses, because caucuses offer them an easy way to get their message out to a dedicated and bipartisan congressional group that is interested in their issues," concludes Frank Koszorus Jr., an attorney who also serves as president of the American Hungarian Federation of Metropolitan Washington, DC.

Author Link: Peter Farnham is public affairs officer for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He can be reached at 301-634-7147 or by e-mail at pfarnham@asbmb.faseb.org.

More:

Congressional Caucuses in National Policy Making by Susan Webb Hammond (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001). This book has useful insights on almost every aspect of modern congressional caucuses. Available for purchase online at www.press.jhu.edu.

Congressional Staff Directory (Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 2003), www.cqpress.com. This invaluable, frequently updated publication contains contact information for every caucus in the House and Senate.

House Ethics Manual. This important publication describing ethics from a congressional standpoint (especially Chapter 9, which describes relationships between caucuses and outside organizations) can be found online at www.house.gov/ethics/ethicschap9.html.

Senate Rules and Ethics manuals. All Senate rules, including Rule 38, can be found at http://rules.senate.gov/senaterules/menu.htm. Likewise, Chapter 4 of the Senate Ethics Manual describes the rules as they pertain to caucuses and outside organizations.

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