Vanderbilt University Press
When the Senate Worked for Us: The Invisible Role of Staffers in Countering Corporate Lobbies
Key Metrics
- Michael Pertschuk
- Vanderbilt University Press
- Hardcover
- 9780826521668
- 9.2 X 6.2 X 1 inches
- 1.1 pounds
- Political Science > American Government - Legislative Branch
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
What has remained untold is the major behind-the-scenes contribution of entrepreneurial Congressional staff, who planted the seeds of public interest bills in their bosses' minds and maneuvered to counteract the influence of lobbyists to pass laws in consumer protection, public health, and other policy arenas crying out for effective government regulation. They infuriated Nixon's advisor, John Ehrlichman, who called them bumblebees, a name they wore as a badge of honor.
For his insider account, Pertschuk draws on many interviews, as well as his fifteen years serving on the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee that Senator Warren Magnuson chaired and as the committee's Democratic Staff Director. That committee became, in Ralph Nader's words, the Grand Central Station for consumer protection advocates.
Author Bio
Michael Pertschuk served as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission from 1977 to 1981, and he cofounded the Advocacy Institute. He is the author of Smoke in Their Eyes: Lessons in Movement Leadership from the Tobacco Wars and The DeMarco Factor: Transforming Public Will into Political Power (both published by Vanderbilt University Press) and three other books.
Mr. Pertschuk has had a long and distinguished career. After graduating from Yale Law School in 1959, he served as a legislative assistant to Senator Maureen Neuberger of Oregon (1962 to 1964), and went on to become chief counsel of the Senate Commerce Committee. While with the committee, Mr. Pertschuk became one of the congressional staff’s most important and influential members.
For example, he was instrumental in drafting numerous consumer protection measures, including the Magnuson-Moss Warranty-Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act. Ironically, the stringent standards for FTC rule making imposed by that act were the basis of a recent District of Columbia district court decision disqualifying Mr. Pertschuk from further participation in the children’s advertising case. (He was said to have made prejudicial remarks on the subject.)
Among Mr. Pertschuk’s published writings is an article that appeared in Juris Doctor in September 1974 entitled, “Getting Your Way in Washington.”
Source: Vanderbilt University Press and American Enterprise Institute
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