Lawmaker wants to ban lobbyists from paying to save spots in line

WASHINGTON — Jay Moglia got in line for Wednesday's Senate Commerce Committee hearing at 3:30 a.m., while most of official Washington was asleep.

He was first in line, but Moglia wasn't particularly interested in the hearing's topic — consumer wireless issues — and he really didn't care what the witnesses or the senators had to say.

"This is just a job for me," Moglia said, sleepy-eyed and slumped against the wall of the Senate Russell Building at the head of a line that snaked down the marble staircase.

Moglia's job was to secure a prime spot at the hearing for a telecom lobbyist who would swoop in to take his place minutes before the hearing. Professional "line standers" are a thriving business in Washington, with multiple companies competing to offer services to lobbyists and other powerbrokers willing to pay up to $60 an hour.

It's a practice Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., wants to end. She introduced a bill Wednesday that would bar lobbyists from paying people to stand in congressional-hearing lines for them in the same way the lobbyists are barred from buying senators a steak dinner. The penalty would be the same, too: up to $200,000 in fines and up to five years in jail.

McCaskill said she's worried that average citizens aren't able to see their government at work, squeezed out by corporate lobbyists who can pay to get prime access.

"I have no problem with lobbyists being at the hearings, but they shouldn't be able to buy a seat," McCaskill said at a news conference outside the Commerce Committee hearing.

Citizens shouldn't be turned away or put in overflow rooms set up when a hearing is too jammed, she said.

"We need to make sure this place is available to the people who own it and that's the people of this country, not the lobbyists," she said. "This is not a concert. This is not an entertainment venue. This is democracy."

One lobbyist, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to spark McCaskill's ire, said he found her proposal amusing.

"I'm not sure it's the most pressing problem facing the republic," said the lobbyist, who works for the wireless industry and said he'd never used line-standers. The lobbyist stood in line with the rest Wednesday, getting there just before 9 a.m. for a session that started at 10. He snagged a seat in the second-to-last row.

"Every good lobbyist knows how to sneak in if they need to," the lobbyist added.

Line-standers said McCaskill's bill was a solution in search of a problem. Not too many average citizens show up for hearings, they said, and they questioned whether anyone would be turned away.

"I understand the senator is trying to get lobbyists to behave themselves, and obviously that's a hot issue," said John Winslow, director of linestanding.com. He said the company charges lobbyists $36 an hour and pays line-standers — whose ranks are filled with retirees, bike messengers and others — $10 an hour.

He said his is a legitimate service that helps lobbyists work in the public eye. "Congress needs to provide more ways to prevent lobbyists from doing backroom deals. This is front room," Winslow said.

Moglia, 47, who also works as a bike messenger and was decked out in Spandex for his next gig, said he appreciated McCaskill's intent. But "this is capitalism and democracy" at work, he said.

"If you can't pay, you can come wait in line with me at 3:30. You could be standing here," he said, motioning at the spot in front of him.

Another line-stander, William McCall, didn't seem too worried about getting put out of business by McCaskill's bill. "Lobbyists have too much clout" for such a bill to pass, McCall said as he waited for his client to relieve him of his place in line.

Material from The Associated Press and McClatchy Newspapers is included in this report.