Advocacy and Lobbying

Terminology Glossary

Administrative Advocacy: An attempt to influence policies within the executive such as agency rulemakings, grant programs, or agency budgets. Also referred to as “regulatory advocacy.”

Advocacy: Speaking out on issues of concern. This term can encompass everything from sitting down and talking to a legislator to engaging in efforts to change public policy or law to simply discussing policy impacts with your neighbor.

Political Advocacy: A specific form of advocacy that seeks to influence the decisions of any institutional elite on behalf of a collective interest.

Amendment: An alteration to a bill or motion, sometimes replacing the entire bill (referred to as a “substitution”). An amendment is debated and voted on in the same manner as a bill.

Appropriations: In the most basic sense, a fancy word for budget. A legislature’s appropriations committee will craft a bill that lays out how the government’s money should be spent for a given period of time (usually a fiscal year), which is then voted on by the legislature and signed into law by the president or governor.

Authorization: Legislation that formally establishes a program or activity and sets its funding limit. Authorizations are usually for a limited time and programs must be periodically “reauthorized,” sometimes with changes.

Bill: Legislation drafted for consideration by the legislature.

Civic Participation: Activities of individuals that relate to community life and public governance (voting, petitioning for better government service, campaigning, etc.)

Coalition: Loose collection of organizations that cooperates to accomplish common
objectives.

Committee: A group of legislators that develops legislation on particular topics and has jurisdiction over all legislation that pertains to this topic. Legislation must generally pass in a committee before the entire legislative body can vote on it.

Direct Lobbying: To present a case for or against a specific piece of legislation and to ask a legislator to vote a certain way on that legislation. Forms of personal persuasion and involvement in the legislative process itself.

Electoral Advocacy: Efforts to educate voters (such as legislative scorecards) or to register or encourage the public to vote.

Executive Order: An action by the President or Governor that has the legal authority of the law, often dealing with regulations or the workings of agencies.

Grassroots Lobbying: Stating a position on a specific legislative proposal to the public, and then asking the public to urge their legislator to support that stated position.

Hearing: A meeting in which evidence to support particular points of view can be presented to a committee. Usually in conjunction with the consideration of a specific bill and can include experts on specific topics or members of the public who would be affected by the bill or issue at hand.

Information Advocacy: Activities to either provide or ensure the provision of information that can be used to shape policy.

Judicial Advocacy: Working for policy change through the legal system, either by lawsuits, court briefs, or providing information for legal cases.

Legislative Advocacy: Efforts to change policy through the legislative branch. May include formal lobbying in support or opposition to a bill, the crafting of new legislative language, writing amendments to existing bills, or encouraging others to contact their legislators.

Lobbying: Communication with elected officials or their staff that expresses a position on a pending piece of legislation. The stimulation and transmission of a communication” by someone other than a citizen acting on his own behalf, with the hope of influencing a governmental decision.

Synonyms for Lobbyist: legislative agent, legislative counsel, legislative advocate, professional advocate, state governmental relations professional, public affairs consultants, state counsels.

Mark Up: The process of amending a legislative proposal in a committee or subcommittee. Committee members can offer amendments, which if successful, are incorporated into the language of a particular bill. Legislation can be drastically changed during mark up.

Majority Leader: The leader of the majority party in the Senate. In the House, the Majority Leader is the second in command after the Speaker of the House and is also elected to that post by her/his peers.

Minority Leader: Leader of the minority party in the House or Senate and elected to that post by her/his peers.

Mission Statement: A short, snappy statement of the purpose of the organization, capable of fitting at the bottom of the organization’s letterhead or business card.

Omnibus Bill: A bill related to a specific area that covers many issues or topics

Rider: An amendment to an appropriations bill which may not actually deal with the allocation of government funds.

Speaker of the House: The leader of the House of Representatives who is elected by the majority party. The speaker controls the calendar and other aspects of the House’s activities.

Strategic Planning: The “process of determining (1) what your organization intends to accomplish, and (2) how you will direct the organization and its resources toward accomplishing these goals over the coming months and years.

Subcommittee: A part of a committee that deals with a specific issue within the committee’s jurisdiction. Most legislation is first developed and voted on at this level, as a full committee will usually not consider legislation until it has passed its subcommittee.

Vision Statement: Sketches a picture of the organization’s desired future in a few paragraphs.

Whip: Senator or Representative who serves as an internal lobbyist for the Democratic or Republican Party to persuade legislators to support their party’s position and who counts votes for the leadership in advance to floor votes. While the whip is an official position, there many be other members who act as a whip for specific legislation or issues.

Sources: The US Congress, Civic Participation and Advocacy, Alan Rosenthal’s The Third House: Lobbyists and Lobbying in the States, the Wilder Foundation’s Field Guide to Crafting Effective Mission and Vision Statements, and the Wilder Foundation’s Strategic Planning Workbook for Nonprofit Organizations.

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