Lobbying Congress
Sept 23 Washington D.C.
The need to have a voice in government became abundantly clear
in the wake of 9/11. In response, more and more Sikhs are getting involved
in their government. Recently, a small group of Sikhs made their first attempt
at lobbying members of Congress. The group included Sikhs from Massachusetts,
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, and California. Their purpose
was to talk to a staffer at the office of a senator from each of these states.
They chose to speak about pending legislation on four topics: hate crimes,
discrimination in the workplace, racial profiling, and immigration.
To prepare for the lobbying session, SMART held a "Strategy
Sessions" seminar the day before. The theme: "Empowering Sikh Americans
to Influence Public Policy." For each of the four topics, panelists were
invited from various religious, ethnic, and minority interest groups to speak
about their experiences with the issues at hand. Included in the seminar was
a session on "Effective Lobbying of Elected Officials" in which
panelists shared their experiences as lobbyists on Capitol Hill. They also
discussed the history and effectiveness of ethno-religious lobbying and specific
strategies about influencing Congressional members and staff during a lobby
meeting.
The seminar was limited to 75 attendees. Those who were specifically
preparing to lobby met one last time in morning of the event. The meeting
was moderated by a professional lobbyist. They reviewed the specifics of how
to persuade, what to say and not to say, and how to come across as a community
with political leverage. The group targeted specific legislation in Congress
such as the Dream Act (positive on immigration) and the Workplace Religious
Freedom Act (against workplace discrimination).
Then, the time had come. The Sikh lobbyists, most of them just
students, went for it. They had never done this before. Two of the offices
they went to were that of Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) and Senator Barbara
Boxter (D-CA). Although nervous, these young Sikhs were articulate, they kept
the staffer interested in what they had to say, and they walked away with
contact information for future correspondence.
This was the beginning of building a good relationship between Congressional
members and their Sikh constituents. By the end of the lobbying sessions,
there were rumors of forming a Sikh PAC (Political Action Committee) floating
around.