3/1/2020 Lobbyists turn their attention to state capitals

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3/1/2020 Lobbyists turn their attention to state capitals

WASHINGTON

Lobbyists turn their attention to

state capitals
Liz Essley Whyte and Ben Wieder Center for Public Integrity
Published 6:02 a.m. ET Feb. 11, 2016 Updated 10:15 p.m. ET Feb. 12, 2016

Story Highlights

Corrections & clarifications: An earlier version of this story imprecisely characterized

the relationship between AARP and the insurance that carries its name. The story has also
been updated to make clear that Amgen is developing biosimilars that it expects to launch
in 2017.

Debbie Mann pays more than $3,800 out of pocket each year for the prescription drug
Enbrel to banish the stabbing pain that rheumatoid arthritis causes in her joints.

Mann would love a cheaper form of the medicine, but it’s not yet sold in the U.S. When it is,
the 56-year-old retired nurse from Goshen, Indiana, will face more hurdles to obtain it in her
state, thanks to under-the-radar work done by pharmaceutical companies in America’s
statehouses.

In more than a third of the states since 2013, drug lobbyists have helped push through bills
limiting pharmacists’ ability to dole out cheaper versions of specialty drugs like Mann’s,
leaping ahead of federal regulation of these medicines.

It’s just one example of the wide-reaching power of state-level lobbying — a power that’s
grown in recent years as Congress stalemates and federal lobbying declines.

More companies and interest groups are pushing their agendas in the states, according to a
Center for Public Integrity analysis of five years of lobbyist registrations from all 50 states
gathered by the National Institute on Money in State Politics. Since 2010, the number of
entities with either in-house lobbyists or part-time hired guns in the states has grown more
than 10%.

That means that every state legislator crafting laws from 2010 to 2014 was outnumbered by
six companies, trade associations, unions or other groups hard at work lobbying for their 2/5
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3/1/2020 Lobbyists turn their attention to state capitals

attention.

And more special interests are finding it worthwhile to scatter lobbyists in dozens of states —
or even all 50 — to make sure increasingly important state legislatures don’t leave them out
of the picture.

“Not a lot is happening in Washington,” said Lee Drutman, a lobbying expert at New
America, a Washington-based think tank. “If you’re stymied at the federal level, you start
looking to the states.”

Here are the interests lobbying in every statehouse

Drug makers and the power of 50

Though pharmaceuticals in the U.S. are primarily regulated by the federal Food and Drug
Administration, states find plenty of places to jump in — as do lobbyists.

Drug companies ask state lawmakers to make sure Medicaid or other health plans cover their
products. And they ask for drugs to be distributed widely: Mylan Inc. asks states to allow
schools to stow EpiPens for any child who has a severe allergic reaction even without a
prescription.

The pharmaceutical and health products industry, in particular, dominates the group of
interests with broad influence in multiple states, representing 21 of the top 101 lobbying
entities identified by the Center for Public Integrity.

Big names Pfizer Inc., Bayer AG, AstraZeneca PLC and at least 18 other drug companies and
their trade associations have each lobbied in 34 or more states since 2010.

“It is a rare day when we actually win a debate against pharma,” said Leigh Purvis, a health
researcher for AARP, which lobbies about drug prices and profits from insurance sold under
its name. “They are extremely well funded and extremely effective.”

The drug companies are also part of that bigger trend spreading lobbying to more and more
states.

Back in 1997, according to research by a team of political scientists at the University of Iowa,
not a single entity registered in all 50 states.

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But in 2013, at least nine interest groups lobbied in every state: AARP, the American Heart
Association, AstraZeneca, AT&T Inc., Express Scripts Holding Co., the National Federation
of Independent Business, the National Rifle Association of America, Pfizer and
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

It’s happening at the same time federal lobbying is downsizing. The number of interest
groups hiring federal lobbyists declined by 25 percent just from 2010 through 2014,
according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, while those sending lobbyists to
state capitals increased 10 percent.

State dominance

About every two weeks last summer, former Navajo National Councilman Daniel Tso took his
white Nissan truck on a tour of oil wells and fracking sites in northwest New Mexico. There,
he said, he saw oil spilled onto the ground and more damage that concerned him.

“We’re tied to the land,” he said. “There’s nothing like walking the land and touching the
earth.”

Tso doesn’t trust state agents to regulate drillers: The penalties for spills and violations in
New Mexico haven’t been updated since the 1930s, thanks in part to the influence of the
powerful oil and gas industry.

In 2013, lawmakers and environmentalists tried and failed to update penalties and cut a
lengthy court process. But 36 oil and gas lobbyists representing 23 companies and five trade
associations worked to nix the bill, according to Common Cause New Mexico, which lobbies
for tighter ethics rules.

“I’ve never seen so many suits in my life,” said Viki Harrison, director of Common Cause New
Mexico. “People were just lined up outside. They couldn’t even fit in the committee room.”

And 10 days after the bill was introduced, state records show, the New Mexico Oil & Gas
Association paid lawmakers’ $17,638 tab at The Bull Ring, an upscale steakhouse an 11-
minute walk from the State Capitol in Santa Fe. The association declined to comment.

While some interest groups, such as pharmaceuticals and telecommunications, seek

influence in all 50 states, others dominate one particular part of the country. Fidelity
Investments, for example, sent an average of 18 lobbyists a year to the Massachusetts
Statehouse, less than a mile from its global headquarters, while The Walt Disney Co. is one of
the top five lobbyists in Florida.
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3/1/2020 Lobbyists turn their attention to state capitals

As more lobbying interests roam state capitols, the temptation grows for lawmakers to rely
on lobbyists’ expertise. Many legislators make laws for only part of the year and have
minimal staff to help them.

That’s what happened when the maker of Debbie Mann’s drug, Amgen, and other biotech
firms teamed up in Indiana in 2014. As they have in other states, they worked to pass a bill
that requires extra steps — more than what’s required for regular generics — before
pharmacists can substitute the cheaper versions for the brand-name options.

The drug companies and their trade groups sent 28 representatives to lobby state lawmakers
that year, more than double what they had in the state in 2008. They said the bill was needed
for patients to be able to get the cheaper drugs at all.

“Amgen operates in a highly regulated industry,” an Amgen spokeswoman said in an email.

“We have matched our efforts to the challenges facing the company.”

The company also said it is developing several biosimilars that it expects to launch in 2017.

After the bill passed, its two sponsors received “Legislator of the Year” awards from the
state’s biotechnology trade association.

The law will mean more hurdles to cheaper medicine in the future. In the meantime, Debbie
Mann worries what would happen if her husband fell ill.

“All it takes is something major to happen in our finances and that’s going to be the first
thing to go,” she said. “That’s a lot of money.”

Center for Public Integrity reporters Ashley Balcerzak and Michael J. Mishak contributed.

This story is from The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative
media organization in Washington, D.C. Read more of its investigations on the influence of
money in politics or follow it on Twitter.

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