Freshman Senator Tries to Ban Paid 'Line Standing' for Lobbyists outside Hearings

WASHINGTON — The bad news spilled like an overturned Thermos of stale coffee Wednesday morning, spreading down the line of professional placeholders sprawled against the wall beside a winding marble staircase on Capitol Hill.

"This is democracy and capitalism," exclaimed Jay Moglia, who had arrived at 3:30 a.m. to claim the first place in line outside a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on consumer wireless issues. "If you can't pay for a spot, you could come at 2 a.m. and you'd be in front of me."

Rick McKay/Cox Newspapers (enlarge photo) Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Miss., announces her intent to introduce a bill banning the practice of line standing beside line standers outside a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing Wednesday, October 17, 2007.

But fretting in the queue was warranted. The livelihoods of these patient folks who are paid to wait had been unexpectedly threatened.

Staging her announcement beside the surprised standers, leaners and sitters, Sen. Claire McCaskill said she was introducing a bill this very day to ban lobbyists from paying people to stand in line to hold seats for them in congressional hearings.

"I have no problems with lobbyists being in hearings," said McCaskill. "But they shouldn't be able to buy a seat."

The legislation is likely to cause a ripple in the Capitol Hill economy. Several companies have been formed to provide the placeholders and some people have, well, sat on these jobs for a decade or more. The firms charge clients $60 or so per hour. Placeholders earn $15 to $30 per hour, depending on seniority and the rigor of an assignment.

"This will not be popular," predicted McCaskill.

William McCall, who has spent the past 12 years in the corridors of congressional power, said the bill would never pass.

"There's too much money involved," said McCall, who works three days a week as a placeholder and the other days as a home remodeler. "Lobbyists have too much clout" to let the legislation through.

Moglia earns a living from being both a bike messenger and a placeholder. In both instances, he said, he is paid for providing a needed service in the nation's capital.

If lobbyists don't contract with a firm like his employer, linestanding.com, he said, "they send over interns" to hold a place.

"What's the difference?" he asked.

Actually, none, said McCaskill. Her bill would also ban lobbyists from dispatching underlings to hold a place in line. She sees it as part of a reform movement that has stopped lobbyists from buying expensive meals and financing junkets for lawmakers.

"It's symbolic," she said — a small step toward changing the notion that access to Congress is for sale. "America believes money runs this place," she said.

The ban would apply only to registered lobbyists. It would still be OK for a tourist, for instance, who wanted to pay for a place holder to guarantee a seat in a crowded hearing. And it would apply only to congressional hearings — not for meetings of federal agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission, where line standers are also frequently employed by lobbyists.

"I'm not sure what the problem is that the senator is trying to solve," said Brian Pallasch, president of the American League of Lobbyists. Congress "just passed a significant lobbying reform bill. ... The dust has yet to settle on that."

He said lobbyists — and anyone else with access to the Internet or TV — can monitor hearings online or via C-SPAN.

"I've never paid for a line stander," he said. "But it's just another form of business that has grown up on Capitol Hill."

McCaskill, a freshman senator from Missouri, said she first noticed the line standers a couple of months ago and wondered 'What's up with these people?'"

She quickly discovered that there are whole classified advertising sections devoted to line standing companies in publications like The Hill that cover the congressional community.

"Our experienced seat holders carry cell phones and printed signs bearing the Washington Express logo and your hearing attendee's name for easy location," said one ad Wednesday. "We closely monitor all hearing schedules as well as up-to-the-minute seating demand for individual hearings."

McCaskill said she heard complaints from anti-war activists who couldn't get a seat in a committee hearing filled with lobbyists who had employed line standers. The senator said the lobbyists' goal is to secure a seat on the front row so they can make eye contact with committee members.