Mother of 9/11 victim discusses creation of political lobbying firm

Lobbying is not bad for the government. This idea was exemplified by two lobbyists who came to speak as part of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication's Year of the First Amendment event that featured the "right to petition."

"This right to petition, which we are here today to acknowledge and celebrate, is the forgotten right," said event sponsor Robert McClure, the Chapple family professor of citizenship and democracy in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. "It's the last one, the one that nobody knows is there, but it is. I would want to argue that the right to petition is the most fundamental right. It is the right that makes all the others possible."

The citizens' right to petition the government has been a fundamental right associated with free governments throughout history, McClure said to the audience.

The panel featured "both prongs of the right to petition," McClure said.

Experts on the panel included Mary Fetchet, a grassroots advocate and Dr. Terry Hartle, a professional lobbyist. Each guest spoke about his individual experiences in petitioning the government.

Mary Fetchet, motivated by the death of her 24-year-old son, Brad, in the attacks on the World Trade Center, founded the non-profit organization Voices of September 11.

With her organization, Fetchet petitioned the government to establish the bi-partisan 9/11 Commission and helped write intelligence reform legislation.

She spoke to students about becoming civically engaged.

"I look at you all in college and the opportunity you have here to really make a difference," Fetchet said. "So I would just encourage you to become actively involved."

Fetchet cited her own experience and passion as proof that normal citizens can successfully petition the government.

Going into her first Washington rally, Fetchet explained she previously had no idea about politics.

"I didn't know when Congress was in session," Fetchet said. "I certainly didn't know how to legislate a bill. We were certainly untrained at that point."

But she attributed her group's success to its collective passion for the subject they were dealing with.

"You really have to become part of the solution," Fetchet said.

Terry Hartle, the senior vice president of the Government and Public Affairs Division of American Council on Education, spoke after Fetchet. His professional's insight into lobbying complimented her experience. Hartle petitions the government on behalf of colleges and universities and their students.

"The right to petition obviously happens all the time whenever a citizen writes a member of Congress or someone in the executive branch, the president or an executive branch agency, but it's rarely successful in that fashion," Hartle said. "I think what Mary and her colleagues did to establish the 9/11 Commission is really pretty much unprecedented in the 30 years that I have been watching government and public policy."

He explained while both he and Fetchet petition the government, lobbying is a profession rather than a personal endeavor for him.

"It's the payment that makes somebody a lobbyist, not the petitioning of the government," Hartle said.

Hartle explained he petitions the government because of the federal government's involvement with higher education. The government also provides approximately $80 billion a year for financial aid along with $20 billion in tax deductions to help pay for college or pay off student loans. An additional $30 billion is given to fund research done at colleges or universities.

"American higher education would not look anything like it does without the help of the federal government," Hartle said.

"It's more important to more people than ever before. It's more expensive than ever before. As a result more policy makers are more interested than ever before. And as they become more interested the number of things that they want to do to us and for us grows," Hartle said.

He also highlighted challenges he faced as a higher education lobbyist. The first challenge was that his organization did not have a Political Action Commission (PAC) to raise money and donate money for candidates. It also did not have money to advertise about specific issues. As a result, representatives were not as attracted to his lobby as they were to wealthier ones.

In the end, Hartle said, "What makes you a lobbyist is when you can block bad stuff from happening to the industry that you represent. In many ways it's less about what you can get from the government, than if you can prevent the government from doing something bad to your industry."

The event provided a good learning experience for junior Lynnette Agostini, an environmental studies major at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. A member of the New York Public Interest Research Group, Agostini was familiar with the work Hartle did with higher education.

"It was really interesting for me to get the perspective of the other group, kind of an ally in a lot of situations," Agostini said.

Agostini said the event gave her an idea of what it was really like to petition the federal government through the stories told by Fetchet and Hartle.

Bjyoun01@syr.edu