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People line a hallway in the Rayburn House Office Building on Oct. 27, 2005, holding places in line for a committee hearing.
After freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez left a hearing on Wednesday, she said she was shocked to learn that there were people paid to stand in line for lobbyists at such Capitol Hill events.
But while so-called line standing may be new to the New York Democrat, it’s hardly new to Washington.
“Shock doesn’t begin to cover it,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet, following up with another one that said, “apparently this is a normal practice, and people don’t bat an eye.”
Apparently this is a normal practice, and people don’t bat an eye.
The first few people in line are guaranteed a seat in a given hearing.
This was the hearing for marijuana banking laws. Lobbyists and those who can afford it pay people to hold their spot so they get in 1st.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 13, 2019
She’s right. Linestanding.com, one such company that offers the service, says on its website it’s been “a leader in the Congressional line standing business since 1985,” and another, Washington Express, says its business goes back more than 20 years. Washington Express’ rate is $40 an hour with a three-hour minimum, its site says.
In 2007, the practice caught the attention of former Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, and in 2011 the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation wrote a report titled “How do lobbyists snag front-row seats at hearings?”
“Simple,” it concluded, “sometimes they pay someone else to hold their spot in line.”
Like Ocasio-Cortez, McCaskill, who was a freshman in 2007, didn’t like what she saw. “I have no problem with lobbyists getting into hearings, but they shouldn’t be able to buy a seat,” she told reporters at the time.
McCaskill later wrote a bill to ban paid line standing. But as the Sunlight report noted, the measure never made it out of committee. Quick Messenger Service, which owns Linestanding.com, argued against it by saying, “enacting this bill and forcing the lobbyists to ‘Get in Line’ themselves would not change their need to get into these hearings.”
In her tweet, Ocasio-Cortez said she was told that lobbyists pay the homeless and others to hold their places.
There’s at least one report of some line standers being homeless. In a 2005 Washington Post report on line standing, those waiting on Capitol Hill are described as looking homeless before one of them says, “But we’re not homeless.”
Steve Vladek, a law professor at the University of Texas, tweeted in reply to Ocasio-Cortez that the Supreme Court banned the practice three years ago for members of the high court’s bar.
Congresswoman:
The Supreme Court changed its rules three years ago to prohibit this exact practice, at least for members of the #SCOTUS Bar:https://t.co/SvufVe2YNX
Maybe Congress should follow suit?
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) February 13, 2019
