When Bumblebees Ruled DC

(When The Senate Worked For Us, Michael Pertschuk, Sept 2017)

Spot the difference

In the 1960s, Capitol Hill hired idealistic young men and women who wanted to learn and make a difference. They had mentors on congressional staffs, wrote position papers and bills, provided the momentum for keeping government at the forefront of progress, and parried the stabs of corporate lobbyists. Today, Capitol Hill hires corporate lobbyists with their own agendas – getting more money and privileges for their industries while minimizing any effort by government to shine. Secrecy, subterfuge and partisanship are the keys to success today. Michael Pertschuk has lived both. He prefers the first. His book is a loving recounting of the era.

In those days, the 60s and 70s, the most entrepreneurial, activist and effective staffers were called bumblebees. They swarmed over a topic, found experts, legal angles and popular hooks, and made their senators and congressmen look good presenting them on the floor or in committee. Pertschuk all but stumbled into this world and was swept along, learning on the job. He was forgiven for mistakes rather than fired, and moved easily among positions. It was exciting, and he was very lucky. He has gone back and interviewed all his old interlocutors, fashioned their anecdotes into cohesive stories in a framework of genuine accomplishments , and character studies. And to be fair, failures.

Pertschuk found himself at the epicenter of several epoch-making issues. Out of nowhere came legislation to post warnings on cigarette packs. It was the foot in the door of decades of pressure on big tobacco. He and Ralph Nader remade the attitude of carmakers to accommodate safety. Until the first congressional hearings, GM racked up a billion in profits, spending just one million on safety. This exposure evolved into a whole line of consumer safety bills, as his ultimate boss, Senator Warren Magnuson, morphed into the consumer advocacy expert in the senate. This morphing came from below, not from above. It kept Magnuson going for at least two additional six year terms. Pertschuk and Jerry Grinstein, his mentor, created the eye of the storm, and lived there. Such was the life of a Magnuson bumblebee.

Magnuson’s Commerce Committee generated legislation rationalizing product sizes and descriptions, the meaning and extent of consumer product warranties, the creation of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, banning pesticide 2,4,5-T, fireretarding children’s clothing, and corporate average fuel economy, more than doubling the miles per gallon achieved by cars.

Today, we desperately need the bumblebees to straighten out the mess over cell phones, software and igadgets that purchasers never actually own, but “license” and hold at the pleasure of the manufacturer, until forced obsolescence kicks in. And airline policies treating customers as the enemy. And privacy rights, drug price policies and the right to have medical procedure pricing in advance. Unfortunately the foxes are running the henhouse, and the bumblebee is (actually) on the endangered species list. But for a couple of decades, bumblebees ruled, and the USA became a better country for it.

David Wineberg