Government watchdog compares lobbying to Groundhog Day

The Sunlight Foundation has released a video calling for lobbying reform that aims to show how lobbyists influence policy debate and lawmakers day after day. (In the movie “Groundhog Day,” the character played by Bill Murray is forced to live Feb. 2 over and over again.)

The video highlighted, among other things, a report that 3,300 lobbyists were registered to work on healthcare — or roughly six for every member of Congress.

The Sunlight Foundation is working to amend the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 to allow for more immediate online disclosure of lobbying activities, which it says would help deal with corruption. The 1995 measure forced more lobbyists to disclose more information on what issues they worked on and who paid them.