A major step toward reform would be to prohibit campaign contributions by individuals employed by registered lobbying firms.
Scientific American’s Jeffrey D. Sachs:
The breakdown of the Washington policy process has four manifestations.
First is … inability to focus beyond the next election. “Shovel-ready” projects squeeze out attention to vital longer-term strategies…
Second, most key decisions are made in congressional backrooms through negotiations with lobbyists, who simultaneously fund the congressional campaigns.
Third, technical expertise is largely ignored or bypassed, while expert communities such as climate scientists are falsely and recklessly derided…
Fourth, there is little way for the public to track and comment on complex policy proposals working their way through Congress or federal agencies.
an a broken policy process be used to fix a broken policy process?”