A Day In The Life Exploring the ups and downs of life as a small-business lobbyist

Politicians are far from the only folks doing business onCapitol Hill. Behind the scenes, scores of lobbyists labor toprotect and promote the interests of the disparate groups theyrepresent. We wondered what it would be like to walk a day in theshoes of one such lobbyist--one who works on behalf of smallbusiness, naturally--so we turned to James Morrison, anindependently contracted senior policy advisor with The NationalAssociation for the Self-Employed (NASE). What follows is a journeythrough Morrison's experiences on the day of April 23,1997.

7:30 a.m. Morrison's day begins at his homebasedoffice with a computer printout of small-business-relatedinformation pulled from an online clipping service.

8:20 a.m. After dropping his daughter off at school,Morrison catches the subway for the office. "As I'm ridinginto Washington, I scan all those clippings and generally at leastone newspaper,' he says, noting his daily goal of readingthree to four newspapers.