The lack of presidential and Congressional leadership last year affected many industries, but K Street lobbying firms felt the impact directly.

As The Hill reports:

Washington’s lobbying corps bid good riddance to 2012 on Tuesday, reporting steep declines in their earnings after a year of posturing and gridlock on Capitol Hill. […]

“These guys [Congressmen] weren’t literally here,” remarked Rich Gold, head of the public policy and regulation practice for Holland & Knight, of a Congress that took long recesses to campaign, including a seven-week break before the election.

Compounding the woes for K Street, another steady stream of income — regulatory work — slowed considerably as the administration dialed back its rulemaking during President Obama’s reelection bid. […]

“We will not be back in the halcyon days of Obama’s first year in office, but its definitely going to be better than year three and year four,” Gold said.

A ceaseless regulatory state is what keeps guys like Gold in business. I’m inspired to point to Texas’ method of governing: part-time legislative sessions of 140 days every other year.

One of the original drafts of the Constitution specified that the Congress “shall meet on the first Monday in December every year,” a proposed requirement that became a source of debate on Aug. 7, 1787.

According to notes from the convention, James Madison asked why the Constitution specified such a minute detail. Rufus King of Massachusetts then said he “could not think there would be a necessity for a meeting every year. A great vice in our system was that of legislating too much. The most numerous objects of legislation belong to the States.”

Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania agreed, and argued that it was improper to require a Congressional meeting at least once a year. After all, “The public business might not require it.”

I’m not sure I would go that far. But if we eliminated full-time Congressmen and Senators, the ranks of those full-time lobbyists would surely dwindle.