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Bill Radke: President Obama will sign the financial overhaul bill this week. And when he does, we still won’t know what effect it will have. That’s because the bill leaves crucial decisions up to the regulators who’ll be implementing it. Marketplace’s Nancy Marshall Genzer reports
lobbyists are gearing up to influence those decisions.

Nancy Marshall Genzer: Lobbying federal regulators is different from lobbying Congress. In Congress, you’re trying to influence hundreds of lawmakers. But with regulators, you can be lobbying an audience of one with even greater influence.

John Wonderlich is policy director at the Sunlight Foundation, a lobbying watchdog. He says sometimes, the regulators are at a disadvantage.

John Wonderlich: They’ll be starting their careers, and the lobbyist that comes in to meet with them is two decades further into their career and has far more experience and expertise.

In some cases, the lobbyist used to sit in the regulator’s seat. John Taylor is a consumer advocate and head of the National Community reinvestment Coalition:

John Taylor: The very same folks who are regulating you one day pop up as working for the banks and even being their lobbyist.

And Taylor says because the lobbyists know the lay of the land, they often get what they want.

In Washington, I’m Nancy Marshall Genzer in Washington.