The Pennsylvania House of Representatives cancelled a non-voting session day scheduled for Nov. 22, 2016, effectively ending the 2015-2016 legislative session.

Adjournment sine die does not technically take place until Nov. 30; however, both chambers have completed their work. Lawmakers will reconvene for the next legislative session on Jan. 3, 2017.

A group of Republican lawmakers filed a lawsuit in state court Wednesday, Nov. 23, to block the government ethics overhaul recently approved by voters.

The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of Initiated Measure 22, which became effective last week restricting campaign contributions and gifts from lobbyists. Gov. Dennis Daugaard says he supports repeal of the measure and he will not include money in his budget for the public campaign finance system called for by the new law.

Lobby Comply Blog will return on Monday, November 28, 2016. Enjoy your holiday!

Both chambers of the Florida Legislature held organizational sessions yesterday, Nov. 22, 2016. Agenda items included selection of House and Senate leadership, administering the oath of office for new members and approving the rules governing the upcoming session.

Newly minted Speaker Richard Corcoran’s agenda to reduce the influence of lobbyists will take effect during the next session through the approved House Rules. Among the changes, lobbyists are now required to disclose the issues they are lobbying by filing an electronic notice of appearance; former members of the Legislature are prohibited from lobbying the House for six years; and no member of the House may accept private plane travel from a lobbyist or a corporation employing lobbyists.

The Senate also passed its rules but did not make such sweeping changes.

The 2016 election was about a lot more than just a battle between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Across the country, states asked voters to consider a variety of ballot measures, including a few campaign finance issues. At the 2016 National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) State Vote seminar held in Washington, D.C., Wendy Underhill recapped a number of those issues and the decisions that voters made on Nov. 8.

Both California and Washington held votes related to the United States Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United vs. FEC. Voters approved ballot measures that urged government leaders to use their power to work to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling, possibly through a constitutional amendment, if possible.

In Missouri, voters approved an initiative establishing limits on campaign contributions to candidates for state or judicial office; while in South Dakota, voters approved an initiative to create a publicly funded campaign finance program and an ethics commission.

For more from the NCSL State Vote seminar you can view some of the presentation slides here. To see a list of ballot measure election results of interest to government relations professionals, take a look at our 2016 election dashboard.

Yesterday, Gov. Pat McCrory formally requested a recount in his race for governor against Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper.

Cooper has already declared victory, but with the race within 10,000 votes, McCrory is not conceding and there is no answer to when the race will officially end. This week, the head of the conservative group Civitas Institute filed a federal lawsuit to block the counting of votes cast using same-day registration on Election Day. McCrory has also filed challenges in many counties alleging voter fraud, claiming ballots were cast by dead people and felons.

On Nov. 17, California’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) approved regulations to make biennial cost of living adjustments to campaign contribution and gift limits that will apply from Jan. 1, 2017, through Dec. 31, 2018.

The newly amended regulations change the gift limit from $460 to $470 and makes increases to campaign contribution limits.

Since pre-filing began for the 2017 Arkansas legislative session, multiple measures have been introduced regarding lobbying, ethics and campaign finance.

If passed, measures introduced in the House would require reporting and disclosure of electioneering communications and covered transfers (House Bill 1005), prevent a member of the General Assembly from forming more than one political action committee (PAC) as either a registered agent or an officer (House Bill 1009), require the Secretary of State to make independent expenditures and PAC reports public (House Bill 1010), prohibit PAC-to-PAC transfers (House Bill 1011)  and ban direct contributions to candidates from PACs (House Bill 1012). Several measures introduced in the Senate mirror the House bills.

Additionally, bills introduced in the Senate would bar soliciting or accepting campaign contributions before the expiration of the immediately preceding general election (Senate Bill 2), prohibit elected officials from registering as a lobbyist while serving as an elected state official (Senate Bill 3) and ban constitutional officers, like the governor, from soliciting or accepting loans from lobbyists (Senate Bill 7).

Gov. Robert Bentley is considering a special session to address funding for four new super prisons. Bentley may call the special session within or right before the 2017 session.

Despite Bentley’s failure to pass his $800 million prison plan last year, he hopes a special session will address the issues of overcrowding and violence against officers at state prisons.

A special session may be called for the New York Legislature this December.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants a special session to pass a series of ethics reforms he proposed in a statement released on Nov. 16, 2016. Lawmakers are against a special session, but Cuomo is hoping to entice state legislators to return to the capital by promising a modest salary increase.

Missouri Rep. Kip Kendrick wants to see his seven-point ethics reform proposal introduced in the House.

The proposal bans gifts from lobbyists, amends the state’s revolving door policy for legislators seeking to become lobbyists, imposes term limits for statewide officeholders, prohibits the giving or solicitation of political contributions during a legislative session, prohibits someone no longer seeking office from maintaining a candidate committee, restricts the use of campaign funds, and broadens the Missouri Ethics Commission’s enforcement authority.

Each part of the proposal will be pre-filed as a separate bill. He is working to find seven House Democrats to pre-file the bills.

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp has set a special election for December 13, 2016, to fill a vacancy in the state Senate.

Sen. Charlie Bethel vacated his District 54 seat following his appointment to the Georgia Court of Appeals, effective January 1. If necessary, a run-off election will be held on January 10, 2017.

On Jan. 1, new changes to regulations concerning gifts for federal employees take effect.

Among the changes the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) made to the federal regulations include a non-binding recommendation employees “consider declining otherwise permissible gifts if they believe that a reasonable person with knowledge of the relevant facts would question the employee’s integrity or impartiality as a result of accepting the gift.”

Additionally, federal officials who are required to be granted permission to attend “widely attended events” must now seek the permission in writing. The OGE declined to change the $20 threshold for accepting a gift.

Amendments to the rules made by the OGE were published on Nov. 18 in the Federal Register. The OGE press release is here.

On November 17, 2016, The New York City Campaign Finance Board approved rule changes from September.

The purpose of the new rules is to reduce coordination between campaigns and independent expenditure groups by adding two new factors to determine coordination between the two groups. Another rule codifies an advisory opinion stating once an individual has been compensated for a service, he or she may no longer be considered a volunteer for the previously compensated service.

The entire notice of the final rules can be found here. The final rules will be published in The City Record on November 25, 2016, and will be effective on December 27, 2016.