Here is our November – December calendar. State and Federal Communications will be attending these coming events. If you plan to attend as well, be sure to say hello!

November 12-13, 2013   D.C. Lift-off Forum, Washington, D.C.

November 21, 2013   American League of Lobbyists Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.

November 23 – November 26, 2013   SGAC Leaders Policy Conference, Turnberry, Miami Beach, Florida

December 3, 2013   Weatherhead 100, Cleveland, Ohio

December 4, 2013   Ohio Holiday Party, Washington, D.C.

December 4, 2013   NCSL Foundation Dinner, Washington, D.C.

December 4-7, 2013   NCSL Fall Forum, Washington, D.C.

December 8-11, 2013   Council on Government Ethics Laws Annual Conference, Quebec City, Quebec

Elizabeth Bartz, president and CEO of State and Federal Communications, is a featured speaker offering her expertise this morning at the Lobbying Certificate Program Session sponsored by the American League of Lobbyists and Lobbyists.info.

Bartz is joined by co-speaker Doreen Hope, Regional Manager from Washington Gas in a conference entitled State Lobbying & Navigating the Regulatory Process: Multiple Fronts, Multiple Challenges.

Here is the American League of Lobbyists’ description of the session:

For many in D.C., lobbying starts with what goes on inside the Beltway.  But it doesn’t end there.  No organization or corporation seeking to fulfill their entire legislative agenda can rely solely on federal lobbying. State-level lobbying, however, comes with an entirely new set of regulations and compliance landmines than federal lobbying.  Did you know that “lobbying activities” has a different definition depending where you are and to correctly filing disclosure forms takes a whole new process?  Plus, even if you simply want to monitor what’s going on at the state level, you’ve got to coordinate effectively with different in-house or entirely new outside government relations teams.

Now you can learn how to add this state-level focus without running yourself ragged and without running afoul of an entirely new set of regulations.

October 16   WASRG Summit–Keynote Sponsor, Washington, DC

October 16-18   Public Affairs Council Fall Board Meeting, Paradise Valley, Arizona

November 4   American League of Lobbyists State Lobbying Session, Washington, D.C.

November 21   American League of Lobbyists Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.

November 23-November 26   SGAC Leaders’ Policy Conference Turnberry, Miami Beach, Florida

The American League of Lobbyists has issued a statement in response to President Obama’s State of the Union Address on Tuesday night.

Monte Ward, the organization’s president, said on their site: “Lobbyists are the professional advocates who help educate lawmakers every day about how their action (or inaction) affects the nation.  Lobbyists will be critical components helping our federal lawmakers to understand the implications of their votes on the issues that they will tackle.”

The American League of Lobbyists statement provides a summary of the group’s self understanding and a reflection on the nature of the lobbying industry, with an eye to the future. You can find a pdf file of their “Recommendations for Improving the Regulation of Federal Lobbyists” at this link.

Lobbying

“Lobbyists ask Congress for a mandate on ethics” by Kevin Bogardus in The Hill.

Campaign Finance

“Tammany businessman’s allegedly illegal campaign donations went to Gov. Jindal’s 2007 run” by Claire Galofaro in the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Redistricting

Iowa: “Redistricting makes for tumultuous Iowa primary” by The Associated Press in the Quad-City Times.

New Hampshire: “Court to hear challenges to NH redistricting plan” by Holly Ramer (Associated Press) in the Boston Globe.

Social Media

“Political campaigns are in a constant technology arms race” by Scott Canon in the Kansas City Star.

Howard Marlowe, the president of the American League of Lobbyists was featured on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal program. Marlowe discussed the LDA reforms the group is proposing.

According to C-SPAN’s post, Role of Federal Lobbyists: “Howard Marlowe talked about the role of federal lobbying, and he responded to telephone calls and electronic communications. Topics included legislation that affects the industry, and changes the industry itself is proposing that would alter law that governs those engaged in lobbying Congress and senior officials in the Executive Branch.”

The Chicago Tribune posted an article giving an account of the nature of the conversations Marlowe faced from callers on the program. Be sure to read “Lobbyists’ lobbyist draws public anger” by David Ingram.

Elizabeth Bartz, President and CEO of State and Federal Communications, is speaking today in Washington, D.C. at the American League of Lobbyists State Lobbying Educational Seminar. The event is part of the group’s Lobbying Certificate Program.

According to the event details on the American League of Lobbyists website, this is the aim of the session:

“For many in D.C., lobbying starts with what goes on in the Beltway. But it doesn’t end there. No organization or corporation seeking to fulfill their entire legislative agenda can rely solely on federal lobbying. State-level lobbying, however, comes with an entirely new set of regulations and compliance landmines than federal lobbying. Did you know that ‘lobbying activities’ has a different definition depending where you are and to correctly filing disclosure forms takes a whole new process? Plus, even if you simply want to monitor what’s going on at the state level, you’ve got to coordinate effectively with different in-house or entirely new outside government relations teams.”

Following a board meeting, American League of Lobbyists President Howard Marlowe announced the group has approved rules that would require more people to register as lobbyists, as well as other transparency measures.

For full news coverage, be sure to read: “Lobbyists OK Lobbying Reform Proposals”by Andrew Joseph in the National Journal.

According to the National Journal: “The reforms, more than a year in the making, include lowering the registration thresholds, mandating that lobbyists who work for state and local governments or religious organizations register, and shifting enforcement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office to the Justice Department.

The plan would require a person who spends 10 percent of their time lobbying to register as a lobbyist, down from the current 20 percent threshold. And it lowers the number of paid lobbying contacts a lobbyist can have per quarter before registering from two to one. The proposal also shortens the registration window from 45 days to 20 days and would require all lobbyists to undergo ethics training and attend a refresher course every five years.  The proposal preserves exemptions for citizen lobbyists.”

Here is the American League of Lobbyists press release.

Also read: “American League of Lobbyists suggests new rules” by Abby Phillip in Politico.

“American League of Lobbyists Announces Tougher Lobbying Rules” by Andrew Ramonas in The Blog of Legal Times.

Howard Marlowe, president of the American League of Lobbyists, recently sent a letter to President Obama asking him to change his tone toward lobbyists and the lobbying profession. The organization is making a connection between the administration’s anti-lobbyist rhetoric and the rising number of unregistered lobbyists.

Whether they are calling themselves consultants or advisers, Marlowe points out that these people are lobbying and their activity thus goes on without any oversight:

“Those who are not registered are protected from discovery by the lack of an effective enforcement mechanism. Our primary concern with incentivizing deregistration is that the public loses knowledge of who these people are lobbying, who is paying for their advocacy work, how much they are being paid, and what issues are they being paid to work on.”

For full news coverage, please read “Lobbyists to Obama: Tone down the rhetoric!” by Byron Tau in Politico.

Photo of the White House by UpstateNYer on Wikipedia.

The American League of Lobbyists opposes the part of the recently-passed STOCK Act that requires political intelligence operatives to register under LDA requirements. They say it would impede their reform efforts to close loopholes.

For news coverage, read: “Lobbyist League Opposes STOCK Act Language on Political Intelligence Operatives” by Kate Ackley in Roll Call.

For full news coverage of the group’s statement, read “Trade group says Abramoff shouldn’t teach ethics” by Catalina Camia in USA Today.

According to the article: “To have a state-run, government ethics commission give this ex-con a paid platform sends the public the wrong message about the Kentucky Legislature,” Howard Marlowe, president of the American League of Lobbyists, said in a statement. “I doubt that many of the lawmakers will want to have their picture taken with this crook.”

Here is the League’s press release on Scribd.

The American League of Lobbyists recently posted two videos on their YouTube channel from an October event where they invited Tim Farnum and Peter Overby to speak about Citizens United and soft money in the 2012 elections. ALL President Howard Marlowe was the moderator.

According to the site, “On Friday, October 28th, 2011 the American League of Lobbyists hosted two award winning journalists, Tim Farnum of the Washington Post and Peter Overby of NPR, for a discussion about the role that ‘soft money’ will play in the 2012 elections.”

Part 1

Part 2