A bill requiring lobbyists to disclose all legislation they are trying to influence will be introduced into the Delaware Senate, possibly as soon as this week.

Senate Bill 185, as proposed by Senator Anthony J. DeLuca and endorsed by Governor Jack Markell and members of both parties of the General Assembly, mandates lobbyists report to the Public Integrity Commission the identity, by number, of each bill, resolution, or regulation for which the lobbyist has tried to promote, advocate, influence, or oppose. Disclosure of the name of the employer on whose behalf such direct communication occurred is also required.

Additionally, lobbying relating to any subject contained within any budget appropriation bill or bond and capital improvement bill must also include identification of the specific subject of the direct communication. Reports will be due within five business day after the date the first direct communication with a relevant public official regarding bills, resolutions, and regulations takes place. The bill provides for electronic filing of registration and reporting with the Public Integrity Commission.

The Commission will make the reports available online in a manner which can be easily reviewed by bill, resolution, regulation, lobbyist, or employer.

Federal: “Trade group CEOs enjoy hefty pay raises in a sluggish economy” by William McQuillen and Danielle Ivory in The Washington Post.

Federal: “GAO: Lobbyist disclosure compliance ‘similar’ compared to prior years” by Rachel Leven in The Hill.

Federal: “Calif. biotech firms spend $40 million on lobbying in 3 years” by Bernice Yeung on CaliforniaWatch.org.

Federal: “Tech companies new lobbying force in DC” by Garrett Sloane in the New York Post.

New Jersey: “Some of Christie’s biggest bills match model legislation from D.C. group called ALEC” by Salvador Rizzo in the Star-Ledger.

Utah: “Rolly: Lobbyist and legislator in one? Could happen” by Paul Rolly in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Federal:

Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush Escorted from House Floor for Wearing Hoodie in Honor of Trayvon Martin

Payday Lender Political Donors Hidden in Corporate Names

Super PACs Rival Chamber

From the States and Municipalities:

Arizona

After Bowl Scandal, Many Arizona Legislators Still Want Tickets to Baseball Opener

California

Medco Settles California Pension Fund Kickback Case

Delaware

Lobbying Disclosure Bill Shines Critical Sunlight on Lawmaking Process

District of Columbia

D.C. Ethics Law Overhaul Hampered by Hiring Difficulties, Enforcement Duties

Georgia

‘Revolving-Door’ Powers Politics

Hawaii

Judge Confirms Hawaii Can’t Limit Independent Expenditures

Illinois

Employee Gift Ban Recommendation Still Has Few Takers

Iowa

Iowa’s Lobbying Free-for-All

New Mexico

Salinas Seeks High Court Aid

New York

Lobbyists Reaping $220 Million Bonanza

Utah

How Utah’s Capitol Marches to a Mormon Beat

State and Federal Communications produces a weekly summary of national news, offering more than 80 articles per week focused on ethics, lobbying, and campaign finance.

News You Can Use is a news service provided at no charge only to clients of our online Executive Source Guides, or ALERTS™ consulting clients.

A complaint filed with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB) is asking for an investigation of whether scholarships provided to legislators by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) violate state ethics and lobbying laws.

Additionally, the complainant, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), requests an examination of whether legislators are receiving impermissible gifts while attending ALEC conferences.

In its press release, the CMD argues that while Wisconsin prohibits legislators from accepting anything of value from lobbyists or corporations that employ lobbyists, the scholarships paying for legislators’ travel to ALEC conferences are funded entirely by corporations, many of which employ lobbyists in the state.

The CMD specifically asks the board to consider

• Whether ALEC scholarships violate W.S. sections 13.625 and 19.45;

• Whether the scholarships fall under an exception in W.S. section 19.56;

• Whether legislators are appropriately disclosing the scholarships;

• Whether the scholarship fund is being used for more than reimbursement; and

• Whether legislators attending ALEC conferences are receiving other impermissible gifts such as tickets to sporting events or free food and drinks.

Exhibits attached to the complaint can be found here.

The Kentucky Senate unanimously approved House Bill 300 on Monday. The bill requires “placement agents” to register as lobbyists and follow state ethics laws. Placement agents are individuals or firms who are compensated for the purpose of influencing an executive agency decision regarding the investment of Kentucky Retirement Systems or the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement Systems assets.

The bill is a response to concerns raised by last year’s audit of the state pension system. Now the bill returns to the House following technical changes made by the Senate.

Federal

“Generation X joining K Street” by Jonathan Allen and Jennifer Martinez in Politico.

“Administration Staffers Head Out the Revolving Door” by Kate Ackley in Roll Call.

In the States

Illinois: “Illinois Senate panel blocks lobbyist ethics legislation” by Shannon McFarland (Associated Press) in the Jacksonville Journal Courier.

Illinois: “Lobbying reforms buried in subcommittee” by Rick Miller in Capitol Fax.

Iowa: “Iowa’s lobbying free-for-all” by Jason Clayworth and Jeffrey Kummer in the Des Moines Register.

Massachusetts: “AP: Mass. health care 5-year lobbying topped $51M” by Steve LeBlanc (Associated Press) in Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Minnesota:  “$61M spent on lobbying in 2011” by Matt Herbert in Minnesota Daily.

Registered Massachusetts legislative and executive agents must schedule an appointment with the Lobbyist Section of the Public Records Division of the Secretary of the Commonwealth to have their photographs taken for their lobbyist identification card.

The photographs will be taken on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during the hours of 10 to 4pm beginning March 27 and continuing through April.

Agents must request appointments by e-mail at lob@sec.state.ma.us. Schedules will not be accepted by phone or walk-in. Agents should suggest three dates and times convenient for them in their e-mails.

All appointments will be given on a first come first serve basis.

Governor Dennis Daugaard has signed House Bill 1196. The bill amends the lobbyist reporting requirements to reflect the secretary of state’s electronic filing capabilities.

The employer authorization and lobbyist expense report may be submitted in writing or electronically. The completed reports are open to public inspection and will no longer need to be notarized before filing.

Although the bill has an effective date of July 1, 2012, the EZ Lobby system is already accessible at the secretary of state’s website.

The site allows lobbyists and their employers to register, pay fees, update information, and report expenses electronically. Paper forms are still available for lobbyists who chose to register by mail.

“Revolving Door: Hill Staffers with Retiring Bosses Hit K Street” by Andrew Joseph in National Journal’s Influence Alley.

“Minnesota Capitol the recipient of $59 million lobbying effort” by Megan Boldt in the Grand Forks Herald.

“Business groups spent $14 million lobbying Minn. Legislators” by Rachel E. Stassen-Berger in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

“Democrats propose new Missouri ethics bill” by Elizabeth Crisp in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. According to the article, “the bill would restrict the amount lawmakers and their immediate family members could accept from lobbyists, prohibit lawmakers from working as paid political consultants while in office and limit the investment of campaign contributions to interest-bearing checking or savings accounts.”

“Utah’s revolving door keeps spinning out lobbyists” by Britny Mortensen in The Salt Lake Tribune.

Federal:

2012 GOP Primary Shaping Up to Be Cheapest Race in Years

Group Offers $25,000 Reward for Exposing Secret Corporate Giving

From the States and Municipalities:

Alabama

Alabama Public Corruption Trials Focus on Bribes vs. Donations

Colorado

Spending by Super PACs in Colorado Is the Dominion of Democrats

Illinois

Part of Campaign Finance Law Nixed

Illinois

State Rep. Derrick Smith, of Chicago, Is Charged with Accepting Bribe

Kentucky

Senate Changes Schedule, Allowing David Williams to Attend Kentucky Basketball Game

Minnesota

Business-Backed ALEC’s Relations with Conservative Lawmakers Riles Democrats

New Mexico

Arrests Mount in Sunland Park Scandal; New Details about Alleged Extortion Threat Emerge

Ohio

Jimmy Dimora Convicted of Racketeering, 32 Other Corruption-Related Charges

Ohio

Legislator Charged in FBI Bribery Sting

South Carolina

Ard Resigns, Is Indicted, Gets Probation

State and Federal Communications produces a weekly summary of national news, offering more than 80 articles per week focused on ethics, lobbying, and campaign finance.

News You Can Use is a news service provided at no charge only to clients of our online Executive Source Guides, or ALERTS™ consulting clients.

Take a tour of our site and click on the “Free Live Online Demo” on the middle of the left column of the home page. You will open a page with three blue links, located in the middle of the page:

•Executive Source Guide on Lobbying Laws
•Executive Source Guide on Political Contributions
•Executive Source Guide on Procurement Lobbying

Click on any one – or all three – to view the state of Alaska compliance information we provide to clients. This comprehensive and vital compliance information is updated continuously.

We have this same online information for all 50 states, the federal government, and 226 municipal and regional governments.

If you would like to view everything we have for online clients, contact us at info@stateandfed.com or 330-761-9960 and ask about our two-week trial. There is no cost for the trial, and you are under no obligation to purchase.

We can think of no better way for you to see the value in our online resources than for you and your team to actually use them for two weeks in your compliance efforts.

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 Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners has passed an ordinance requiring registered lobbyists to complete ethics training. The effective date of the ordinance is March 16, 2012.

Registered lobbyists must, within 60 days of registration, submit to the clerk of the board a certificate of completion of an ethics course offered by the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust. Lobbyists must also complete a refresher course every two years. The cost of the ethics course will be $100.

Additionally, the requirement is not applicable to any municipal lobbyist in the county unless the municipality has adopted an ordinance requiring ethics training and an agreement with the county authorizes the county ethics commission to provide an ethics training course.

Finally, the executive director of the Miami-Dade County Ethics Commission may waive the ethics course requirement for a particular lobbyist when it is determined that the lobbyist has taken an initial or refresher ethics course offered by a municipality satisfying the requirements pertaining to the Miami-Dade County ethics course requirements.

The Miami-Dade County Ethics Commission has noted their intent to contact all registered lobbyists in regards to this course once the course is prepared and ready to be offered.

Campaign Finance

“The Super PAC Paradox” by Eliza Newlin Carney in Roll Call.

“The year’s busiest day of campaign fundraising shows how Springfield really works” by Ray Long and Alissa Groeninger in the Chicago Tribune.

“Group to appeal Iowa campaign finance ruling” by The Associated Press in the Globe Gazette.

Lobbying

“Retiring lawmakers openly eye K Street” by Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman in Politico.

“Lobbying pays off big for business” by Toluse Olorunnipa in the Miami Herald.

“Facebook ‘friends’ a new lobby firm” by Rachel Leven in The Hill.