On June 30, the New Hampshire General Court adjourned their legislative session.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the legislative session was abbreviated and conducted away from the State House for the first time in over 150 years.

During the shortened session, the Legislature passed bills relating to police reform, absentee voting, and drug importation.

The Legislature will discuss any bills vetoed by the governor when it is expected to reconvene later this fall.

Lawmakers passed a bill calling a statewide special election to be consolidated and held on November 3, 2020.

Senate Bill 300 requires the Office of the Secretary of State to submit various Assembly Constitutional Amendments, including lowering the voting age, wages, elections, and state of emergency procedures, to voters for their approval at the general election if the amendments are passed by the Legislature on or before July 1, 2020.

If signed by the governor, the bill would take effect immediately as an act calling an election.

Oregon’s Legislative Assembly adjourned the first special session of 2020.

During the session lawmakers passed a slew of bills dealing with police accountability and the coronavirus pandemic.

Lawmakers passed 24 bills with more than 600 pieces of public testimony submitted and over 100 virtual testimonies during the three day special session.

At least one other special session may be called this year in order to focus on the state budget.

Louisiana lawmakers have until final adjournment at 6 p.m. on June 30 to pass the government spending plan for the fiscal year that begins on July 1.

In the special session premised in large part on COVID-19 relief, lawmakers gave final legislative approval June 29 to send $250 hazard pay checks to up to 200,000 frontline workers.

Qualifying jobs include health workers, emergency, fire and law enforcement personnel, bus drivers, garbage workers, and grocery store and convenience store workers.

Additionally, negotiations on the state budget continue into the final day of the special session.

The Georgia General Assembly adjourned sine die on June 26 after a session interrupted and delayed by COVID-19.

Before adjourning, the General Assembly notably passed a hate crimes bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday, and a budget reduction of nearly 10%.

This $2.2 billion reduction is the largest reduction since the 2008 recession.

The does affect lobbyist reporting. The last semi-monthly report for state-level and State Transportation Board lobbyists is due on July 1.

In a 3-2 decision on June 16, the New Mexico Supreme Court denied a request allowing lobbyists and public into the Capitol, known as the Roundhouse, during the special legislative session beginning June 18.

Chief Justice Judith Nakamura described the decision as a difficult ruling to make. However, Nakamura concurred with Justices Barbara Vigil and Michael Vigil in denying the petition. 24 lawmakers submitted this proposal which would have opened the Roundhouse to lobbyists and the public for the special session.

The petition argued that prohibiting lobbyists from entering the Roundhouse violates the constitutional requirement to make all legislative sessions public.

New Mexico’s constitution provides all sessions of each house must be public. Justices challenged attorneys on both sides to define the term “public” and explain in detail what constitutes a public session.

Justice C. Shannon Bacon expressed concern about large parts of the state not having broadband. She also emphasized that thousands of people do not have access to computers, describing New Mexico as a technological desert.

The Supreme Court concluded virtual proceedings balance the need to protect the public from the public health concerns of COVID-19 with the need to ensure the legislative session remains open and transparent.

The ruling means those who wish to follow the session will watch the hearings from their computer screens. This will be current reality, rather than gathering in committee rooms and House and Senate galleries.

The public will be able to speak at the discretion of the House committee chairs via Zoom video conference call. However, the public will only be allowed to send emails, rather than joining a video conference, to address the Senate’s committee.

Beginning June 18, lawmakers will begin debating how to shore up an estimated $2 billion shortfall in projected revenues for the fiscal year 2021 budget. This shortfall is largely due to the pandemic-related government shutdown.

The Hawaii Ethics Commission approved a package of proposals on June 18. These proposals amend and adopt portions of the Hawaii Administrative Rules related to lobbying and gifts.

The amendments in chapters one through six address the Commission’s operations and procedures. Additionally, chapters seven through 10 now include sections on “Lobbying” and “Gifts and Fair Treatment”.

The proposed rules do not purport to amend any statutes. Rather, they are designed to interpret and execute the statutes enacted by the Legislature.

Section 21-10-5

Section 21-10-5, statement of contributions and expenditures, addresses the statutory requirement that statements of contributions and expenditures must be filed by up to three different entities. This could be the client, the employing organization, and the lobbyist. Or, in the case of lobbyists employed in-house by the client, the client or employing organization and the lobbyist.
This rule creates a single, client-based report rather than requiring separate reports from the client, the employing organization, and the lobbyist. This single, client-based reporting method avoids double or sometimes triple reporting. Additionally, it eliminates the practice, when clients or employing organizations cover expenditures, of having lobbyists submit reports listing “zero” expenditures.

Section 21-10-1

Section 21-10-1 contains definitions of “direct lobbying” and “grassroots lobbying” to demonstrate that lobbying can be both direct and indirect, consistent with the definition of lobbying in Section 97-1 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes. Under Rule 21-10-1, direct lobbying is defined as any oral or written communication with a legislator, an employee, intern, or volunteer of the legislature or an agency that would appear to a reasonable person to be an attempt to influence legislation or rule-making.
Additionally, grassroots lobbying is defined as any oral or written communication directed at any member of the public that expresses an opinion about existing or potential legislation, administrative rule, or ballot issue and includes an explicit or implied call to action.

Section 21-7-6

Section 21-7-6, valuation of gifts, defines the value of a gift as the cost that a member of the public would reasonably expect to incur to purchase it. For example, If the face value of a ticket to an event is $100, but the event is sold out and tickets on the secondary market are $500 at the time the ticket is offered as a gift, the value of the ticket is $500.

The rules must now be approved by the Department of the Attorney General, and then by the governor. Once approved by both offices, they will be posted with the Office of the Lieutenant Governor for 10 days before becoming effective.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Illinois Board of Elections announced an amnesty period for late filers of the March 2020 quarterly report of campaign contributions and expenditures, due on April 15.

No penalties will be assessed for reports filed on or before June 30.

Similarly, no penalties will be assessed for late Schedule A-1 reports of contributions of $1,000 or more, due between March 18 and June 30, as long as they are filed on or before June 30.

Late reports (Quarterly or A-1) filed after June 30 will be subject to statutorily mandated penalties.

The Board’s one-time amnesty will not apply to the upcoming June 2020 Quarterly Report, which is due no later than July 15. 

The Board of Ethics announced a further delay in the implementation Ethics Ordinance 2019-5305, previously set for July 1, 2020.

The implementation will now be on January 1, 2021 due to the continuing work by the city and many non-profit organizations to respond to COVID-19 crisis.

The ordinance imposes new registration and reporting requirements on certain nonprofit interactions with the city.

With the announcement, the Board and the Mayor’s Office stated they are committed to working with non-profit organizations and stakeholders to understand and respond to their concerns about this law.

In addition, the office states they are committed on working toward amendments that increase transparency in Chicago.

On June 18, both chambers of the General Assembly recessed after passing the current fiscal year supplemental budget.

The bill distributed funding received from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to cover revenue losses for the fiscal year ending on June 30 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lawmakers are expected to return to session this summer to address the budget for the 2021 fiscal year after federal action for additional state relief is determined.

The 111th Tennessee General Assembly adjourned sine die just after 3 am on June 19 after hours of overnight negotiations.

The negotiations culminated in passing a $39.5 billion budget, cutting $1 billion from the budget passed in March due to the shortfall caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) voted to require more transparency and disclosure of those who use limited liability companies (LLC’s) to make political contributions.

Aditionally, they would require campaigns to list the name of the actual person who directed the LLC political spending.

The first new regulation requires LLC’s involved in raising and spending money for political activity to name the person making the decisions.

The second new regulation requires campaigns receiving donations from LLC’s to also list the name of the person responsible for the political activity.

A 2019 FPPC Enforcement Division examination of LLC’s found it was relatively easy to find information about the type of business, its address and an agent for service of process.

However, it was extremely difficult to find the identities of the people behind the LLC’s owners or the true source of the political expenditures.

Gov. Kate Brown has called for a special session of the Oregon Legislature to convene on June 24.

Lawmakers will be addressing issues regarding police accountability, the coronavirus pandemic, children’s education, and jobs.

With social distancing measures still in place, the upcoming special session will be different than what any lawmaker has seen.

The Capitol will generally be closed to the public, however legislators will still be able to get in to do business.

The Colorado Legislature adjourned sine die on June 15 after an unprecedented session.

The session originally began on January 8 with a focus on school safety and funding education. On March 14, the session was postponed to curb the spread of COVID-19.

When lawmakers resumed in May, the session quickly shifted to balancing the state budget in response to the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lawmakers were also able to pass legislation introducing a sweeping set of reforms for law enforcement in the state.

This reform is including a ban on chokeholds and a provision requiring officers to intervene if they see the use of excessive force.

With the legislative work wrapped up, the focus is now shifting to the November election.

Gov. Jared Polis must still give his final approval on many of the bills approved in the final weeks by the state legislature.