LobbyComply Blog

Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton approved an interim study request for the Judiciary Committee to review establishing a state Foreign Agent Registration Act. The aim of the act would be to provide public transparency around political and propaganda activities conducted by agents of foreign countries of concern, which may overlap with lobbying activities. Study schedules and meeting notices will be posted on the Senate website at oksenate.gov and must be completed by October 31.

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Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson today testified before the House Committee on Oversight to update lawmakers on upgrades and improvements to the new Michigan Transparency Network (MiTN). In her testimony, Benson detailed specific technology fixes and process improvements the Michigan Department of State (MDOS) and vendor Tyler Technologies have made to the MiTN system since May. MiTN improvements planned for July 12 include a campaign finance filing summary report for filings created in MiTN, improvements to the public search function, and the ability to pay committee and lobby fees by credit card. 

On May 27, the Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists for British Columbia released updates for several of its guidance documents to reflect the changes to the Lobbyists Transparency Act’s (LTA) filing requirements brought in by the Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 2024, which came into force on the same day.

One updated guidance, Government Funding, is intended to help lobbyists understand what is meant by the term government funding and the associated reporting obligations.

A guidance previously called Coalitions is now entitled Working Together for the Purpose of Lobbying. It outlines the reporting requirements under the LTA. It outlines designated filers’ obligations to report the name and business address of any other client or organization with whom they work for the purpose of lobbying and who has a direct interest in the outcome of the lobbying activities. When a consultant lobbyist or an organization ceases lobbying, a designated filer has 30 days after the month in which lobbying stops to end their registration return in the registry.

Other released guidance documents include Sample Questionnaire for Consultant Lobbyists’ Clients, Sample Questionnaire for Organizations that are Lobbying, Non-Profit Organizations, Getting Started – Reference Guide, Registration Returns – New and Reactivations, Monthly Returns – Registration Return Updates and Lobbying Activity Reports, Quick Reference Guide for Representatives, and Funding Returns.

Representatives from the Michigan Department of State (MDOS), Tyler Technologies, and the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget (DTMB) testified at a joint committee hearing regarding issues with the Michigan Transparency Network (MiTN) platform. MiTN is the state’s new consolidated online reporting system for personal financial disclosure, campaign finance, lobbying, and legal defense fund information. The hearing was called after lawmakers had trouble filing their financial disclosure reports and approved a one-month extension for their deadline. MDOS and Tyler Technologies are now working to implement substantial improvements by the filing deadline for candidate committees on July 25.  As part of the department’s continuing commitment to transparency, MDOS has launched a new webpage to track existing technical issues, recent fixes, and FAQs for each MiTN module at https://www.michigan.gov/sos/elections/disclosure/mitn-information.

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The Council of the District of Columbia approved temporary legislation barring the public from hearing or seeing many types of the council’s deliberations.

In a trio of companion legislation, which declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to amend the Open Meetings Act of 2010, the definition of meeting is changed. The legislation provides for a public body’s ability to be privately briefed about potential terrorist or public health threats so long as no official action is taken, exempts from the act meetings between the council and the mayor provided that no official action is taken at such meeting,  and provides that a meeting will be deemed open to the public if the public body takes steps reasonably calculated to allow the public to view or hear the meeting while the meeting is taking place, or, if doing so is not technologically feasible, as soon thereafter as reasonably practicable.

The legislation adopted on April 1 lasts for 90 days under its emergency basis. The mayor still has the ability to veto the legislation. On April 22, the council will hold a public hearing to consider a permanent version of the bill.