State Senator Kathy Stein has introduced legislation to make Kentucky a “no cup of coffee” state. The bill would reduce lobbyist’s annual expenditure ceiling from $100 per year on a state official to absolutely nothing.

Additionally, the proposed ethics law would extend Kentucky’s prohibition on lobbyists making campaign contributions during a legislative session to the lobbyists’ employers and to PACs.

Photo courtesy of Julius Schorzman on Wikipedia.

Senate Bill 75, introduced to the Legislature on the first day of session, seeks to reinstate the state’s campaign contribution limits.  The bill limits contributions to $2,000 for statewide office, $1,000 for state senators, $500 for state representatives, $325 for any other office if the population is under 100,000, $850 if it is between 100,000 and 250,000, and $1,275 if the population is more than 250,000.

The bill also alters the state’s revolving door provision by preventing legislators from becoming lobbyists for two years after leaving office.

Photo of the Missouri State Capitol by Visitjeffersoncity on Wikipedia.

The American Bar Association’s Task Force on Federal Lobbying Laws has issued a report recommending several changes to existing federal lobbying laws. The Task Force proposes broadening registration requirements for lobbyist by eliminating the current twenty percent rule, the threshold amount of time devoted to lobbying required before triggering registration.

The Task Force also recommends disclosing outside lobbying support by other firms and individuals, including details of compensation, specific identities of those involved, and short narrative summaries of the work performed. Lobbying support would be defined to include monitoring legislative and administrative developments related to lobbying goals, strategic advice, polling, and other activities. Additionally, in some situations, the lobbying support entity would be required to file disclosures.

The report includes other recommendations including strengthening the regulation of lobbyist participation in political fundraising.

The report by the Task Force on Federal Lobbying Laws has not been approved by the Council of the Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, the House of Delegates, or the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association.

Photo of the American Bar Association building in Washington, D.C. by AgnosticPreachersKid at enwikipedia.

Ronald DeFilippis, Chairman of the Election Law Enforcement Commission, revealed the upcoming plans for the commission, including the intention to have electronic filing available for quarterly and annual lobbyist reports by 2012. Writing in the latest ELEC-Tronic Newsletter, the monthly informational bulletin from the commission, the chairman noted the “staff is working to create the hardware and software components” to implement the new filing system.

The commission also intends to enhance its candidate and treasurer training, introducing instructional videos and making training available online, and to simplify the language in their lobbying and campaign finance law compliance manuals.

Q. Once I complete my lobbyist registration, what other obligations do I have in my state?

A. Filing lobbyist and/or principal disclosure reports is the bare minimum requirement in many states.  In addition, you may be required to obtain an ID badge.  Some states require mandatory lobbyist training on a regular basis.  Most often, this can be done online.  To date, the states requiring this are: Alaska, California, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.

Many states have different gift law limitations for lobbyists.  For example, in Texas lobbyists are permitted to give gifts of $500 or less, while public servants may accept non-cash item of less than $50 from non-lobbyists.

In addition to reporting requirements, states may require pre- or post-notification to officials when an expenditure has been made on his/her behalf which is disclosed on a lobbying report.  In Illinois, a lobbyist who makes an expenditure on behalf of an official must inform him/her, in writing, at the time the expenditure.

We are always available to answer questions from clients that are specific to your needs, and we encourage you to continue to call or e-mail us with questions about your particular company or organization. As always, we will confidentially and directly provide answers or information you need. Our replies to your questions are not legal advice. Instead, these replies represent our analysis of laws, rules, and regulations.

Amber Fish Linke is the Compliance Manager for State and Federal Communications, Inc.

All of the legislatures, even those that do not meet every year, are in session in 2011.  Thus, it is important to know the registration obligations for your lobbyists in all of the jurisdictions in which they will be active.  The most important pieces of information you need to know are whether they will need to register and when the registration will need to be filed.  Many jurisdictions have a threshold, based on expenditures, salary, or time spent lobbying, that needs to be crossed before registration is required.  Depending on your situation, you may not need to register if your lobbying activities will be minimal.  Many other jurisdictions, however, have no threshold and will require registration before or within a certain amount of time of your lobbyist engaging in lobbying.

This brings up an important point:  it is crucial that you understand what activities comprise lobbying in the jurisdiction.  A lobbyist may meet the definition of “lobbyist” before contact is even made with an official.  And do not forget that once registered, you will have ongoing reporting requirements.  Illinois and Georgia, in particular, will have more frequent reporting than in past years. (more…)

State senator Jim Arnold announced he will introduce legislation to regulate lobbying disclosure rules for all levels of local government in Indiana. In his proposed bill, spending by vendors bidding for contracts of $100,000 or more with a governmental body would trigger mandatory disclosure.

Local governmental officials, including county commissioners and city council members, would be required to report whenever a lobbyist spent money on them over a threshold limit.

The law is not intended to supersede local ordinances but would still establish and necessitate minimum requirements of disclosure.

Photo of State senator Jim Arnold courtesy of the Indiana Senate Web site.

A superior court judge has ruled the Secretary of State cannot refuse to provide procedural information regarding a complaint made against a lobbyist. In NCICL v. North Carolina, Judge Paul G. Gessner found no basis in law for the refusal to grant information regarding a formal complaint previously made about a legislative lobbyist.

The Secretary of State had argued the state public records laws prohibited them from releasing any information, and had refused to reveal any details, including the status of the complaint or even whether any action had been taken.

Q. If I provide a gift to a covered official exceeding the gift limit in that jurisdiction, can the covered official reimburse my employer for the difference?

A. This is a situation you never, ever want to be in, but sometimes it happens. Fortunately, most of the states allow for the covered official to reimburse the donor in order to rectify the situation.

One of the circumstances precluding reimbursement is when too much time has elapsed between providing the excessive gift and reimbursement by the official. If too much time has passed, the state considers the gift to have been “accepted” by the official, and reimbursement is not an option.

Also, even if the official reimburses the overage, sometimes the lobbyist, the official, or both must nonetheless report the total value of the gift. From a disclosure standpoint, this makes a precarious situation even more suspect.

Some examples of these rules include the following:

• In Connecticut, the gift limit is $10. The official may not partially reimburse a more expensive gift to bring the final cost to the lobbyist below $10, because the overall value of the item is still over $10 [Advisory Opinion 1997-15].

• In the state of Washington, an official’s name cannot be removed from a filed lobbying report, regardless of whether the official has fully reimbursed the lobbyist for the reported expenditure. In addition, an official cannot partially reimburse a lobbyist for an expense to bring the total cost below the $50 reporting threshold. Even if a partial reimbursement occurs, both the lobbyist and the official must report the full amount. The only way an expenditure exceeding the threshold does not have to be reported is if the official fully reimburses the lobbyist prior to the lobbyist filing the lobbying report disclosing the expenditure.

• In New York, public officials and employees may completely reimburse the donor of a gift if the reimbursement is not removed or remote in time in order to comply with the gift ban [Advisory Opinion No. 97-03]. If an item, entertainment, or other benefit is received and payment of its market value is made prior to or simultaneously with receipt, there is no gift [Advisory Opinion No. 97-03].

We are always available to answer questions from clients that are specific to your needs, and we encourage you to continue to call or e-mail us with questions about your particular company or organization. As always, we will confidentially and directly provide answers or information you need. Our replies to your questions are not legal advice. Instead, these replies represent our analysis of laws, rules, and regulations.

While not as strict as the bills originally proposed by the Governor, the newly passed rules represent a dramatic overhaul to Alabama ethics law. Under the new rules, PACs will be forbidden from making transfers of funds to other PACs with a few exceptions.

State lawmakers will be unable to hold a second public job, and one bill imposes a ban on “pass-through pork” whereby a legislator can appropriate funds to a specific agency or project without legislative approval. In the new year, lobbyists will be required to complete a training program, and the State Ethics Commission will have subpoena power.

Another bill signed by Governor Riley will forbid public employees from donating to political groups via payroll deduction. This law has been criticized as politically motivated by state Democrats.

State senator Lou Correa has introduced a Senate Bill 31, a law laying groundwork to eventually require local government lobbying registration. The law would apply to any municipality applying for a discretionary grant from any state agency or department.

The bill is, at this point, nothing more than an introductory statement but could force the hands of municipalities such as Orange County, who have thus far balked at attempts to regulate lobbying activities.

On December 15, 2010, the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office will roll-out a new electronic filing system for lobbyists and clients. The new electronic filing system is for 2011 new registrations and lobbying reports.

All 2010 cycle reports will be still be filed on paper.

The new electronic filing system may be accessed at: http://www.sos.ms.gov/elec/portal/msel/portal.aspx

In the 1980s, Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd (who passed away last June) offered over 100 addresses about the history of the U.S. Senate. In honor of the Senate’s bicentennial, the speeches were gathered and edited into four volumes called The Senate: 1789–1989: Addresses on the History of the Senate.

Among those essays, there is a landmark work regarding the history of lobbyists and lobbying. The Senate’s Web site hosts the text of the speech at Senate.gov.

Senator Byrd’s speech whipsaws between praise and suspicion of lobbying and perhaps typifies America’s ambivalence toward the profession. He begins his speech with a quote from an 1869 newspaper article, which conjured the image of lobbying as a “dazzling reptile … a scaly serpent of the lobby…” Yet Byrd also acknowledges the necessary service they provide: “It should be clear from my remarks that Congress has always had, and always will have, lobbyists and lobbying. We could not adequately consider our work load without them.”

According to Senator Byrd, lobbying has been employed from the first days of Congress. “During the First Congress, Pennsylvania Senator William Maclay wrote in his diary that New York merchants employed ‘treats, dinners, attentions’ to delay passage of a tariff bill,” said Byrd.

Byrd’s speech is rich with history, describing efforts of groups such as the Bank of the United States in the 1790s, Samuel Colt in the 1850s, and the famous “King of the Lobby” Sam Ward during the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.

While Byrd did stress the need for government to be vigilant against the abuse of the democratic system by special interests, it would be wrong to think the senator was not sympathetic to the work of lobbyists, or appreciative.  He ended his speech with the following:

“They spend many hours and considerable shoe leather trying to convince 535 members of Congress of the wisdom or folly of certain legislation. They face vigorous competition. They still bear the brunt of press criticism and take the blame for the sins of a small minority of their numbers. But they have a job to do, and most of them do it very well indeed. It is hard to imagine Congress without them.”

For his many efforts to promote the history of the United States Senate, Senator Byrd received the American Historical Association‘s first Theodore Roosevelt-Woodrow Wilson Award for Civil Service and the Friend of History Award from the Organization of American Historians.

For all of you arm-chair American historians, this Highlighted Site of the Week should make you smile. Give it a read!

Governor Bob Riley has called the Alabama state legislature into special session. The lawmakers are expected to convene on December 8, 2010 and take up the issue of ethics reform.

This year, the state was plagued by a scandal in which lobbyists and local businesspeople attempted to or actually did bribe legislators to vote for pro-gambling legislation. During the upcoming session, lawmakers are expected to pass reform reducing the amount a lobbyist may spend on an official without reporting it. Additional changes suggested by the Governor include a ban on PAC-to-PAC transfers of funds and requiring those who lobby the executive branch for contracts to register.

Photo of Governor Bob Riley by MSGT MARK OWEN, USAF on Wikipedia.