18 min listen
Federal Lobbying Disclosure
Federal Lobbying Disclosure
ratings:
Length:
25 minutes
Released:
May 19, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
On this episode, we have issued ourselves a challenge... to make a relatively dry topic interesting for our listeners... What is that topic, you ask? The Federal Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA)! We’ll talk about what it is, why you may NOT need to worry about it (unless you do), strategies for compliance, and how it all fits into earlier episodes in our lobbying series, at least for you 501(c)(3)s. Our Lawyers Tim Mooney Natalie Ossenfort Leslie Barnes Quick Preamble Lobbyists are not all mustache twirling villains you read about! They're civil rights groups trying to fight back against attempts to restrict voting for partisan gain They're environmental groups trying to improve water quality They're women's and LGTQ health groups fighting for access to healthcare So remember that anytime there are proposed changes in the laws for lobbying disclosure - the selling point is often the mustache twirling oil corporations and financial institutions... but these laws impact progressive champions too. Overview of the FLDA The FLDA requires individuals and organizations that lobby various federal officials, to register and report their lobbying activities once they meet designated thresholds. Important thing 1: this is a totally different law than the tax code Important thing 2: most nonprofits don't trigger the thresholds Important thing 3: this generally only covers direct lobbying of federal officials, so no state lobbying and no grassroots lobbying of any kind goes into the analysis. If you don't directly lobby members of the federal government, keep listening and enjoy our witty banter, but don't worry about having to register and report under this law. Registration thresholds An employee will make more than one lobbying contact on behalf of the organization; An employee will spend more than 20% of their time on lobbying over any calendar three-month period; and The organization will spend more than $14,000 on lobbying in a calendar quarter. All three of these criteria must be met before the organization is required to register. For example, if an organization has an employee who makes multiple lobbying contacts and spends more than 20% of her time on lobbying between January and March, but the organization only spends $10,000 over that same period, the organization will not need to register. Lobbying contacts - what counts toward that 20% and $14k? Drafting/amending/writing/introducing any federal law (email, calls, meeting, tweets, etc) Preparation for direct lobbying contacts such as strategizing on legislation that you are engaging on or monitoring legislation that you are activley engaging on. But just routine monitoring of legislation w/o a plan to engage does not count toward to 20% Nominations before the US Senate Same thing for federal regulations (but let's put a pin in that for you 501(c)(3)s!) Administration of federal programs (awards, contracts, grants, loans, permits, etc.) (same pin for (c)(3)s!) What counts as a lobbying expenditure? In-house employee compensation spent on direct lobbying of federal covered officials Portion of organization overhead attributed to federal lobbying Payments to outside lobbying firms for federal lobbying Part of membership dues that goes to federal lobbying What doesn't count for anyone? Grassroots lobbying* (pin in this) Testimony before Congress that is in the public record Comments on regulations that's part of ordinary notice and comment procedures What about that pin for (c)(3)s? You'll notice for you 501(h) electors that the definitions of lobbying don't really match... under the FLDA there's registration and reporting requirements for advocacy before executive branch and military officials that don't count under the IRS rules. Special rule! If you're a 501(h) elector you can use the 501(h) rules you know and love... that means you don't have to count military or executive branch contacts unless they'd otherwis
Released:
May 19, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (98)
Advancing Policy to New Elected Officials: Now that elections are mostly behind us, we wanted to turn our attention to lobbying for policy changes no matter where you are or what project you work on. Our attorneys for this episode Powis Shyaam Subramanian Direct download ... by Rules of the Game: The Bolder Advocacy Podcast