Wednesday, January 24, 2007

For Clarification OMB Watch Proposes Revisions to Grassroots Disclosure Amendment

After removal of the grassroots lobbying disclosure provision from S.1 (see more here) and the widespread confusion and misinformation about the measure, OMB Watch has proposed revisions meant to clarify the impact of the proposal. Now that the issue of lobbying disclosure has moved to the House, we hope this revision clarifies the intent of grassroots lobbying disclosure proposal. For example we proposed the term "paid grassroots lobbying" as opposed to "paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying." The issue of what constitutes a "grassroots lobbying firm" is also addressed in these suggested revisions.

We hope this proposal makes it clear that a nonprofit would not have to register and report its grassroots lobbying expenditures just because it makes two lobbying contacts and communicates with more than 500 people who are not members, employees, oficers or shareholders. The group would only have to register if:

• one or more of its employees spends more than 20 percent of his or her time on direct lobbying in a six month period and
• it spends $$10,000 per quarter on direct lobbying.

Read the OMB Watch Proposal: Revise Grassroots Disclosure Amendment to the LDA for more information.